Bethany Mandel

Bethany Shondark Mandel is a conservative American author and political and cultural commentator who writes for The Federalist, The Jewish Daily Forward and Acculturated.[3] She was named one of "36 under 36" by The Jewish Week in 2013, one of the "Forward 50" in 2015,[2], and one of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's "50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter" in 2019.[4]

Bethany Shondark Mandel
Born
Bethany Ann Horowitz[1]

1986 (age 34–35)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materRutgers (B.A. 2008)[2]
OccupationColumnist, pundit
Spouse(s)Seth Mandel
Children4
Websitehttps://bethanyshondark.com/

Early life and education

Mandel was raised by her mother[1] near Rochester, New York,[5] at times in poverty.[6] Her mother died of lupus when Mandel was 16,[7] at which time she was estranged from her father, and the guardians named in her mother's will appropriated much of her inheritance.[8] Her father died by suicide when she was 19,[9][6] after struggling with an addiction to opioid painkillers.[10]

She transferred to Rutgers University in 2005 for its strong Jewish Studies department and Jewish student community, and worked full-time while a full-time student,[11] graduating in 2008 with a degree in history and Jewish studies.[2] During her college years, she adopted conservative views after finding that Medicaid and other government welfare programs she had expected to help her after her mother's death were inefficient and ineffective,[12] as well as due to the influence of college friends and the writings of Ayn Rand.[1]

Born Bethany Ann Horowitz, she changed her name at age 18 to Bethany Shondark Murphy, with Murphy being her mother's maiden name.[1][6]

Career

Upon graduation, Mandel moved to Washington, DC and worked for Washington Hebrew Congregation while looking for a position in conservative politics.[1] After reading about the Jay Pritzker Academy near Siem Reap in Cambodia, she wrote and asked to teach at the school, becoming a fifth grade teacher there for a year.[1] Returning to Washington, DC in 2010 to pursue an Orthodox conversion to Judaism,[5] she found work as a fundraiser and writer at the Heritage Foundation, and then as a marketer, editor and blogger for Commentary magazine, and a guest commentator on numerous radio and television shows.[13] Her effective advocacy for conservative causes led to her being named as one of "36 under 36" individuals reinventing Jewish life by the Jewish Week in 2013.[12]

Since 2013, she has been a freelance writer and commentator while working from home to raise her children.[14]

In 2016, she was the target of online harassment after writing about her opposition to Donald Trump during his campaign for the Republican nomination for president.[15] However, she has written about her vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 US Presidential election,[16] citing his policies towards Israel and "some of his domestic policy (tax cuts, pushback against cancel culture and the media)."[17]

Mandel has written that she adopted anti-abortion views after learning her mother had aborted several pregnancies, leaving her an orphan with no siblings.[18]

Comments on neo-Nazis

In August 2017, Mandel wrote a column for the Forward urging people to follow the examples of Daryl Davis, David Abitbol, and the classmates of Derek Black, who led neo-Nazis to renounce their previous ideology by first befriending them. The column was headlined, "We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis."[19] She wrote a year later that her critics on the "angry left" had failed to read beyond the headline of her column and had caricatured her as a "Nazi-loving member of the alt-right,"[20] titling the piece “How the Angry Left turned me into a Nazi."[6] She then began referring to herself as a Nazi on her twitter account.[21]

Comments on liberal Zionists

In February 2020, Mandel wrote in a column in the Washington Examiner about the American election of delegates to the 38th World Zionist Congress that "the American Jewish Left is using this World Zionist Congress election to try to turn the financial support of the Jewish people against Israel," describing the aims of the left-leaning Zionist candidates as an "effort..to hijack a billion dollars in money meant to support Israel, not undermine it."[22]

Opposition to coronavirus lockdown continuation

During the 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Mandel was outspoken in her opposition to the continuation of lockdowns after the initial month. In one tweet, she said:[23]

"You can call me a Grandma killer. I'm not sacrificing my home, food on the table, all of our docs and dentists, every form of pleasure (museums, zoos, restaurants), all my kids' teachers in order to make other people comfortable. If you want to stay locked down, do. I’m not."

Following this, the term "Grandma Killer" trended on Twitter, [24] and Mandel added "Grandma Killer" to her Twitter bio.[6]

Several months later, in a Reddit AMA interview, she expanded on these comments, saying:[17]

My view on COVID restrictions in May was based on an understanding that almost everything in that thread could be done safely - which it is now - museums, restaurants with outdoor dining, well-visits at dentists and doctors - have been restarted for sometime with no associated links in contact tracing. Everyone needs to make the choices that make sense for them, and most people will choose more caution of their own free will. The restraints on liberty - the government telling you how many people you can have in your private residence, the forced closures of countless small businesses- are a dangerous precedent.

Personal life

Mandel was born to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, and sought out Rabbi Barry Freundel for an Orthodox conversion that would make her Jewish status universally recognized.[5] She has also said that she left the Reform movement in which she originally affiliated because of its close association with progressive and liberal politics.[25]

She completed her conversion in 2011,[2] and in 2014 learned that the rabbi had filmed her naked while preparing her for conversion.[5][26] She wrote an article entitled "The Convert Bill of Rights" that went viral, making her a spokeswoman for the many victims of the Freundel scandal. She served on a committee appointed by the Rabbinical Council of America to suggest safeguards against future abuses in the conversion process.[27]For this work, the Forward named her one of the "Forward 50" in 2015,[28] and the Rutgers University Hillel honored her with its Young Alumni Award at its 2016 Annual Gala.[11] She has also said that it became clear to her that the RCA did not want to enact meaningful changes to its conversion program, that she resigned from the committee when she understood this, and that the experience left her disenchanted with Orthodoxy as a whole.[17] As a consequence, she and her husband stopped participating in Orthodox Jewish institutions, such as synagogues and schools,[6] before finding a supportive synagogue in Kemp Mill several years later.[25]

She is married to Seth Mandel and the mother of 4 children.[6]

References
  1. "Twitter Personality of the Week #17: 10 Questions for Bethany Shondark Murphy (@bethanyshondark)".
  2. "Rutgers Hillel honors legacy, leaders, rising stars at gala". My Central Jersey. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  3. "Bethany Mandel, Author at The Federalist". The Federalist. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  4. "The 50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  5. "The Devastating Story of Washington's Peeping-Tom Rabbi". Washingtonian. 2016-01-03. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  6. "Bethany Mandel will not be canceled". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  7. "Remembering My Mom: Vera J. Murphy 1956-2002". Kosher Girl in a Bacon World. 2012-12-28. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  8. Parenting (2015-01-23). "Eight Parenting Lessons I Learned From My Parents' Early Deaths". The Federalist. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  9. "Seven Years Later". Kosher Girl in a Bacon World. 2012-09-13. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  10. Mandel, Bethany S. (2017-08-01). "My dad committed suicide in 2009, addicted to opioid painkillers. I don't talk about him much, here or in real life". @bethanyshondark. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  11. "Rutgers Hillel Helped Me Build a Jewish Life - And Eventually Become a Jewish Wife by Bethany Mandel '08 - Rutgers Hillel". www.rutgershillel.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
  12. "Bethany Mandel, 27". Jewish Week. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  13. "Bethany Mandel". pjmedia.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  14. Bethany Mandel (April 19, 2018). "Tammy Duckworth's Senate vote with a baby in tow is a model of accommodation for working mothers: Women can be mothers and productive members of society simultaneously, if given the opportunity". www.nbcnews.com. I have balanced full-time, stay-at-home motherhood alongside a writing career for almost five years (and I’m not unique in that). I have brought my children to interviews, to speaking engagements and on work trips. I’ve nursed a baby during a live video interview that began later than anticipated (which would otherwise have fallen during a nap time), I’ve bounced a baby in a baby carrier while giving testimony in open court. In the background of almost every single work-related call is the sound of children laughing, arguing and, sometimes, both.
  15. "Bethany Mandel". Online Harassment Field Manual: Real-Life Stories.
  16. "I was a Never Trumper. I couldn't have been more wrong | Opinion". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  17. "r/Judaism - Hi, I'm Bethany Mandel, a widely published conservative writer on politics and culture and a homeschooling mother of four... AMA!". reddit. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  18. Mandel, Bethany (January 29, 2021). "I loved and respected my mother very, very deeply, which is why I didn't feel comfortable at the time putting my name on this when I wrote it. But I did, and it's a lot of why I'm pro-life". Twitter.
  19. M, Bethany; elAugust 24; Images, 2017Getty. "We Need To Start Befriending Neo Nazis". The Forward. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  20. M, Bethany; elAugust 14; Images, 2018Getty. "Opinion | How The Angry Left Turned Me Into A Nazi". The Forward. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  21. "JTA Twitter 50: Bethany Mandel". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2018-12-16. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  22. "The Jewish Left is trying to hijack Israel". Washington Examiner. 2020-02-06. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  23. "'You can call me a grandma killer,' opponent of lockdown says, and social media obliges". NJ.com. May 6, 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  24. Nash, Charlie (May 6, 2020). "Conservative Commentator Bethany Mandel Trends on Twitter After 'Grandma Killer' Coronavirus Comments". Mediaite. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  25. "Bethany S. Mandel". EIGHTEENFORTY. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  26. "Converts say Freundel's abuse of power extended beyond mikvah peeping". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  27. "RCA sets panel to review conversion process in wake of Freundel scandal". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  28. "Bethany Mandel". The Forward. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
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