• Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel is heading to Israel this week, with his family, for his son’s bar mitzvah. Wait, Rahm Emanuel is Jewish? [Arutz Sheva]
• L’affaire Chomsky has become something of a cause célèbre in Israel. Additional French phrase. [NYT]
• Who knew Ben Bernanke’s middle name was “Shalom”? [NYT]
• A former Justice Department Nazi hunter (no, really) is agitating to have Richard Goldstone investigated for visa ineligibility due to his tenure as an apartheid-era judge. [Jewish Indy]
• Woody Allen (again) spoke up for his friend Roman Polanski, on the grounds that he is “an artist and a nice person.” In fairness, most people are only one or the other. Woody Allen, for example. [HuffPo]
• A dispatch from the West Bank, where the Samaritans—good and otherwise—still celebrate Passover in their own, distinctive way. Yes, this includes sheep-slaughtering. [VQR]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.