JTA — Hold onto your ten-gallon hats (and your shofars) — the standoff in Burns, Oregon, just got a little bit Jewish.
For more than two weeks, several dozen armed men have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in protest of the prison sentences given to Dwight and Steven Hammond for committing arson. The militants, many of whom belong to various unofficial citizen militias, also want to bring attention to the “tyrannical” management of federal land.
On Sunday, Blaine Cooper — one of the leaders of the standoff with the federal government and the head of an informal citizen militia in Arizona — uploaded a video to Facebook showing two of the militants blowing what any Jew would recognize as serious shofars.
“CHRISTIANS THE BATTLE TRUMPET HAS BEEN SOUNDED TIME TO RISE!” Cooper wrote in the caption. “CALL TO ACTION SEND IN THE TROOPS TO STAND WITH US IN BURNS OREGON!”
https://www.facebook.com/blaine.cooper23/videos/934843183278521/?permPage=1
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
The guys in the video don’t nail the staccato “tekiah gedolah” style heard in synagogues on Rosh Hashanah. But they get an A for anarchistic effort.
The militia is led by Ammon Bundy, whose father Cliven Bundy led a similar month-long standoff of his own against the US Bureau of Land Management.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this