Blessings and Borscht: Superstitions of My Ancestry

The first time my parents took me on a trip with them I was eight years old and living in Chicago. We were going to Mexico, where I would see, hear, and feel the ocean for the first time (for those that know me, the ocean is one of my favorite temporal experiences in life). But my first memory of this trip — and every trip, henceforth — was sitting before we left. [Danielle Levsky]

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International, Lifestyles

Antisemitism Is Wrong, Whether Coming from the Right or Left

Published by The Moderate Voice by Joe Nalven We know right-wing antisemitism by shouts of “you will not replace us.” Left-wing antisemitism is carefully couched in criticism of Israel for “human rights violations.” Left-wing advocates deny antisemitism by citing free speech to criticize another nation; however, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s examples of antisemitism reveal

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USA

Auschwitz Prisoners Drafted as Detectives in Mystery Novel

A Jewish detective imprisoned in Auschwitz is drafted by the camp commandant to determine who has stolen the ledger in which there is an accounting of the gold extracted from the bodies of murdered prisoners.  Shimon Divko knows that he will be sent to the gas chamber whether he solves the mystery or doesn’t — the first alternative because he would then know too much; the second as punishment for failure.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Israeli PM says Iran has crossed nuclear ‘red lines’; Tehran calls it ‘full of lies’

Published by Reuters By Michelle Nichols, Matt Spetalnick and Stephen Farrell NEW YORK (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that Iran had crossed “all red lines” in its nuclear program and vowed that Israel would not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon. In his first speech to the United Nations General

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Middle East

ADL, L’Oreal Partner in Holocaust Education Program

In response to the rise of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination in the United States, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and L’Oréal USA are partnering on an education initiative designed to raise awareness and promote understanding about the Holocaust among thousands of students in American classrooms. [ADL News Release]

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International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Antisemitism in the ‘New West’

Do you worry that Jew-hatred might affect your comfortable American life? Do you think that Jew-haters will ignore you because your “Jewishness” is unimportant for you? If not, why not? Does this worry – if you feel it – fall below your concern for abortion legislation, diversity and gender issues, climate change policies, etc.? With this in mind, it’s time to wake up to the “new” West. [Steve Kramer]

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Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA

Big and Small Controversies in Israel

Do you want to think big? Focus on what Mahmoud Abbas said in a recorded speech delivered to the United Nations in New York. If Israel doesn’t withdraw completely from the West Bank and East Jerusalem (he also said Gaza, but Israel has already withdrawn from there) within a year, Palestine will charge Israel with heinous crimes before the International Criminal Court. Meanwhile, he’s volunteering to negotiate final borders. The 1967 lines, wherever they are, figure in his threat. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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International, Ira Sharkansky, Lifestyles, Middle East

‘Nevergreen’: A Satiric Commentary on Contemporary College ‘Values’

Following a chance meeting aboard an airplane, a doctor simply identified as “J.” is invited to give a lecture at Nevergreen College, which was built on an island that formerly housed an insane asylum.  When the time for the lecture arrives, no one is there to attend it, not even the woman who invited him.  He delivers it nevertheless.  The following morning, he tours the campus, noticing at a student club expo that there are  tables for almost every kind of belief, however ridiculous or contradictory.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison