US Border Patrol leader made quip about ‘chosen people’ after Jewish official wouldn’t meet on Shabbat – NYT

Gregory Bovino, the US Border Patrol field leader in Minnesota, used the term “chosen people” in a mocking way about US Attorney Daniel Rosen, after expressing frustration that the latter wouldn’t work on the Sabbath, The New York Times reports.

Bovino is also said to have “asked, sarcastically, whether Mr. Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals don’t take weekends off,” says the report, which cites people with knowledge of the call.

According to the newspaper, Bovino made the comments in a phone call on Monday, January 12, with one of Rosen’s deputies, and with several prosecutors listening in. He reportedly “complained that Mr. Rosen had been unreachable for portions of the weekend because of Shabbat,” then made the remarks.

Orthodox Jews, in accordance with religious law, abstain from work —  as well as other actions including cooking, writing and using cell phones or computers — from sundown on Friday through nightfall on Saturday. Unless a person’s life is at risk, there are few situations when an exception is permitted.

Neither Bovino nor the US Department of Justice responded to requests for comment, the Times says, while a Homeland Security spokeswoman accuses the press of “focusing on gossip.” Rosen declines to comment on the article.