Shabbat Shalom, hey!
Hello to all, and congratulations for making it through another week as our country continues it’s embarrassing Lewis Carroll-like journey down the proverbial rabbit hole and through the looking glass. All eyes (and lots of money) have turned toward Georgia as, literally, the stakes could not be any higher. And who would have thought a large and relatively new Asian-American population could play a swing vote role in suburban Georgia?
And if you are wondering how Jew’s will fare in a Biden administration, one need only look at his cabinet choices, chock-filled with brilliant and accomplished Jews! (Janet Yellen – Treasury, Alejandro Mayorkas – Homeland Security, Antony Blinken – Secretary of State, Ron Klain – Chief of Staff, just to name a few). Not that being Jewish (Steven Miller, for example) is all that matters, but these folks are brilliant and highly competent and reflect the spirit of a new President who values competence and diversity.
And speaking of brilliant Jews, a big welcome to JNR’s newest members this week! Our Aunt and Yiddish expert, Millie Berman, cousin and oyster expert Marcia Berman, and my west coast and recently re-connected first cousin Eve Levine. Big Shaloms to you all!
And now, on with the Jew News of the week, courtesy of The Forward:
- Intermarriage and the Birthright-Israel Debate – Two articles reviewing the impact of the Birthright program on Intermarriage. After a decade and sponsorship of over 750,000 mostly happy participants in this program, only Jews could find ways to criticize vs celebrate a program that ultimately connects young people (and we have a few JNR’s who participated) with Israel and their Jewish Heritage. Is it “Pilates Judasim”, strengthening the core and trusting good results to follow?” You be the judge. Worth the read.
- The Jewish connection to Arlo Guthrie’s famous “Alice’s Restaurant” – Alice Brock, THE Alice from the famous song (which we listen to at noon every Thanksgiving except this one) is Jewish, suffering from COPD and living on Cape Cod. What a great story about a recent fundraiser, promoted by NPR, that crowd-raised money for her medical support.
- Do we need more Emanuels in the Biden Administration? – Is Ezekial enough (Coronavirus task force), or should Biden include brother Rahm? Rahm is certainly a lightning rod for criticism of all kinds. But IMHO, the more Jews the better!
- Not all Jewish intermarriages are alike – According to this Jewish gentleman who doesn’t like his intermarriage being compared to Kamala Harris’s. Sure, i get it. Meh.
- Mosul struggles to recover from ISIS rule, and restore it’s Jewish past – A very uplifting story about how one man risked his life documenting the evils of ISIS in Mosul and is determined to restore the religious communities devastated during ISIS reign of terror.
- Life in Gaza is complicated – But this former Gazan and his wife, now living in San Francisco, try to cut through the complications with photography. The lens may not lie, but peeling back the layers of craziness in this part of the world is not an easy task, and not accomplished with just the lens.
- Interview with a Conservative Republican who wants to win over Labor – I’m not buying it, just putting lipstick on the power-grabbing pig, but draw your own conclusions!
All for now, and hey, now more than ever given the crazy surge going on everywhere, let’s be careful out there.
Brad out. https://assets.forward.com/pdfs/120420.pdf
Jew News Review 