Donald H. Harrison

Senate approves bill on American hostages named for Robert Levinson

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chris Coons (D-De.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)  on Monday released the following statements on securing passage of the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act (S.712) as part of the end-of-year funding legislation approved by the Senate today. (Senate Foreign Relations Committee Press Release)

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International, Middle East, USA

Month of January exciting for political junkies, journalists

For political junkies and journalists (two groups that sometimes merge), the month of January will be exciting. The U.S. Constitution sets January 3rd as the date for the new Congress to convene.  As January 3rd falls this year on a Sunday, there has been some talk about delaying the opening of Congress until either Monday, the 4th, or Tuesday, the 5th, but it would take a bill approved by both Houses and signed by the President to bring that about.  So, while it’s not impossible that the date still could be delayed, Sunday, the 3rd, looks like the day when the House of Representatives convenes to swear in such new members as Democrat Sara Jacobs of San Diego, and to elect the leadership of both parties.  Two Californians — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarty of Bakersfield — will run for reelection respectively as the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House.  With a narrower majority, and some disgruntled Democrats, especially in the Progressive wing of the party that includes U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Pelosi’s reelection, though favored, is not a sure thing. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison

The artist as ‘hooligan’ on exhibit at NYC’s Pace Gallery

The Hooligans is Ghenie’s fourth solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, comprised of nine paintings and three drawings, all produced during this last year. It is a sustained engagement with European painting, including J.M.W. Turner, the Impressionists, and post-Impressionists, particularly Van Gogh and Gaugin. Ghenie remarks in a statement about this new body of work: “When I look at the Impressionists, I have the strange feeling that I am looking at something very schizophrenic. Behind those harmless colorful landscapes there is an incredible, destructive force; camouflaged. It is an act of hooliganism.” [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USA

German synagogue attacker handed life sentence for 2019 incident

A 28-year-old man who confessed to carrying out a 2019 terrorist attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, has been handed a life sentence by a German court. A regional court in Naumburg determined that, once Stephan Balliet had served out the 15-year sentence, he would be subject to preventive detention. This is the maximum

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International

US charges Libyan ‘bombmaker’ over 1988 Lockerbie attack

Washington (AFP) – The US Justice Department announced charges Monday against a Libyan former intelligence agent who allegedly built the bomb that exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland exactly 32 years ago. Attorney General Bill Barr said that “Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi” helped build the device that blew up the aircraft

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International, Middle East, USA

Miss France runner-up attacked online for saying her father is Israeli

In France, last night, a flood of antisemitic insults, threats, and violent comments were spread on social media.Their origin?Miss Provence April Benayoum, first runner-up in Miss France 2021 pageant, revealing on Saturday night during the final competition that she has an Israeli father in her follow-up thanks. “I have an array of origins: my mother

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International, Middle East, Sports & Competitions

Jews, Muslims and Bacon (!) at a Christmas Party

Our Christmas party happened to fall on the sixth day of Chanukah, so I wanted to contribute. What I used to do at my school was bring in homemade sufganiyot using whole wheat flour with nutmeg mixed into the dough, fill them with jam and fry them up in coconut oil. These treats would be proudly presented in a basket with a sign that read “You don’t have to be Jewish to have a Happy Chanukah!” [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Russia could cut off U.S. food and water supply in next cyberattack, Romney says

Russia acted with impunity when it hacked U.S. government servers in a global cyber-espionage campaign and could do far more damage next time — like cutting off the nation’s water and electricity supply, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said Sunday. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Utah senator said the massive cyberattack discovered earlier this

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International, USA

Michael Lesher tells his journey as a Baal Teshuvah

I held the first three chapters of Turning Back in my hands in 1997. There were only three chapters written at that time. Yet, I knew someday I’d be holding this work between its covers, for I felt the prescient weight of the book resting in my hands at the time. I went ahead and encouraged Michael to develop this work into a full-fledged memoir. Taking pen in hand the thoughts poured out of him, composing one of the most illuminating and gifted memoirs I’ve ever read. I paired Michael with literary agent, Peter Rubie, who I had met many years ago. Together they made music. Peter, whose background is in investigative journalism, made Michael his subject, digging deeper and deeper into the memoirist’s unconscious thoughts. This was not an easy process for the author, for at times it was as arduous as deep psychoanalytic probing into the painful regions of human consciousness. To answer Rubie’s many editorial questions, Michael had to plow through his personal memories, his reflections, his reactions, and his analyses just in order to find the real truth behind the words. The memoirist had to reach his deepest level of literary expressiveness, a condition precedent for writing the story of his own coveted decision to journey back to the richness and fullness of religious life as set forth in the Jewish tradition of thousands of years. [Amy Neustein, Ph.D]

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Amy Neustein, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion