Inclusion at Camp Chi

It was June of 1969. I was an 11 ½ year old visually impaired girl leaving home for the first time to attend Jewish overnight camp. I boarded the train to Wisconsin consumed with mixed emotions: already a little homesick and anxious, but also excited. I was excited about the friends coming from my Jewish Day school, and the new friends I hope to meet. At that moment, I was just like them—leaving home to spend three fun-filled weeks at summer camp.
It was a disaster. [Michelle Friedman]

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Judaism, Lifestyles, USA

Editorial: Enemy of the people? Donald Trump seems dangerously determined to make Joe Biden’s job difficult

Nearly four years ago, Donald Trump swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Trump now violates that oath on multiple fronts as he continues to insist he won an election he decisively lost, toys with disrupting the Jan. 6 count by Congress of the Electoral College tally —

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USA

Israel, US vote against UN funds for ‘antisemitic’ Durban Conference

Both Israel and the United States voted Thursday against the United Nations budget to protest the allocation of funds to the World Conference against Racism, historically known for its tolerance of virulent antisemitism.When the conference was first held in Durban, South Africa in 2000, participants sold copies of the antisemitic trope, Protocols of the Elders

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International, Middle East, USA

Editorial: For shame: Sen. Josh Hawley’s plan to challenge Biden victory desperate — and dangerous

Sen. Josh Hawley’s decision to challenge the election of Joe Biden as president is dangerous nonsense and desperately wrong in every way. Missouri’s junior senator said Wednesday he’ll challenge the Electoral College results when Congress opens presidential ballots next week. He’s the first senator to make such a pledge. If he follows through, both houses

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USA

Perdue quarantines after exposure to COVID-19 in final days of tight runoff race

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — U.S. Sen. David Perdue said Thursday he was forced to quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus, scrambling the final days of a runoff campaign for control of the U.S. Senate. In a statement, the Republican’s campaign said he and his wife, Bonnie, tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday morning and are

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USA

My worst moment: Mayim Bialik on overrated standing ovations and her pal Neil Patrick Harris

Mayim Bialik kicks off the new year as the lead in the new Fox comedy “Call Me Kat,” which is based on the BBC sitcom “Miranda.” “We’re doing an American version, which means more of an American sensibility, so we’ve adjusted it around my quirks and my personality,” said Bialik. “‘Call Me Kat’ is about

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Freshman Miami congresswoman-elect to miss DC swearing-in ceremony due to COVID-19

MIAMI — Miami Congresswoman-elect María Elvira Salazar will be unable to attend a Sunday ceremony in Washington to swear in members of the new Congress after learning she has COVID-19 during an emergency trip to the hospital, her office announced Thursday morning. Salazar, a Republican who last month defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala in

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USA

Prayers for the New Year

Our lives involve a constant series of rebirths that affords us the opportunity to expand our horizon and vision of the world around us. Whenever we wake up on the first day of the New Year, it behooves us to think about what we must accomplish and achieve while we travel through time. Let us use this time to set goals and make new promises to our soul that each of us will boldly live our lives and realize the God-given potential that we each have. [Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel]

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Jewish History, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Education for Girls in Britain and Israel

My grandchildren, who have grown up in a secular environment in Israel, find it odd that I, their (hopefully) broad-minded grandmother, should have gone to a secondary school for girls. In Israel, it is only those segments of the population which adhere to ancient tenets of gender identification that maintain gender-segregated schools for their offspring. In England, where I grew up, the situation was similar but the ideas behind it were different. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education