• A powerful tornado hit near Oklahoma City, leveling a number of neighborhoods and causing multiple casualties. Officials have yet to fully determine the damage. [NYT]
• An off-hand remark by German Prime Minister Angela Merkel has prompted a war of words between Germany and Hungary about World War II. Merkel initially sought to criticize Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his controversial measures in altering the country’s constitution. [AP]
• Mel Brooks talks about his career, his Brooklyn upbringing, and his EGOT status on NPR’s Fresh Air. [NPR]
• Matti Friedman on the mysterious case of a 2,800-year-old pillar discovered near Bethlehem that the antiquity authorities don’t want to excavate. [ToI]
• Four were killed in a shooting at a bank near Beer Sheva today after a man who had been denied a loan earlier that day began shooting. [JTA]
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.