Au Revoir to France, Shalom to Israel

The first thing that hits you as the plane starts the descent towards the airport in Israel is the difference in the colors on the ground. If you have just left one of the countries of Europe, as we did, there is a noticeable difference in the shades of green that you perceive. The brilliant emerald green of the fields of rural France (or Germany or England or wherever), even in the summer of 2022 when temperatures rose to unprecedented heights and there were restrictions on water usage, remained in one’s visual memory, only to be erased (or at least put in the shade) by the greys, browns and dusty dark greens of the Holy Land. And, of course, the ever-present white of the stone buildings. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Israel, Lifestyles, Travel and Food

Girls School Athletic Trainer Bashes Israel, Loses Job, Claims Discrimination

Natalie Abulhawa had multiple advantages going for her after she filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against a Main Line school: her own disingenuous voice, the aid and comfort of excuse-laden Arab-American spokespersons; and kid-glove treatment in a Philadelphia Inquirer story filed by an Arab-simpatico reporter. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Israel, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Gov. Newsom Signs Gabriel Bill to Fight Internet Hate

Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed Assembly Bill (AB) 587 into law. Authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, this bill requires social media companies to publicly disclose their policies for online hate and extremism so they can be held accountable for their enforcement. The bill had previously passed the State Senate and Assembly with bipartisan support. [JPAC press release]

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California, USA

Office of Civil Rights to Investigate Antisemitism at University of Vermont

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it has opened a formal investigation into a complaint alleging Jewish students at the University of Vermont (UVM) have been subjected to severe and persistent anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. Anti-Jewish incidents ranged from the exclusion of Jewish students from a campus sexual assault survivors’ group, online harassment against Jewish students by a Teaching Assistant (TA), and the targeting of the UVM Hillel building. OCR evaluates all complaints it receives, but it only pursues investigations in those it determines warrant a more thorough investigation. [Press Release from Louis D. Brandeis Center for Justice Inder Law]

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Travel and Food

The Poignant Dramas of Border Crossers

The current offering at La Jolla Playhouse attempts to provide unity and solidarity for those Latinos disenfranchised by politics and economics. Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) celebrates the “joyous, inclusive spirit” that coexists along with the divisiveness and inequity facing immigrants. Through music and dance, audiences are let into the challenging and often harsh realities immigrants of so many Latin American countries have faced, while trying to gain access to America.  [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Terror, the Queen, and the deadline for Parties to Run in Israel’s Election

By Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D JERUSALEM — They seem to be on an upswing, but Palestinian attacks against Israelis are a continuous phenomenon. For a summary of attacks since May 2016 and through July 2022, provided by the Israeli government, in English, you can look here. A graphic display appears below. The first graph shows the

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Ira Sharkansky, Israel, Middle East, Opinion

The World is Constantly Changing, As Is Everything and Everyone Around Us

By Natasha Josefowitz, ACSW, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — Some people seem to be wired to like variety, novelty, change from routine. Others seem to prefer the status quo, the predictable, the familiar. To some extent, this is genetic, but it is also influenced by the multitude of experiences we have been subjected to in

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

The Semi-Fascist MAGA Menace: The Truth is Funnier (and Scarier) Than Satirical Fiction

By Laurie Baron President Biden received scathing criticism for labeling MAGA Republicans “semi-fascists.” I selected some quotations from MAGA leaders to test the validity of his characterization. “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it. I’m tired

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

The Authoritarian Personality and Rise of Right-Wing Extremism

By Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — If nothing else, the Republican Party has steadily removed any doubt that it has embraced an extremism that threatens the future of American Democracy. We can clearly perceive the imminent danger that the Party poses in several crucial ways, perhaps the most salient being the refusal of candidates to

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Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, USA