\” . . . In a business deal, he\’s going to try to kill for you, and its just going to be about putting as much money in your pocket as he can, until you tell him that there\’s something else that\’s important to you . . . \” — Aaron Sorkin
It\’s been 30 years since I left Iran, and I still know I\’m going back some day, because I have to see that house again, to stand before the yard door and discover if it\’s indeed 12 feet high, or if I\’ve imagined it so, to ring the doorbell and see if I can hear its chime echo up and down the street.
\”Vati, Vati,\” I call down. \”If they take you, I\’m going with you!\” My mother has reached the door. As she opens it, she and the door are hurled against the wall. Nazis, half a dozen of them, with rifles, rush up the steps.\n\n
Violent hate crimes are on the rise, reflecting an overall increase in xenophobic attitudes across Europe and North America, a revival of anti-Semitism and a continuation of prejudice against Muslims, Roma and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons.
While waiting for Ronnie outside the restaurant, and watching the handsome Israeli valet boys handle their customers with a pseudo-IDF smile, I could not but think to myself, \”Geez, Israel has come a long way in 60 years. Shouldn\’t more Jews enjoy this jewel, especially now?\”
Parshat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1-17:27) Lech Lecha begins with God telling Abraham, \”Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, from the house of your father to the land that I will show you.\”
\” . . . Hatred has been around since Cain and Abel. I\’m not a philosopher; I\’m not a sociologist. I don\’t pretend to be. But they used to say, \’Where there\’s life, there\’s bugs.\’ When there\’s life, there\’s hate . . .\”
On Confederate Memorial Day, 1913, a 13-year-old child laborer named Mary Phagan was strangled to death in the Atlanta, Ga. pencil factory where she worked. The last person to admit to having seen her alive was the plant superintendent, Leo Frank, an Ivy League-educated Northerner and, of vital importance, a Jew.
Israel will continue participating in the peace process as long as its political and security interests are met, Tzipi Livni said this week.
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