Opinion

In Time of Strife, Israel’s New National Library Opens

By Steve Kramer KFAR SABA, Israel — “Under the shadow of the horrors of October 7, 2023 and the war, the National Library of Israel made the decision to open its new home to readers and researchers as of Sunday, October 29, 2023.” The Library was due to open on October 17, but given the […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel, Opinion, Steve Kramer

Putin’s New Man in Washington Games Israel

By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — The headline that Mike Johnson hoped for on Friday: “Democrats betray Israel.” Instead he got this New York Times headline: “House Passes Bill Tying Israel Aid to Spending Cuts With Nothing for Ukraine.” More to the point, let’s try: “Putin wins first round against Ukraine with help from GOP

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Bruce Ticker, International, Israel, Opinion, USA

Former Police Chief Zimmerman Questions U-T’s Week-Long Silence on Contributor Republishing a Hate Cartoon

Former San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman declares that people should “loudly, quickly and publicly call out hate in all its forms.” She faults the San Diego Union-Tribune for remaining silent for a week about an antisemitic cartoon posted by Lallia Allali on her Facebook page that pictured a Jewish Star operating as a buzz saw to slice through the bodies of babies. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Opinion, San Diego County

Okfuskee County, Rosenwald Schools, and Boley

By Jerry Klinger Boley, Oklahoma, Creek Nation, Indian Territory, was established as an all-Black town on the land of Creek Indian “Freedwoman” Abigail Barnett in 1903. When the Five Tribes, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminoles, were forcibly removed from their homelands in the 1830s–40s, people enslaved by the tribes also made the long

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Opinion, USA

Collective Trauma

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Is there such a thing as collective trauma? It seems there is, and Google defines and explains it as “the psychological distress that a group — usually an entire culture, community, or another large group of people — experience in response to a shared trauma. In order to

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Israel, Opinion

How We Are Doing

By Steve Kramer KFAR SABA, Israel — My friend Jeff, whom I’ve been friends with since at least kindergarten asked, “How are you doing?” Below is a slightly longer version of my answer. Jeff, Michal and I are agitated, distraught, and doing a lot of volunteering. Five days a week we pick up laundry at

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Israel, Opinion, Steve Kramer

Free Palestine? Free the Brooklyn Bridge

By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — We cannot be blamed for suspecting that 40-year-old Samantha Woll was stabbed to death at her Detroit home because of the crisis in Israel. Her murder occurred two weeks after Hamas butchered 1,400 Jews in southern Israel, followed by Israel’s merciless bombing of Gaza. She was a prominent political

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Bruce Ticker, Israel, Opinion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

The War Comes Home

By Doron Krakow Saturday, October 28, will be three weeks. Three weeks since the horrific, savage slaughter of innocents—children in front of parents, whole families burned alive, concertgoers mowed down by the hundreds—the images provided by the butchers themselves are now etched into our minds and hearts. The death toll continues to climb, as does

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Doron Krakow, Israel, Opinion, USA

The Culture of Biophilia vs. the Culture of Necrophilia

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The heinous events of October 7 in Israel are difficult to reconcile with the modern world’s ethos. After World War II, many believed that the atrocities faced by Jewish communities were behind them and that such darkness would not be revisited upon them. Yet, as Mark

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Israel, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Opinion