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Sundown: Bieber Backs Center, Draws Ire

Plus Medvedev, Twitter, and more search-engine bait

by
Marc Tracy
January 03, 2011
Bieber Bieber!(Wikipedia)
Bieber Bieber!(Wikipedia)

Shema-spouting star Justin Bieber is being boycotted after he appeared to say something in support of the Ground Zero Islamic center. So 2011 is going to be weird after all? [Salon]

• Malcolm Hoenlein, the “unofficial King of the Jews,” attended secret meetings in Damascus on behalf of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Check out Allison Hoffman’s profile of Hoenlein from last May. [Haaretz]

• Obama administration adviser Dennis Ross heads to Jerusalem to try to accomplish … something. [Laura Rozen]

• Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev had to cancel a visit to Israel due to a strike by the Israeli Foreign Ministry workers’ union. [Ynet]

• A 24-year-old Jewish woman is the current mayor of the Temple Mount on Foursquare, the social network. I give this a few days before it becomes an international incident. [Observer]

• Speaking of social networking: Thank you, whoever you are, for making Tablet Magazine’s Twitter feed, @tabletmag, the 26th most influential Jewish feed. So if you don’t follow us already, you really really should! [JTA]

The Coen Brothers’ True Grit is good. The original is better.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.