Shabbat shalom!
Holy shit batman, what a week!
Last night my son Michael and I sat high above rink side at the TD Garden to cheer on the Boston Bruins in their attempt to stay alive in the NHL playoffs. Despite their best efforts, and the tremendous support of a rabid fan-base, their quest for the Stanley Cup ended last night in a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. As Michael and I were descending the never-ending stairs to Nashua Street, we shared what many other fans were saying, “They made it further than we expected, so it’s all good. Next year will be even better.” True optimism in the face of heart-breaking loss.
It’s really hard to be an optimist these days in the face of the continuing onslaught of bad shit that pours endlessly into our media channels. Justice Alito’s wife raising a “Stop the Steal” flag shortly after Jan 6 comes to mind, along with embarrassing cat fighting on the floor of the esteemed House of Representatives, the orange turd in criminal court while polls show his lead growing over grandpa Biden, and more division in Israel as Bibi continues to mis-lead the country into a darker place than imaginable. Yet despite this week being a particularly zany one for anyone following the news, there is some room for optimism amidst the hurly burly of bad shit fermenting in the body politic both here and abroad. So, I have decided this week to focus on the silver linings instead of the gathering storm clouds.
Let’s start with the US economy: Inflation cooled moderately in April, though the Fed signaled interest rates will likely stay high for a while to ensure inflation continues to decline. The Dow hit 40,000 for the first time ever — which is not a reflection of the financial security of most Americans, but rather a sign of investor confidence about the future strength of the economy (i.e., they see good times ahead). And the Supreme Court ruled to preserve funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency founded after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers and hold major economic players to account. The CFPB regulates mortgages, car loans, insurance and other major consumer finance products to elevate consumers rights and penalize big businesses for predatory behavior. For example, if you bought a ticket to the Bruins playoff game for $300, you would have to pay a usurious $130 in fees to Ticketmaster! Biden and the CFPB are trying to lower those fees and make them more transparent. A conservative group tried to gut the CFPB, arguing in a lawsuit that the CFPB’s funding mechanism is unconstitutional. The Court’s conservative supermajority was expected to agree with the challengers and slash the CFPB’s funding; they instead ruled 7-2 to preserve the consumer watchdog. That’s good news!
Over in Israel, while the country continues to be torn apart by what is appearing to be an endless war of whack-a-terrorist, and continuous bad images on social media, there is some good news for Gaza aid. The floating aid pier the US built to deliver aid to Gaza is now operational. US Central Command said the first trucks began entering Gaza from the pier yesterday, carrying food, hygiene kits, and temporary shelters supplied by the US, UAE and Britain. The administration says no US troops entered Gaza and the UN is distributing the aid. And regarding US-Israel military aid, after Biden threatened to pause certain military aid to Israel, this week the White House advanced a $1 billion arms deal with Israel. And the House of Representatives voted to force Biden to continue supplying all aid approved by Congress – though this bill won’t make it into law. More good news!
But even better news on the Israel front came in this year’s World Happiness report. The report bases its subjective analysis on what they call “Life evaluations”. The Gallup World Poll, which remains the principal source of data in this report, asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and worst possible as a 0. Each respondent provides a numerical response on this scale, referred to as the Cantril ladder. Typically, around 1,000 responses are gathered annually for each country.
This year, Israelis completed the survey in January, post October 7, three months into the Gaza war and after a brutal year of division over the judicial reform proposals. Guess where Israel landed: Fifth! Behind four Nordic countries! The US dropped several slots to 23rd. Some analysts believe Israel scores so high for a number of factors, including having one of the premier health plans in the world, and a strong sense of community across the small nation. Or as Israeli journalist and parent Haviv Rettig Gur put it, ““It is me knowing that in my street, every neighbor I have, the ones I like, the ones I’m arguing with about parking spaces, is going to run into fire for my kids. And therefore, I know that I will run into fire for their kids. It is that firm knowledge which is true across Israeli society.”
Even more surprising is the generational analysis, which shows Israel being #2 in respondents under the age of 30! That speaks to the optimism of the Israeli youth, and their view of their life expectations. BTW, the US ranks #62 in this category. Ugh.
In keeping with our theme of optimism, this week’s roundup will include more items in the “news that does not suck” category. Here then, is a positive spin on selective segments of savory semitic stories stolen shamelessly from the likes of The Forward, Haaretz, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Times of Israel, and other fine Jewishy journals:
- Ambassadors, musicians to headline today’s rally for international hostages – The families of hostages held in Gaza were set to rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, with a high-profile lineup of international speakers and musicians to demand the release of the 125 hostages still held by Hamas since October 7, who hold citizenship from 24 countries. Video messages from former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Dr. Phil will be screened for the crowd at the event. The rally will feature musical performances by Eurovision 2024 Israeli representative Eden Golan, as well as Montana Tucker, Noga Erez, Netta Barzilai and Lola Marsh.
- Trucks carrying 300 pallets of humanitarian aide roll into Gaza across new US pier – Operation expected to scale up to 150 trucks per day; UN to distribute supplies in Strip; aid groups reiterate warning that maritime project isn’t a substitute for land deliveries. The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day, all while Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah in its campaign against Hamas.
- Volunteers help to save the fruit farms decimated by terrorists on October 7 – Before October 7, fruit farms on the Gaza border supplied 70 percent of Israel’s fresh produce as well as produce for export. Now they are struggling to survive. Hamas terrorists killed, kidnapped or scared off most of the foreign farmworkers and destroyed or stole expensive agricultural equipment and infrastructure. Aside from equipment, the attacks caused approximately $500 million of lost farm income. Now, some of the foreign workers are back, but they are being backstopped by volunteers from Israel and abroad to keep fresh produce on Israel shelves.
- Israeli school wins international robot contest. (TY Yanky & Nevet) Team Orbit 1690 from the ORT Atid Cramim Binyamina High School, has won the international robotics competition (known as FIRST) in Houston, Texas, beating 600 other teams from around the world. Go nerds!
- These Jews are dominating the NHL playoffs – Jeremy Swayman, Zach Hyman, Adam Fox and Quinn Hughes have all excelled for their respective teams. Here are the highlights: Swayman, the Boston Bruins goalie, owns a .933 save percentage, among the best in NHL playoff history. Swayman has made 322 saves, the most in this year’s playoffs, and has faced 345 shots on goal, by far the most of any goalie this postseason. Check out this clutch stop Swayman made in the final seconds of the Bruins’ 2-1 Game 5 win on Tuesday to save Boston’s season. Unfortunately, Boston lost to Florida 34 in the Eastern Conference semis.Hyman, the Edmonton Oilers left winger, has extended his career year with nine goals — tied for the most this postseason — and two assists in 10 games. And yes, he’s also won the admiration of none other than Shaquille O’Neal. Edmonton trails Vancouver 3-2 in the Western Conference semis.
Finally, last week I mentioned Eden Golan’s stunning performance of the song “Hurricane” in the Eurovision competition. She got the most votes from the public in 14 different countries: U.K., Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Rest of the World (which collectively counted as one country). Hers represented, by far, the most dramatic disparity between the opinion of the judges and the general public.
If you haven’t yet heard of Westside Gravy, he’s an unbelievably talented and uplifting Israeli artist. Here is one of his more recent and popular tracks, “From the river to the sea”.
Enjoy. And hey, let’s be careful out there!
Brad out.
From the river to the sea
A lifeline for the people like me
Fostering conditions where my people might flee
Acting shocked when we flock back to our history
We ain’t have a choice, even when we had it
Didn’t even matter how long we’d been scattered
Children of the land can’t leave our house abandoned
You shake leaves from a branch, the root’s still planted
From the river to the sea
Several million of us living in between
From the river to the sea
We ain’t gonna pretend that we don’t know what you mean…
Jew News Review 