fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

February 13, 2019

Consult a Doctor Before Buying Another Gadget

Leave a Comment / Columnists /

Don’t get me wrong. I really like my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Dell laptop, smart TV and Alexa. I’m connected, baby! I recently took an EKG from my Apple Watch, downloaded it to my iPhone, and then emailed it to my cardiologist. After viewing it and consulting with him, he took a photo of my bill, downloaded it and emailed that to me. I almost had a heart attack. 

It’s not unusual to see people davening with their iPhone and trolling eBay at the same time. Guilty. 

Recently, while my wife and I were watching Netflix at the airport waiting to board our flight, I got updates on my watch that our flight was on time and our bags were loaded. Thirty seconds later, United Airlines let me know that it had a hummus plate on board for me. We were in Group 4 and, when we inadvertently tried to board with Group 3, the scanner that reads the bar code started to ding and we were busted. We were sneered at as we crawled to the back of the line, covering our faces like mobsters coming out of a courthouse. 

When my son was in Cuba a few weeks ago, we chatted on FaceTime. When I was a kid, you had to stand next to a person for FaceTime. 

While I was growing up, if a person needed to send a short message in a
hurry, there was Western Union. Now, using texting, I’ve probably sent half a million short messages. When I was a kid, people had limited access to world events. Now, I can find out about an earthquake in Bangladesh while standing at a urinal. 

“I now know a lot more about the world and the people in it, and less about my family and myself.”

But am I better off with this global connection or was I better off before? Maybe both? My mother used to say, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” There’s wisdom in that. Is it good for my health that I find out first thing in the morning that 400 people died in a ferry accident in Tianjin, China, or 200 young children were kidnaped and tortured by Boko Haram while I was fast asleep on my new MyPillow? 

I now know a lot more about the world and the people in it, and less about my family and myself. I used to spend more time with other people. Now I’m spending more time with devices. These devices don’t give a hoot about human beings. Devices don’t care about bettering the world, nor are they supposed to. But the amount of time spent with these devices is insane. 

Good friends or family will tell you things because they care about you. When’s the last time your iPhone said, “You look tired” or “Go to sleep; I don’t want you to get sick” or “You should call your mother and apologize for yelling at her” or “Dinner’s on me tonight.” People tell you things because they sincerely care about you. Machines tell you what they are programmed to tell you. 

Go to any restaurant and you’ll see people staring at their phones instead of their spouses, kids or friends. Even sitting alone for a few minutes doing nothing has become a thing of the past.

The other night I was out to dinner with my wife and, when she left the table, I thought, “I’m not pulling out my phone. I’m just going to sit and think and look around like I used to.” About thirty seconds later, I thought, “This is hard.” Then I thought this would be a great idea for a column. I would write about how hard it is nowadays to just sit and
do nothing.

So, I went to my Apple Watch and left myself a message. I then checked my email, went to Yahoo and saw that Trump again was going to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and that a whale had washed up dead on shore up north.

When my wife returned to the table, she asked me a question people never used to ask when they returned from a trip to the bathroom. “What have you been doing?” I told her something my watch or phone would never tell her. I told her, “I missed you.” And I meant it.

Mark Schiff is a comedian, actor and writer.

Consult a Doctor Before Buying Another Gadget Read More »

Anti-Semitic Flyers Found on Tufts Hillel

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

Around two-dozen anti-Semitic flyers featuring pigs with guns emblazoned with the words “Israeli Apartheid Forces” were found on Tufts University’s Hillel on the morning of Feb. 12.

Here is a picture of the flyers:

 

 

Tufts Hillel wrote on their Facebook page at around “two dozen” of these posters were found around the building, and they were not found anywhere else campus.

Rabbi Naftali Brawer, the executive director of the campus Hillel, told the student newspaper Tufts Daily that some of the flyers on the windows faced “inwards,” suggesting they “were clearly targeted as a Jewish center.”

“It’s been a really unsettling experience for everyone here at Hillel,” Brawer said. “It shows us that bigotry and hatred are sadly alive and well, even on a university campus. And that only causes us to redouble our efforts to be a place that celebrates diversity, difference and respectful dialogue.”

Robert Trestan, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Boston office, told Tufts Daily that these flyers were “particularly upsetting” because they “were targeting the Jewish students at Tufts in the place where they feel safest and most welcome — the Hillel building.”

Tufts President Anthony Monaco called the posters “profoundly disturbing and hurtful.”

“Recognizing these posters’ impact on our campus climate, we will fully investigate this matter and follow up appropriately on the results of that investigation,” Monaco said in a statement. “Our Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and all those who participate in Hillel programs, have my support as members of our community. Please join me in supporting them, and in condemning any act of intolerance on campus.”

Anti-Semitic Flyers Found on Tufts Hillel Read More »

Why I’m Angry About Trump’s Speech

Leave a Comment / Columnists /

The president of the United States laced this year’s State of the Union with references to anti-Semitism. He invited a Holocaust survivor of Dachau and an American World War II veteran who liberated the camp to the address. He acknowledged last year’s horrific massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, honoring a survivor and a first responder who was injured terribly in the attack. Good, right? Then why are so many Jews so very, very angry?

Because, in the context of this speech, to think about the Holocaust is to think about the St. Louis, the ship transporting hundreds of Jewish refugees in 1939, turned away from the United States and sent back to Europe, where many passengers eventually died in the Holocaust. It is to remember that Jewish refugees were slandered as invaders and cultural polluters by the politicians whose slogan was “America First.”

So when President Donald Trump pairs invocations of the Holocaust with calls to militarize our southern border against refugees who are fleeing horrendous violence in their own countries — the social breakdown of which is attributable directly to the lingering effects of American intervention on behalf of brutal dictatorships — Jews get angry. Because the same calumnies that Trump is aiming at immigrants of color were aimed at us.

Because, to honor the courage of Judah Samet, who survived the Holocaust and the Tree of Life massacre is to remember why that massacre was perpetrated. The suspected killer of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh made it clear in writing that he was especially incensed at HIAS, the Jewish agency that assists them, writing, “It’s the filthy EVIL Jews. Bringing the (sic) Filthy EVIL Muslims into the country!! Stop the kikes then Worry About the Muslims!” Yes, this killer was angry at Trump for not being racist enough — but woven throughout his rants are tropes derived from Trump.

As Pittsburgh’s Bend the Arc Moral Minyan put it, “We will not let you use the Holocaust, our most painful history, to distract us from the real dangers at hand — the dangers you yourself have nurtured with your racism and xenophobia …. There are refugees seeking safety in America today, just as our Jewish parents and grandparents did during the Holocaust, yet once again America is calling them dangerous .… There are internment camps at our southern border and thousands of children separated from their parents by your administration.”

Trump’s pre-emptive deployment of outrages visited on the Jewish people only served, for many of us, to bring into sharp focus the great danger that his movement represents. We have seen what happens when demagogues whose actual policies favor corporate wealth and lead to an ever-greater gap between rich and poor evoke the “working class” in order to divert the anger of struggling workers away from the wealthiest and aim it at the most vulnerable: at a racial and religious other.

As Stacey Abrams observed genuinely working class-friendly policies not only address such issues as health care, student loan debt and wages that don’t rise with the cost of living (not a mention in the president’s speech), they also speak to the different histories and cultures within the working class. They address embedded and systemic racial and gendered and religious inequality. They certainly do not seek to pit one group of workers against another.

In response to the SOTU, Abrams addressed the precariousness of all working people’s lives in the United States today and managed to do that while honoring the particular struggles of people who have to persevere against additional obstacles because of who they are. The contrast between those speeches and Trump’s performance demonstrates why “populism” is such a useless descriptor.

Trump has indulged in a coy flirtation with neo-fascism throughout his presidency. This is the person who was able to discern “fine people on both sides” of a clash between neo-Nazis and their opponents; who did not use the State of the Union address to issue a firm denunciation of white nationalism. Bend the Arc is right. Keep our people out of your mouth.

Rabbi Robin Podolsky teaches at Cal State Long Beach, writes for Shondaland. She serves as a Jewish Community Engagement Fellow at J Street. 

Why I’m Angry About Trump’s Speech Read More »

Lara Kollab and the Disease of Anti-Semitism

Leave a Comment / Columnists /

Canary Mission, a website that highlights hateful remarks by anti-Israel students and professors, recently exposed anti-Semitic statements by Lara Kollab, who was, until September, a first-year resident at Cleveland Clinic until the hospital fired her.

A woman in her 20s, Kollab reportedly has made references on social media to “Jewish dogs,” has written in Arabic, “Allah will take the Jews,” and tweeted, “ill (sic) purposely give all the yahood the wrong meds …”

Kollab perfectly represents the difference between intelligence and wisdom. Clearly, she was smart enough to have graduated from medical school, but she is woefully unwise on many levels — least of all for overlooking (or not caring) that anyone — Jew or Arab — could Google the word “yahood” and discover what it means. This young woman may give new meaning to the word “putz.”

As a Jew, I’m also offended by her fantastic hypocrisy, given that she graduated from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, whose schools around the country were founded on Jewish principles. Many of Kollab’s professors at the campus in upstate New York are Jews. Even Touro’s mission statement is “to educate, perpetuate and enrich the historic Jewish tradition of tolerance and dignity.” 

Tolerance and dignity. Yeah, sure. Exactly the two principles that Kollab stands for. 

In the unlikely event that she gains admittance to another internship program, I wonder how she would make amends and win the trust of Jewish patients. Personally, I visit physicians who never would try to poison me. Not knowingly, at least, although I’m sure some of them have entertained the thought after having met me. 

Kollab recently issued an apology for the “offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts,” adding that as an adolescent, she annually visited “Israel and the Palestine Territories” and “became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation.” 

What a short-sighted and half-hearted apology — one which I unequivocally reject. Her post never mentions the term “anti-Semitism,” nor does it even espouse one statement that would humanize Jews, given that she previously referred to Jews as “dogs.” In fact, her apology doesn’t include a single positive word about Jews. It does, however, put our mind to ease over Kollab’s moral clarity on Israel: “The injustice and brutality of the occupation continues to concern me, and I believe every champion of human rights owes it to humanity to work toward a just and peaceful resolution of this crisis,” Kollab writes.
When all other explanations fail, you can always count on an anti-Semite to extol that he or she is simply a concerned anti-Zionist.
Perhaps Kollab would also like to explain why her concern over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prompted her to downplay the Holocaust on social media. 

What will Kollab do now? If she’s interested, I can refer her to a few hospitals in lovely, spacious Tehran. She shouldn’t have too many Jewish patients there, given that only 5,000 of them remain in the country, compared with 100,000 Jews who lived there before the revolution just 40 years ago. 

But she must promise that she won’t work at Dr. Sapir Hospital and Charity Center in Tehran, which was founded by Jews and is completely unbiased regarding religion and ethnicity when treating its patients’ injuries and ailments. The hospital wouldn’t take her kind, although she could certainly learn a thing or two from its mission. In fact, she could have learned a thing or two from Touro’s mission.

As for me, I’ll occasionally check my physicians’ social media activity from now on, although most of my doctors are local Persian Jews, and the majority of controversies surrounding them are botched rhinoplasties.

And when my time does come, I’ll go as God intended, having succumbed to the world’s first recorded case of vitamin C overdose after using the internet to misdiagnose my routine sinus infection as the Black Plague. 

As Kollab now knows, the internet has a way of lending you a hand in destroying yourself.

Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer.

Lara Kollab and the Disease of Anti-Semitism Read More »

The Right to Punish Free Speech

Leave a Comment / Columnists /

Should a company owned by someone who performs in blackface receive a government contract? How about a corporation whose CEO defends white supremacy?

Ralph Northam, the Democratic governor of Virginia as of this writing, and Steve King, a Republican congressman from Iowa, have behaved in reprehensible and racially offensive ways that violated important standards of human decency: Northam, through his youthful but indefensible decision to pose for a photograph in a racist costume many years ago; and King, with his more recent use of vile, racist language.

Both have offered defenses for their behavior that have been uncompelling and unconvincing at best, and offensive and appalling at worst. Both face withering political pressure to leave their respective offices. But it does not appear that either has violated the law. Much like the infamous neo-Nazi march in Skokie, Ill., in 1978, both men have obnoxiously exercised their First Amendment rights to free speech. They can be prosecuted for their transgressions in the public square, but not in a court of law.

After Northam and King have left their elected offices, any companies they run will technically be eligible to be awarded contracts for work with their local or state governments. But no governing body will be obligated to provide them a contract. In fact, it’s worth assuming that good women and men elected to office would refuse without hesitation to enter into any type of professional relationship with businesses whose leaders are either unconscionably insensitive or outright bigots.

Which is as it should be. Both men have abused the cultural and social norms of our society, which prohibit the intentional defiling of another person or persons for their racial, ethnic or religious heritage.

“Northam and King possess the constitutional privilege to use vile language or imagery to defile others … but their right to free speech would not be violated by withholding government contracts from them or their allies.” 

Similarly, there is no obligation for any government to offer contracts to businesses that employ similarly discriminatory language against the Jewish people or the Jewish state. That’s why bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (D-Fla.)is not only constitutional but necessary.

The Rubio-Manchin bill that allows local and state governments to choose not to give money to those who advocate for the destruction of Israel is simply protecting those government entities from the angry retribution of would-be boycotters. Yet, the advocates of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is now gaining a foothold in Congress to match the one it has established on many college campuses, argue that prohibiting those who discriminate against the state of Israel from being rewarded for their anti-Zionist and/or anti-Semitic activity somehow violates their First Amendment rights. 

Northam and King possess the constitutional privilege to use vile language or imagery to vilify others — as do Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Tamika Mallory and David Duke — but their right to free speech would not be violated by withholding government contracts from them or their allies. 

It was encouraging that more than three-quarters of the Senate voted to give local governments that protection. But every Democratic presidential candidate, with the laudable exception of Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, voted against Rubio and Manchin’s legislation. It is even more troubling that similarly intentional misapplication of the First Amendment dooms the bill in the House.

Those who advocate for economic boycotts of Israel are wrong, but they are entitled to be wrong and to voice their wrong opinions as frequently and as virulently as they like. But elected officials who disagree with their animosity for Israel are just as entitled to express their disagreement — in writing, in speeches, and in votes for anti-BDS legislation. Which is what courageous pro-Israel leaders will continue to do.

Dan Schnur teaches political communications and leadership at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University. He is the founder of the USC-L.A. Times statewide political survey and a board member of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

The Right to Punish Free Speech Read More »

Let’s Talk About the Benjamins

Leave a Comment / Columnists /

When I first read Rep. Ilhan Omar’s now-infamous Feb. 11 tweet — “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” — my tired brain thought: Wow, she’s praising Jewish excellence in parenting.

I rarely use Twitter, but I was monitoring it because I had tweeted to Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, and her fellow freshmen colleagues, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), asking them to comment on the Feb. 7 slaying of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, whose body was found in a wooded area after she disappeared while taking a walk during a break from volunteering at a youth center near Jerusalem. Israeli police arrested a Palestinian suspect and issued a statement alleging the killing was politically motivated.

Not surprisingly, I still haven’t heard from the three congresswomen. So I am led to believe that they either condone the slaying or don’t want to talk about it because it undermines the boycott, divestment and sanctions narrative. It also doesn’t help them that Ansbacher worked with children with disabilities — of all faiths.

Omar, of course, was not talking about how well we raise our kids. With her “Benjamins” reference to $100 bills, she was implying that Jewish money — in particular from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — controls U.S. politicians. You know, just like we control the weather.

The best part of this story is that Omar’s tweet received immediate condemnation from across the political spectrum. “Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive,” read a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders. Omar tweeted a response in which she said, “I unequivocally apologize” but that also included a line suggesting she still didn’t understand the way lobbying groups work — AIPAC doesn’t fund politicians.

It’s unfortunate for Omar that a recent Gallup poll found that Americans’ favorability toward Israel had reached an unprecedented 72 percent. Pro-Israel pols who condemned her remarks were responding both to their own moral compasses and the will of their constituents.

“The best part of this story is that Omar’s tweet received immediate condemnation from across the political spectrum.” 

Omar told CNN that she found it “exciting” that her comments were sparking controversy, and that people finally were able to have “difficult conversations.” OK. Here are a few difficult conversations I want to have. First, why can’t she condemn terrorism? Not once has the House’s new Troika of Doom (Omar, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez) actually condemned terrorism. And since the latest act of alleged Palestinian barbarism involved a 19-year-old, I want to know what Omar and Tlaib think about raising little Benjamins. Jewish mothers believe in nurturing to the point of overprotecting. But most of us, no matter how bad things get, don’t teach our kids to hate groups of people and never encourage acts of violence.

Omar was clearly taught to hate Jews, as nearly all Muslims are. Has she already passed that hate on to her children? Why does she never say anything about Somalia, her homeland, which is so unsafe due to crime and terrorism that it’s on the U.S. Travel Advisory? Why doesn’t she focus on the genital mutilation performed on every Somalian girl, and the fact that a 10-year-old died from that procedure last summer? If Omar started a campaign against genital cutting, I would help her in every way possible.

You’re right, Rep. Omar, it is all about the Benjamins. But not the ones you meant. Why not use your role as a member of Congress and begin to work for change for children around the world? Why not be the light instead of mercilessly playing with the darkness?

I end with the words of Ori Ansbacher’s mother: “I ask from those who are listening to us and for whom our words are entering their hearts, to do one small thing to add light to the world — one act of kindness and maybe we will preserve Ori’s [soul] in the world and maybe we will have some comfort by adding light to the world.”

Ori means “my light” in Hebrew. Be the light, Rep. Omar. We want to believe in you.

Karen Lehrman Bloch is an author and cultural critic living in New York City.

Let’s Talk About the Benjamins Read More »

Feb. 15, 2019

Leave a Comment / Print Issue /

Feb. 15, 2019 Read More »

Disney Drops ‘Frozen 2’ Trailer; Menzel, Gad Return for Sequel

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

The Disney Studios has dropped the first trailer for “Frozen 2” – set for release in November.

The team from the first “Frozen” is back, including Academy Award-winning directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, and producer Peter Del Vecho, along with the music of Oscar-winning songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.

Lending their voices again are Idina Menzel (Elsa), Kristen Bell (Anna), Jonathan Groff (Kristoff) and Josh Gad (Olaf).

The trailer, which gives the idea of a darker film than the first one, premiered on February 13 and starts with Elsa attempting to run across the sea, then shows Anna climbing a cliff, Kristoff racing with reindeer and Elsa and Olaf surrounded by fire (not a great situation for a snowman). Will this new adventure take the team away from Arendelle? Will Prince Hans return? Will we get to see the rock trolls again? Will this version gross as much as the first one (according to Variety it took in more than $400 million in the United States)? Guess we will have to wait until fall to find out.

Let us know your thoughts on the trailer!

Disney Drops ‘Frozen 2’ Trailer; Menzel, Gad Return for Sequel Read More »

Rep. Omar’s Upcoming Speech at Islamic Charity Event Generates Controversy

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) upcoming speaking engagement at an Islamic charity has  generated controversy because the event flyer had her on the same bill as someone who has posted anti-Semitic statements on social media.

Omar is scheduled to speak on Feb. 23 at Islamic Relief USA’s fundraiser for Yemen. The initial flyer for the event stated that Islamic Relief USA official Yousef Abdullah was speaking.

Abdullah has referred to Jews as “stinking” on social media and shared a Facebook post that dreamed about a “resistance hero” giving firearms to “kill more than 20 Jews.” He also criticized former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for apologizing for referring to Judea and Samaria and Gaza as “occupied” in 2014, writing that “Christie kneels down on his knees before the jewish lords and says ‘I am sorry’. Only money makes stuff like this happen.”

After myriad news outlets reported that Abdullah and Omar were speaking on the same night, Omar’s communications director, Jeremy Slevin, tweeted that the reports were inaccurate and Abdallah is not slated to speak that night and won’t be in attendance.

Jerusalem Post reporter Ilanit Chernick tweeted that Slevin was lying, highlighting the initial photo and claiming that Islamic Relief USA removed Abdullah from the flyer on their event page:

Slevin told the Jerusalem Post that Abdullah won’t be in town for the event and the initial flyer was based off a flyer from a previous event; Abdullah’s name was left on by mistake.

The volunteers page for the event also initially had the aforementioned flyer embedded in it, but it was taken down after the Journal asked Islamic Relief USA to explain why the flyer on the volunteers page was different from the flyer on the EventBrite page.

A spokesman from Islamic Relief USA told the Journal in an email that while Abdullah works for the organization and will be attending the event, he won’t be speaking.

“We edited the event page after [we] realized our error in posting him as a speaker,” the spokesperson said. “We did not update the other volunteer event page at the time you reviewed the page; however, we have done [so] to reflect the accuracy of the event’s program.”

The spokesperson also sent the Journal a statement from Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA )CEO Sharif Aly that says, “Islamic Relief USA has a history of multi-faith engagement that has included outreach to friends and allies in the Jewish community. We have strong and deep connections and to suggest otherwise is baseless and false.”

“As it’s been mentioned previously to Middle Eastern Forum [MEF], which has a history of rehashing the same old falsehoods, IRUSA has taken steps to address individual employees’ actions and behaviors that are contrary to the organization’s values. Perhaps MEF conveniently left out mentioning a powerful column that was published regarding IRUSA’s trip to the Holocaust Museum, as it would be inconsistent with their constant smear tactics. A simple Google search would have done the trick.”

In June, MEF published a report stating that Islamic Relief USA has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Rep. Omar’s Upcoming Speech at Islamic Charity Event Generates Controversy Read More »