Withholding Weapons from Israel Makes the US Weak

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and a group of like-minded colleagues wanted to sink the proposed $735-million sale of a Boeing-built arms guidance kit to Israel. The Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) kit converts unguided or “dumb” bombs into precision-guided munitions. The goal, according to Politico, is “leverage to push the Israelis to drop their resistance to a ceasefire.” [Shoshana Bryen]

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USA

Advocates Petition Against California Ethnic Studies Bill

More than a thousand Californians, including nearly 70 rabbis, today petitioned the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to oppose AB 101, a bill to make ethnic studies courses a high school graduation requirement. The California Assembly is likely to debate AB 101 next week. [AMCHA Initiative Press Release]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Mobs attack pro-al-Assad voters in Lebanon as overseas polling begins

Published by DPA Angry Lebanese crowds attacked buses and smashed the windows of cars carrying supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Beirut on Thursday, decrying what they call a sham as international voting in Syria’s presidential election began. Vehicles loaded with Syrians, holding pictures of al-Assad and waving the Syrian flag, were seen heading

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Middle East

At U.N., U.S. defends its efforts to broker Mideast ceasefire

Published by Reuters By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday defended its efforts to broker a ceasefire in renewed fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants after Washington found itself isolated at the United Nations over its opposition to any Security Council action. “We have not been silent,” U.S. Ambassador to

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Middle East

Children’s Literature: The Candy Man Mystery

Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, author of The Candy Man Mystery, is primarily known as a Jewish educator having served as a dean at the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion and as a vice president of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.  Perhaps, however, he was remembering his 15 years at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, Connecticut, when he wrote The Candy Man Mystery, a book likely to intrigue elementary school-aged children about synagogue Judaism. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion

‘River to the Sea’? That Means ‘Eradicate Israel’

The catchy slogan that is chanted so ardently by supposedly well-intentioned human beings in demonstrations being held around the world, ‘Palestine shall be free, from the river to the sea,’ is in effect a call for the destruction of Israel. And that, of course, is what the terrorist organization of Hamas wants to achieve. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History, Middle East

The Story Behind The Matzo Project

I dreamt up the idea to make artisanal matzo way back in 1995, for Brett Kelly, my next door neighbor in my rent-stabilized, West Village apartment building. Her parents were closing their pizza shop on City Island and I was trying to convince her to take it over and turn it into the City Island Matzo Factory. She didn’t take the unleavened bait and the concept laid dormant in the back of my messy mind for over two decades. [Ashley Albert]

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Travel and Food, USA

Rachmaninoff’s musical biography portrayed by Felder

The life of Sergei Rachmaninoff is the subject of actor/writer/ pianist Hershey Felder’s play with music, Nicholas, Anna and Sergei. Seen under the auspices of JFest, the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lipinsky Jewish Arts Festival, the virtual production, streaming from Florence, Italy, and available through May 23, features other participants, in addition to Felder. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard

The ‘Right’ of Palestinian Return Is a Myth

An unending intifada against the Jewish state has been the central mission of Hamas since its inception, and part of that war against Israel includes what Palestinians claim is their legal “right of return;” that is, the right of those Arabs who fled or were expelled from what became Israel to now return, en masse, to the Jewish state—together with all of the original refugee’s descendants, now numbering in the millions. [Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D]

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Middle East, Richard L. Cravatts