fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

May 4, 2021

What Will US-Israel Relations Look Like When Israel Turns 100?

Leave a Comment / Columnists, Commentary, Opinion /

For those who look for a reason to worry about Israel’s future, let’s look beyond the tragedy of Mount Meron and the growing nuclear threat of Iran. Let’s look beyond the ongoing election psychodrama, beyond Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing efforts to pull a political rabbit out of his hat, beyond the ideologically improbable pairing of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid and beyond the prospect of a fifth national election this fall.

Let’s look even further ahead, to when Israel prepares for its centennial in the not-too-distant future. Because by 2048, the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Israel might look very different than it has in the past.

Public opinion polling conducted for the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles suggests some uncomfortable possibilities for where this longtime relationship might be headed. Simply put, the youngest Jews are much less invested in Israel than their parents or grandparents. And unless some type of generational reckoning takes place as these young people grow and move into positions of community leadership and influence, the ties between our two countries will be sorely tested.

And unless some type of generational reckoning takes place, the ties between our two countries will be sorely tested.

The Brown Institute’s survey was limited to Jewish voters in Los Angeles County, but the size of the Jewish population here — the fourth largest in the world after Tel Aviv, New York City and Jerusalem — should allow us to extrapolate its findings and assume that the attitudes of Jewish Angelenos are not radically different than in other parts of the country. (The poll was taken in the fall of 2019, but the Institute recently released their fine analysis of Jewish voters’ attitudes of Israel. The report was authored by Alisa Belinkoff Katz of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.)

The poll showed that Jewish voters aged 18-29 were much more likely than any other age group to identify themselves as “generally not pro-Israel.” Voters were asked the following multiple choice question:

“Which of the following statements best describes your opinion about Israel: Are you generally pro-Israel and supportive of the current government’s policies; generally pro-Israel, but also critical of some of the current government’s policies; generally pro-Israel but also critical of many of the current government’s policies, or generally not pro-Israel?”

Every generational category was divided between those who said that they were critical of “some” of Israel’s policies and those who were critical of “many” of the current government’s policies. But almost one third of the 18-29 year old age group (31%) said that they were “generally not pro-Israel.” Only 13% of all respondents gave such a negative assessment.

All other age groups ranked between 7 and 13%.

The source of this diffidence among young Jews was not hard to find. Another question on the Brown Institute poll asked “How important is it to you that Israel exist as a Jewish state?” Almost three quarters of those polled said that it was either very important or somewhat important: Only 21% said that it was not important. But well over one third (38%) of 18-29 year olds in the survey said that Israel’s existence as a Jewish state was not important to them. Which makes it easier to understand why those same young Jews were not inclined to support Israel at all.

On both of these questions, the generational skew was stark. The oldest cohort of respondents — those aged 70 and older — were strongest in their support or Israel and in their belief of the importance of Israel as a Jewish state. Each succeeding generation was slightly less supportive, culminating in the disconcerting responses from the youngest voters. As our community’s strongest supporters of Israel continue to age, the future of Jewish support for Israel in Los Angeles looks like an iffy proposition at best.

Next week, I’ll explore the most likely reasons for this demographic trend and what it means for both Israel and the American Jewish community when Israel’s strongest base of support in this country continues to shift from Jews to Evangelical voters. But for now, it’s clear that there is much work to be done to prevent Israel’s centennial celebrations in the United States from taking place primarily in senior centers and assisted living facilities.

Dan Schnur teaches political communications at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. He hosts the weekly webinar “Politics in the Time of Coronavirus” for the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall.

What Will US-Israel Relations Look Like When Israel Turns 100? Read More »

Can a Disaster Breed Jewish Unity or Widen the Communal Breach?

Leave a Comment / Commentary, Opinion, Wires /

(JNS) There is nothing positive to be gleaned from an event that led to the deaths of 45 Jews and injuring of 150 others. The wake of a fatal stampede in the early hours of Friday morning at Israel’s Mount Meron during the annual Lag B’Omer pilgrimage caused shock and mourning throughout the Jewish world. But perhaps it might also have put a more human face on a sector of the Jewish community—the ultra-Orthodox—that is often viewed by most other Jews with suspicion and hostility. And it might also be possible for many haredim to draw some conclusions of their own with respect to their unwillingness to subordinate their activities to state regulation and to think better of the secular Jews who did so much to save lives and who rally to their aid on-site, as well as comfort family members, elsewhere in Israel.

Or maybe it will just be another excuse for Israelis to engage in the usual bitter recriminations and political game-playing, as well as shaming the victims?

In the days since the tragedy, it’s possible to view both sets of conclusions as equally valid. The reaction throughout Israel demonstrated once again that such a small country views any loss of life, let alone a record number of deaths for such an occurrence, as affecting every Jew, religious or secular. The same goes for the response of other Jewish communities.

The catastrophe was one more reason for those on the outside of the extremely insular collection of sects and groups to stop thinking of them as a monolithic collection of inscrutable strangers. Much like the success of the Israel television show “Shtisel,” it performs the commonplace task of humanizing a sector of the Jewish community that is little understood by others. The Netflix streaming hit—basically, a good soap opera—is remarkable chiefly because it allows non-Orthodox Jews to think about haredim as ordinary people with similar flaws and strengths, albeit with beliefs and customs that make them seem more exotic, if not downright remote, to the rest of us.

Unfortunately, the disconnect between the haredim and other Jews is not an accident or merely the function of prejudice, although some of that is at play here. While there are some conspicuous exceptions to this rule like Chabad, which has raised outreach to an art form, the ultra-Orthodox sector is no more interested in being understood (or liked) by the secular than some of their antagonists are in seeking to make common cause with them.

Indeed, in Israel, as JNS has pointed out, part of the problem at Mount Meron was that the refusal of the ultra-Orthodox to let the government regulate their annual event—in much the same way that they demand autonomy about everything else—was clearly part of the prescription that inexorably led to tragedy. It’s equally true that no Israeli government, no matter who might be leading it, is likely to be willing to expend the political capital that would be required to force the haredim to bend to the will of the majority, if, indeed, it would be possible to do that under any circumstances.

Haredim, both in Israel and in the United States, exist separately from the rest of the Jewish world. The two sides stare at each other across a seemingly unbridgeable divide. For the non-Orthodox, the haredim with their costumes and traditions that exist to keep them distinct represent “the other.” And for the haredim, the rest of the Jews population is seen with equal distaste as representing everything they distrust and fear about the outside world.

Though lip service is paid to the notion of Jewish unity and the responsibility that Jews uphold to care for each other, the yawning gap between the haredim and everyone else gives the lie to such platitudes.

The quick transition from sorrow to politics with respect to Mount Meron reinforces the notion that this divide is unbridgeable.

That’s not just because left-wingers are looking to assign blame for the deaths to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close ally, Minister of Public Security Amir Ohana, as well as to the haredi political parties whose clout guarantees that the ultra-Orthodox are allowed to evade normal government regulation at the shrine and elsewhere.

Perhaps that was inevitable for an event that fell smack in the middle of a political crisis. But the demands for soul-searching on the part of anyone who can be connected to measures that allowed the stampede to happen are not merely a normal demand for accountability from those in power; they are inextricably tied to the religious tribal culture war for which both sides bear responsibility.

Make no mistake, there is blame to go around and at the center of it is an impulse on the part of the haredim to regard the government of the state of Israel as morally equivalent to hostile non-Jewish tyrants that oppressed Diaspora communities in the past. This separatism is reinforced by the hostility towards the haredim felt by other Jews who not unreasonably view them as shirking their duty to assist in the defense of the state, coupled with an unproductive drain on the economy because Torah study is prioritized over productive employment.

So for all of the gestures of solidarity and gratitude, the most likely outcome of the aftermath of this disaster is more division rather than less.

Yet those who believe that this stalemate is rooted in unchanging political and cultural realities should not give way entirely to despair. The short-term impact of the disaster may not be likely to serve as an impetus to further political reform or even better communal understanding; however, the widespread assumptions about the immutable nature of this divide are not entirely true.

It’s important to step back from immersion in news coverage and take a long view of the evolution of Israeli society, as well as interactions between haredim and non-Orthodox Jews elsewhere.

Though it is little noticed in a non-haredi world that has trouble viewing the ultra-Orthodox as anything but a monolith, that community has changed over the years, albeit incrementally. Though integration of the haredim is nowhere in sight and unlikely to ever happen, it would be a mistake to think that they haven’t grown closer to the state that some of them despise. The fact that the two ultra-Orthodox parties, which were once avowedly anti-Zionist though willing to deal with Israel’s government, no longer operate in that manner shows how incremental change happens. Equally at play is the fact that younger members of the haredi community are being trained in certain tech-related jobs that will slowly enable them to earn a better living and amalgamate them into areas of the workforce.

We often forget that Israel is only a 73-year-old experiment in reuniting disparate Jewish communities and has evolved in ways that were not imagined in 1948. But the notion that the tremendous growth of the haredi population, and their insularity and political power, is an existential threat to Israel should not be regarded as an inevitability. Such assumptions fail to take into account that this community also changes, even if it happens very slowly.

Worries about how to avoid repeating such a disaster as the Mount Meron stampede are not limited to secular Jews or those who would like to pin the blame on the government. Anyone who fathoms that there won’t be a reckoning of some sort within the haredi community is thinking of them in ways that reflect our prejudices more than anything else. As bad as this last week has been and as difficult as it may be to envision progress towards more unity, underestimating the ability of Jews to survive and surmount such problems has always been a losing bet that those who understand the arc of Jewish history are unlikely to make.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

Can a Disaster Breed Jewish Unity or Widen the Communal Breach? Read More »

A Feta and Spring Vegetable Quiche for Mother’s Day

Leave a Comment / Food /

Mother’s Day, 2003 was a typically bright, beautiful Southern California day. The perfect balmy weather to host my mother, mother in law, my husband’s aunt Barbie, our good friend Louise and other guests for a special brunch. But I was stuck in bed feeling incredibly nauseous.

When my husband Alan and I were dating, I jokingly asked him, “I have a son, will you promise me three daughters?”

“No problem,” he answered. “My grandfather was the happiest man alive with his three girls!”

Six months after our wedding, I flew to Australia for the wedding of my dear cousin Sarah. While I was away, Alan and my son Ariel rescued a huge black Labrador-retriever named Lucas. But as the months slipped by, it seemed that our family of four wouldn’t be growing any bigger. I was diagnosed with endometriosis and had two surgeries to remove endometrial cysts from my ovaries. Drawing blood and ultrasounds and daily injections and (fertility) drugs in the refrigerator were the new normal. We were politely dropped from the first clinic, so we found another run by an acquaintance of my husband’s family from South Africa.

In March, between those injection cycles, Alan took me to New York. I wanted to pray at the grave of a Tzaddik, so we went to the Ohel of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I prayed for a baby from the Heavens.

When we returned to Los Angeles, the new doctor informed us that we would not be able to proceed with his clinic either.

That biological clock was ticking.

“What should we do?” Alan asked me.

“Nothing!” I answered.

I forced myself out of bed. I baked those fresh scones, whipped that fresh cream, spooned out the raspberry preserves. I arranged the smoked salmon, tomatoes, cucumber, purple onion and capers with the bagels and cream cheese. Alan fried the frittata and mixed the mimosas. We set the table outside on the porch, with it’s delightfully overgrown vines and greenery. And we had us a Mother’s Day Brunch.

That night Alan ran out to Albertsons and bought a pregnancy test. I woke up at the crack of dawn to take the test. The line was fuzzy. I sent him back with strict instructions to buy an EPT test, not the discount store brand. This time the line was a clear, straight, blue.

Now when I host Mother’s Day brunch at my home, my son always brings me flowers and my three daughters are in the kitchen helping me.

This Mother’s Day we made a Feta and Spring Vegetable Quiche. The beauty of a quiche for brunch or any meal, is that it can be prepared ahead of time and then reheated quickly. It’s simple to make but looks sophisticated and elegant. A quiche is a great way to showcase vegetables and they are often made with spinach, broccoli cauliflower and fresh tomatoes. We made our quiche with spring onions and crisp green asparagus, earthy mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. Adding half-and-half to the egg mixture makes for a delightfully smooth custard. The basil pesto adds an earthy flavor and the feta cheese adds a salty, tangy profile.

Instead of using a typical pie crust, we used store bought puff pastry, which results in a lighter, flakier, crispier crust. If you have extra filling, pour it into little muffin tins.

Wishing you and all the mothers and all the loving nurturers in the world a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Rachel’s Feta Spring Vegetable Quiche

1 package puff pastry
Extra virgin olive oil, for sautéing
2 Shallots, finely chopped
12 asparagus spears, chopped into 1 inch pieces with tips left whole
10 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
8 oz white mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
8 large eggs
1 cup half-and-half
4 tablespoons store bought pesto
1 cup feta cheese,  crumbled
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Line the bottom of two baking pans (round or square) with parchment paper.

Lay the puff pastry in the baking pan, making sure to leave a generous amount of puff pastry over the edges.

Using a fork, make lots of holes in the dough, then place in the oven.

Remove after 8 to 10 minutes, when dough has puffed and is lightly golden.

Sauté shallots until golden, then set aside.

Sauté asparagus until it is a bright green, sprinkle with a dash of salt and set aside.

Sauté mushrooms, making sure not to crowd the pan, then season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

In a large bowl, make a custard by beating the eggs and half-and-half with a whisk. When mixture is well mixed and creamy, add the pesto and a dash of salt and pepper.

Scatter the shallots, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms over the puff pastry shells.

Pour the custard over the vegetables.

Scatter the feta cheese and sprinkle the Parmesan into the quiche.

Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 350°F for 20 minutes or until the center of the quiche is completely cooked.

Rachel Sheff and Sharon Gomperts have been friends since high school. They love cooking and sharing recipes. They have collaborated on Sephardic Educational Center projects and community cooking classes. Follow them on Instagram @sephardicspicegirls and on Facebook at Sephardic Spice SEC Food.

A Feta and Spring Vegetable Quiche for Mother’s Day Read More »

Orthodox Jewish Israeli Man Shot and Killed in Baltimore

Leave a Comment / News, United States /

An Orthodox Jewish man from Israel was shot and killed on May 2 while visiting Baltimore for his cousin’s wedding.

The man, identified as Efraim Gordon, 31, was shot on the doorstep of a relative’s home. Police believe that the shooting was the result of an attempted robbery, but Gordon’s family members reportedly told COLLIVE that the shooter was promulgating antisemitic slurs. Gordon was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“They go from a high point of having their relative’s wedding, and families finally seeing each other for the first time in a long time and to have a relative come in from out of the country just for a week, to be gunned down is horrific,” local City Councilman Yitzy Schleifer told CBS Baltimore.

Yisrael Gantz, who chairs the Binyamin Regional Council that oversees 46 Israeli West Bank settlements, told Arutz Sheva that Gordon “was killed yesterday for being a Jew in an anti-Semitic attack in the United States.” He added that Gordon “was a new resident of this fine community, a high-tech man, a family man who has always loved to give and help others. He flew to a family reunion in the United States and yesterday he was shot dead by cursed anti-Semites just because he was a Jew. They shouted hate speech against Jews while shooting at him.”

Israel-based writer Hen Mazzig also tweeted, “Because he was visibly Jewish in public, Efraim lost his life. We cannot — and will not — let his story get lost in the newscycle too.”

 

Gordon’s funeral was held on the evening of May 4 in Israel. His family had set up a burial fund and will use part of the remaining proceeds as a reward for finding the suspect or suspects behind Gordon’s killing.

Orthodox Jewish Israeli Man Shot and Killed in Baltimore Read More »

New Documentary Chronicles Advocacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Leave a Comment / Columnists, Opinion /

In one of the first scenes in the new documentary, “Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story,” Rabbi Heschel is marching in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, with Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Black civil rights leaders. This is a fitting opening to the documentary, as this seminal event in the U.S. civil rights movement also cemented Heschel’s status as a civil rights activist as well as a Jewish scholar and educator.

The documentary was made by award-winning filmmaker Martin Doblmeier and his company, Journey Films, and it is now airing on public television stations during May, in tandem with Jewish American Heritage Month. Doblmeier has made more than 30 films focused on religion, faith and spirituality, and he therefore found Heschel a natural subject. Heschel not only fought for Black civil rights and on behalf of Soviet Jewry but also against the Vietnam War. He also promoted interfaith dialogue.

“He is not simply a figure from history but someone with wisdom and conviction that seems more relevant than ever,” Doblmeier said in a statement to the press. “Heschel understood well the price of indifference and he refused to stand on the sidelines. He wanted to awaken the conscience of the American people through discourse and non-violence.”

Heschel was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1907 to a Hasidic dynasty, apparently so brilliant that he gave lectures in shul even as a child. He studied at the University of Berlin for a doctoral program in the Hebrew prophets, but the Nazis arrested and then deported him in 1938. He came to the United States in 1940 on a visa obtained through the Hebrew Union College, but his mother and three sisters were unable to leave and were killed in the Holocaust. The film does not mention what became of his father.

Several of the interviewees in the film, including Heschel’s daughter, Dr. Susannah Heschel, a Jewish studies professor at Dartmouth College, likened him to a modern-day prophet. Just as the prophets needed to both feel God’s own pain and be part of the world, so too did Heschel, who witnessed Europe obliterated during the Holocaust. Rabbi Shai Held, president of the Hadar Institute, explained, “God cares. A prophet identifies so much with God’s pathos that they are overcome. Prophets are there to make us uncomfortable. If injustice exists, we are all complicit.”

“Prophets are there to make us uncomfortable. If injustice exists, we are all complicit.”

Susannah Heschel explained that her father’s commitment to social justice issues was based on spiritual principles: “These were moral decisions. It was clear to him what he had to do.” When Heschel’s original doctoral dissertation on the Prophets was translated into English from the original German, it greatly expanded his renown.

The documentary includes interviews from many leaders from the civil rights movement, including the late U.S. Representative John Lewis, former Congressman Andrew Young and Reverend Jesse Jackson. They lauded Heschel’s courage in linking his name and reputation with the movement at a time when many Jews feared an anti-Semitic reaction from such involvement.

It is especially striking to be reminded of the solidarity between the Black and Jewish communities at the time. As John Lewis said, “We compared ourselves with the children of Israel; we had been held as slaves.” Andrew Young notably wore a lapel pin with both U.S. and Israeli flags.

The documentary also recounts how Heschel built bridges with Christians. This was deeply unpopular among Jews in the 1960s, as Christian indifference to Jewish suffering during World War II was so painfully fresh. (Pope Pious XII failed to speak out against Nazi atrocities.) Heschel flew to Rome to meet with Pope Paul VI and worked with a German Catholic as the Vatican developed the landmark Vatican II document, which spelled out the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions. Heschel wanted the Church to fully repudiate any calls for Jews to be converted and excise all anti-Semitic references. In 1965 the Church finally published the Nostra Aetate, which called for mutual respect and repudiated previous accusations against Jews as “Christ killers.”

Heschel’s religious foundation in early twentieth-century Europe was at odds with the environments he found at his new academic home at Hebrew Union College in New York, which he found to be “spiritually vacuous.” Kosher food was not served, and he felt students weren’t interested in theological issues. Yet Heschel was also disillusioned with the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative institution that seemed “more interested in being the Harvard of the Jewish world” than in exploring piety and mysticism. He also expressed alarm about the institutional viability of synagogues, whose services he found spiritually lacking. The documentary quotes him as wondering, “Has the synagogue become a graveyard where prayer was buried?”

Doblemeier seems most enamored of his subject’s political activism, but Heschel was a major theologian as well. His Jewish scholarship and books earned him increasing respect and fame — even years after his passing. His books include the influential “Man Is Not Alone,” which expresses the idea of “radical amazement” as a reaction to creation. His subsequent book, “The Sabbath,” further expanded his audience and retains strong sales more than 60 years after publication.

Heschel worked hard despite his fragile health. At only 65 years old, he died in his sleep of a heart attack on December 23, 1972 — a Shabbat. At the time, he was actively campaigning for Democrat presidential candidate George McGovern and continuing his anti-Vietnam war activities. As Susannah Heschel noted in the documentary, in Judaism, to die in one’s sleep “is the kiss of God.”

“My father identified with the passion of the prophets and expected us to be in partnership with God,” she said. “Compassion was a key word for my father, and everything we do can be imbued with God’s presence, even simple things like walking, talking, we treat people in everyday moments.”

Learn more about the film on the website of Journey Films.

Judy Gruen is a writer and editor. Her books include “The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith.”

New Documentary Chronicles Advocacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Read More »

Synagogues Touched by COVID Adapt to Serve Grieving Congregations

Leave a Comment / News, United States, Wires /

(JTA) — Rabbi Paul Kipnes watched helplessly as 11 of his congregants died over the span of 11 days in January from COVID or COVID-related illness. The losses — along with another five congregant deaths that same month — compelled him to pour out his grief in a blog post titled “After 11 Deaths in 11 Days, I Had it Out with God.”

“I’m so angry. At You, All Powerful One,” Kipnes wrote. “God damn You, God! … What kind of Divine develops a world defined during the 21st century by the deaths of so many people?”

Kipnes, spiritual leader of Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, California, said these last few months were “the most intense” in his 20-year career. In addition to having to grieve for those in his congregation taken by COVID, he was also mourning the loss of his own mother, Linda.

In his piece, which took the form of an imagined dialogue with the Almighty, he allows God to defend Himself and eventually comes back around.

But Kipnes said he and fellow Rabbi Julia Weisz couldn’t handle the weight of this communal grief by themselves. They consulted social workers and therapists “to get us through the stresses and pressures we were facing. And we consulted with spiritual directors – rabbis – who asked us to answer the theological question of where was God during this painful moment.”

Reeling under a staggering number of deaths, many synagogues across the country have created support groups and memorial services, hired social workers and pursued other initiatives to help congregants cope with the losses.

Kipnes, Weisz and Cantor Doug Cotler, for instance, developed an online memorial service for congregants whose loved ones died elsewhere or who had only been able to have 10 people attend the funeral.

“These memorials became powerful moments of memory,” Kipnes said. “We had people from all over the world attending. In fact, when the COVID quarantine ends, I think people will continue with online memorial services. They are spiritually uplifting because a large number of people can’t fly out, but they can Zoom in.”

In Los Angeles, the surge of COVID-19 infections got so bad in December that Sinai Temple shut down all outdoor services and activities until the first week of March.

“The ICUs were overflowing and our congregation was hit hard both physically and mentally,” recalled Nicole Guzik, the associate rabbi. “We lost several congregants who died from COVID and many, many relatives of congregants. … It has taken an emotional toll.”

To address the mental health needs of the congregation’s 1,800 families, Sinai Temple is hiring a full-time mental health practitioner to create COVID anxiety groups for members, provide emotional support to the clergy, connect those who need it with mental health services in Los Angeles and help those suffering from anxiety to reenter the world. To congregation leadership, such a hire is the best way for them to help their members now and in the future.

“In the next five years we are going to feel the impact of loneliness, anxiety, isolation and depression,” Guzik said. “Many people with mental health conditions come to the synagogue for help.”

A smaller congregation with fewer resources, Congregation Beth Tikvah in Marlton, New Jersey, also realized the necessity of bringing in a social worker. To do so, it partnered with the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Southern New Jersey in nearby Cherry Hill to bring in a social worker whose work at the synagogue would give her the clinical field training needed for her master’s degree.

About 70 families have asked for the social worker’s services, said Nathan Weiner, a Reconstructionist rabbi who leads the 250-unit Conservative congregation. The social worker also writes a monthly article for the congregation on mental health and mindfulness, and runs a 15-minute mindfulness meditation on Zoom. Congregants can also sign up for a 45-minute session one on one with her on Zoom. And she has co-facilitated an isolation support group for seniors who live alone.

Synagogue bereavement groups are also playing a more important role than ever. Sinai Temple is restarting theirs, and new ones are popping up, including at B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Florida, a 1,200-family synagogue that lost five congregants or their close relatives to COVID-related suicide in the past four months. B’nai Torah is also working with a social worker from Jewish Family Services.

“The unique challenge of experiencing a loss during the pandemic is that family members cannot be at the hospital or nursing home to say goodbye,” said Michele Scher, the congregation’s social worker.

And because travel was restricted, congregants often were unable to attend distant funerals or to “experience the kind of grieving process and closure you have when there is not a pandemic,” she said, noting that all shiva visits were canceled and replaced by Zoom.

“Online is not a replacement for in-person, but it is a good alternative versus not having any support at all,” Scher added. “It is still supportive and helpful, and it is more accessible and convenient than it is sometimes in person. … Maybe down the road, when people are unable to attend a loved one’s funeral or shiva, Zoom will continue to be an option.”

There have been “too many COVID-related deaths to count” at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, Texas, according to David Lyon, senior rabbi of the 1,600-family Reform congregation.

“Many of them were elderly people,” he said. “Given this past year, our programs have shifted to the needs of those who are spiritually and emotionally anxious, distressed and isolated. … Funeral homes couldn’t keep up and I had to tell families they would have to wait three or four days for the burial.”

As a result, the synagogue started several online bereavement groups led by Ph.D.s, psychiatrists and counselors. It also started online groups for those experiencing isolation, even offering marriage counseling sessions.

Now that things are starting to reopen, Lyon said online programs have begun dealing with the new anxieties associated with reentering the world, answering such questions as “Can we now hug or shake hands?”

“We created a video that shows where to walk when entering the synagogue we have not been in for a year,” Lyon said. “It shows where the handwashing station is located, where to pick up the prayer books, how to find their seat. … We are reentering a new world.”

One synagogue that launched early COVID-related support groups was Beth El Synagogue in New Rochelle, New York — site of the first COVID hotspot in the Northeast in March, April and May of 2020.

“We sent out 25 to 30 loss notices [in those three months] that were either from COVID or COVID-impacted,” recalled David Schuck, rabbi of the Conservative congregation. “I will never forget burying a member of the shul who had died of COVID. He had four daughters and three were there. The other had COVID, as did his wife. A week later I was back at the same spot to bury his wife.”

Among the support groups they started are those for isolated seniors, for parents of special-needs children and for hospital front-line workers.

JResponse, a program of the JCC Association of North America created to assist JCCs in crisis, worked virtually with JCCs in need as they reopened last year following the COVID shutdown.

“We encouraged them to do rededication ceremonies and provided them with booklets containing blessings, readings and activities,” said Mark Young, its director. “It was a way to mark the moment. And there were several JCCs that decided to mark the one-year anniversary of the onset of COVID. It was a moment to reflect on what was lost and to prepare for the journey ahead.”

But now as more and more Americans are vaccinated, Ed Feinstein, senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, has begun looking ahead and reflecting on the trauma of the past year.

“We are talking of having a physical project to remember those we lost this year, something like the AIDS quilt,” he said. “I want to leave something for future generations to remember this year, this pandemic, the upheaval it brought, what we learned, how we were changed. It was one of the biggest events any of us ever experienced.”

It is unclear what the project will be. Feinstein said he has several artists working on it. But he said he envisions a “participatory piece of art that lots and lots of people in my community will be able to participate in. All of us shared the experience of the pandemic and we all need to have a piece of ourselves in this project.”

Synagogues Touched by COVID Adapt to Serve Grieving Congregations Read More »

Final Hours of Netanyahu’s Mandate

Leave a Comment / Israel, News, Wires /

(The Media Line) While still grappling with the weekend’s unprecedented disaster at Mount Meron, which claimed the lives of 45 people, Israel on Monday was forced to turn its attention to another pressing matter – the fast-approaching end of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s mandate to form a government.

The reigning prime minister has 24 hours to present his new administration.

At noon, shortly after his latest attempt to fuse his extreme right-wing allies in parliament with the Islamist United Arab List again came up short, a visibly shaken Netanyahu directly addressed his longtime-partner-turned-rival Naftali Bennett, imploring the unexpected kingmaker to join his coalition.

For the good of our country, I’ve decided to acquiesce his request. Naftali, now it’s your turn.

“We can’t let personal grudges get in the way of a right-wing government. That is the will of the people,” Netanyahu said in a special televised address.

“Bennett is playing both sides, negotiating with the Left while speaking with me, making a rather unusual demand that he be prime minister first in a rotation with me.”

Netanyahu’s ongoing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust recommenced Monday morning.

“For the good of our country, I’ve decided to acquiesce his request,” he concluded his remarks, officially agreeing for the first time to step down, temporarily, as prime minister. “Naftali, now it’s your turn.”

Yet Bennett, who at one time served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff and close ally before heading out on his own, forming a new party and promising to replace the long-serving incumbent, was having none of it.

“This isn’t about my demands, or about jobs or honor,” he insisted minutes after the prime minister’s speech.

“I’ve told Netanyahu since day one [following the election] that he has our support, if he can muster a right-wing coalition. But he can’t and now he’s trying to shift the blame on us.”

After netting the most seats in the March 23 elections and subsequently receiving the nomination from President Reuven Rivlin to form a government, the prime minister has spent the past month trying to no avail to establish a 61-seat coalition.

We are resilient in our position not to take part in a government that depends on people who deny our existence as a Jewish state.

His relentless pressure on the extremely conservative Religious Zionism party to join a government that includes the United Arab List, despite vowing prior to Election Day not to cooperate with the Islamic party, proved fruitless, with Religious Zionism chair Betzalel Smotrich on Monday reiterating his refusal to join hands with “terror sympathizers.”

“We shall never fold our flag or sell out our values,” Smotrich said after a deciding and tense meeting with the party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Haim Drukman.

“We are resilient in our position not to take part in a government that depends on people who deny our existence as a Jewish state.”

With Smotrich standing fast in his adamant rejection, Netanyahu’s seemingly enticing overtures to Bennett remain no more than empty promises. Even with Bennett’s support, the prime minister still does not have the required yea votes to swear in a government.

A source close to the stubborn Religious Zionism leader told The Media Line Smotrich would not budge in the remaining 24 hours of Netanyahu’s mandate.

“We have the full support of our voters. 100%. This isn’t difficult for us, politically,” the person said.

It is either a decent, functioning unity government or another election. Now is the time for choosing between unity and the continued rule of division and hate.

“It is either a decent, functioning unity government or another election. Now is the time for choosing between unity and the continued rule of division and hate,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said Monday.

The center-left lawmaker, who garnered 17 seats in the March contest, has in recent weeks conducted ongoing talks with Bennett, offering the latter, who managed only seven seats, the first two years as prime minister in their theoretical joint government.

“We have a country to run,” Lapid said in a statement sent to The Media Line. “I’ve gone above and beyond, made a lot of concessions to Bennett, so that we can get to work on curing this nation.”

Failing to present his government, Netanyahu’s time will expire Tuesday at midnight.

President Rivlin will then determine whether to award another candidate, presumably Lapid, one month to establish a coalition, or pass the political hot potato to parliament, itself.

If no government is sworn in after that, Israel will head to its fifth round at the polls in just over two years.

“Netanyahu knows it’s over, in terms of his chance to secure a government,” a source within the center-left bloc told The Media Line. “His entire focus now is preventing an alternative coalition from forming on the other side. He’ll do anything to drive a wedge and sabotage these efforts.”

With precisely one day left on Netanyahu’s clock, Bennett must finally determine which way to turn.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat myself: We will do anything in our power to stop this country from heading to another destructive election,” Bennett said Monday.

“Yes, even if that means exploring the possibility of a unity government.”

With one side offering him the coveted prime minister’s office in return for joining forces with left-wing lawmakers and perhaps losing support among his base, and the other promising him the continued backing of right-wing voters and an all but assured fifth election cycle, the decision is up to him.

By Tuesday night, Israel will find out.

Final Hours of Netanyahu’s Mandate Read More »

How Did Jews Become the New Privileged Class?

Leave a Comment / Columnists, Featured /

Being part of the ruling class is a bit overrated. Yes, there’s those connections to seats of power. Memberships in the right clubs. Powerful people watching your back. Every conceivable advantage, just for the asking.

Who knew Jews wore all those white shoes?

Over the past several years, Jews have been stripped of any claims to minority status. They have a new origin story in America: one that involves Plymouth Rock and bypasses Ellis Island altogether. A new rainbow of progressivism, with its spectrum of escalating oppressions, has outed Jews as full-fledged members of the oppressor class—too wealthy to be innocent, complicity in the slave trade, and kinsmen to an apartheid state called Israel.

Over the past several years, Jews have been stripped of any claims to minority status. They have a new origin story in America: one that involves Plymouth Rock and bypasses Ellis Island altogether.

In essence, Jews are white people with privileges no less inexorable than Presbyterians. Marginalized, vulnerable victims? Not a chance. Any claims of ethnicity or ties to another national origin are fabricated.

Jews must stay in their proper lane, among the American machers.

Even just twenty years ago, such false claims would be ludicrous. Nowadays, it’s what most Americans—surely on the left—actually believe, or will faithfully falsify. What this will mean to the once unshakable Jewish alliance with the Democrat Party is anyone’s guess—not because Jews will renounce their affiliation, but they might find themselves unceremoniously kicked out.

This was not a good week in the mythology of Jewish influence, or even friendship with Jews —at least where it matters.

Demonstrators in various cities in France and the United States, along with London, Rome, and Tel Aviv, protested a French court ruling that the murderer of Sarah Halimi, an elderly Jewish woman tossed from her balcony in 2017, was not responsible for his actions. The assailant is an avowed Islamist, who proudly acknowledged that he committed the crime in name of Allah. The court ruled, however, that he was too high on marijuana to know the consequences of his act.

Imagine if that was Derek Chauvin’s defense in his recent trial for the murder of George Floyd. “I was too stoned to realize my knee was on Floyd’s neck.”

Speaking of Floyd, the crowds that gathered in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, marking the injustice in allowing Halimi’s murderer to go unpunished, were sparse, attended mostly by Jews. What was clearly missing was any solidarity from the Black Lives Matter movement, which benefitted so greatly last summer from the participation of Jews—as marchers and patrons—in their righteous cause.

French Jewish Women’s Lives Matter, too?

Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, who served in the Obama administration and who played a pivotal role in negotiating the Iran deal, is no friend of Israel. An audio tape now revealed that he divulged secrets to Iran’s foreign minister about Israel’s missile attacks against Iranian proxies in Syria. In addition to betraying the Israelis, one of America’s staunchest allies and the only democracy in the region, it may have compromised the strategic interests of the United States.

The time period coincides with Iran’s sabotaging of oil tankers passing through the Strait of Harmoz. The Gulf states, thrilled by the Abraham Accords, now must wonder whether the United States will resume its prurient flirtations with Iran that began in the Obama administration.

Iran was the chief patron of President Assad’s murder and gassings of his own people in Syria. Iran’s nuclear aspirations, and ballistic missile testing, are not just perilous for Israelis. People forget that the Iranian regime once took 52 Americans hostage for over a year. They are the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism. And the Persian street has been known to burn American flags and refer to the United States as the Great Satan (Israel is the Little Satan).

Meanwhile, there’s news from yet another former head of the American intelligence community. John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Obama years, tweeted that he always wondered why, given their own persecuted, violent history, the Jews of Israel are not more empathetic to Palestinians.

This from the man who purportedly received intelligence briefings about Palestinian terrorism and rocket launching from hospitals with children standing around as mortar shells.

America’s former top spook has no compunction lecturing Israel on morality and empathy. Yes, Jews do have a scarred history. But that’s precisely why they won’t jeopardize their nationhood by taking Brennan’s advice: Misapplying false pieties about a people who have long demonstrated that the only Israel they could live with would be one empty of all Jews.

If this is what it’s like knowing powerful people, better to be friendless.

Who wouldn’t take moral advice from Brennan, who during George W. Bush’s presidency tacitly approved waterboarding and misled the Justice Department about its use?

Of course, the safety of Israel is not all that matters to American Jews—nor should it be. Besides, far too few Jews appreciate how important Israel is to American foreign policy, and the security of Jews worldwide.

For antisemites, disguising their animus by deliberately conflating Palestinian terror with human rights has become a convenient proxy for Jew-hatred.

For antisemites, disguising their animus by deliberately conflating Palestinian terror with human rights has become a convenient proxy for Jew-hatred.

In other more ennobling news, NBA legend Charles Barkley’s daughter married a Jewish boy born in the Soviet Union who came to America the old-fashioned way: as an ethnic immigrant.

Good luck explaining that to woke well-wishers.

Barkley had some trepidations about being lifted in a chair after dancing the hora. He feared that there wouldn’t be enough Jews to hoist his rebounder’s frame. Aside from that, his daughter having Jewish in-laws was something he very much welcomed.

In 2016, while speaking at an event in New Jersey hosted by Jews, he said, “You taught me a lot about life. You treated me with great respect. You helped me grow as a man. You’ve treated me fantastic over 30 years. That’s one of the reasons I feel a great sense of pride when I speak to Jewish people. I admire your respect and dignity for yourselves and family.”

It’s good to know people in high places. Mazel Tov, Sir Charles.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro College, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself.”

How Did Jews Become the New Privileged Class? Read More »

The First 100 Days: Biden’s Dull but Bold Presidency

Leave a Comment / Commentary, Opinion /

The mainstream media’s coverage of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s first 100 days in office offers a collective sigh of relief for a “boring” politics of reduced rhetorical intensity in our nation’s capital. For many, the stylistic comparison to former President Donald J. Trump is highly favorable.

For many, the stylistic comparison to former President Donald J. Trump is highly favorable.

The Washington Post and NBC News document the administration’s early activity and accomplishments, and Mr. Biden has received generally positive media reviews for his commitments to climate policy and ethnic diversity in his administration.

Biden took office on January 20, 2021 at a deeply divisive time in American politics. The House of Representatives currently has a bare Democratic majority of 218 out of 435 seats, and the U.S. Senate is evenly divided at 50 – 50.

Unlike Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, who had huge partisan congressional majorities (in 1965 the Democrats held 295 House seats and 68 Senate seats) to help build out the New Deal and Great Society programs of the 1930’s and 1960’s, President Biden had a significantly weaker claim to a mandate in the new 117th Congress to accomplish his progressive agenda.

However, while he announced in his campaign and inaugural address that he would seek bipartisanship and a spirit of national unity, Biden instead moved quickly to push a bold executive and legislative plan, eschewing compromise with Republicans (he has still not held a phone call or meeting with House GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy).

While he announced in his inaugural address that he would seek bipartisanship and a spirit of national unity, Biden instead moved quickly to push a bold executive and legislative plan, eschewing compromise with Republicans.

Biden recognizes that he may have a short window to enact his economic and social policies due to the Democrat’s small congressional majority, which may disappear in 2022.  At age 78, Biden is the nation’s oldest President and he may not even run for re-election in 2024, pending his own health limitations.

If voters expected a somewhat moderate administration after the contentious years of President Donald J. Trump, in many important ways the Biden Presidency is off to a rushed and radical effort to reverse Trump administration policies and return to the “fundamental transformation of America” started under Barack Obama, with whom Biden served as Vice President for 8 years.

In his April 28, 2021 address to Congress, Biden properly celebrated achieving stated vaccination distribution goals and declared that “America is on the move again.” Declaring that “we the people” is our government, he then let the nation know he plans to push for a robust and consequential legislative agenda including a $15 federal minimum wage, increased research spending on cancer, expanded Medicare benefits, and extraordinary levels of government social welfare spending for universal pre-school for 3-and-4-year-olds, low-income child care support, extended child tax credits, free community college and paid family medical leave. (The American Families Plan).

TAX & SPEND LEGISLATION

In 1984, when the national debt was 37% of GDP, then Senator Biden supported a freeze on all federal spending to address “runaway deficits.”  In 1993, President Bill Clinton took pains at his first press conference to disclose that he sought to reduce the federal deficit (national debt then stood at 67% of GDP). By 2009, at President Barack Obama’s first press conference, the public debt was 77% of GDP. It has only grown since. U.S. debt now stands above $28 trillion, around 130% of GDP.

“When did billions become trillions?” asks Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget, which points out that while low interest rates have kept the annual cost of servicing the debt at around $300 billion, even an increase of one percentage point in rates would increase interest payments by another $300 billion this year.

And yet, in his long-delayed first press conference, on March 25, 2021, Mr. Biden did not express concern about our nation’s spending, which have been compared to World War II era levels of federal government spending at a time when the U.S. economy is sharply recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic-induced recession.

Inheriting strong stimulus in the form of the coronavirus vaccines declared effective through clinical trials in 2020, the Biden presidency might have chosen to leverage Operation Warp Speed’s boost to economic growth and renewed business optimism in 2021 with a long overdue attempt at fiscal sobriety. “Building back better” could have sought to tame Washington’s unending proclivity for piling on public debt.

Instead, with much of the $4 trillion in stimulus spending passed in the last Congress still unspent, according to Adam Andrejewski, CEO of OpenTheBooks, a government transparency organization, the new $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief stimulus package (The American Rescue Plan) moves beyond broadly supported pandemic relief to an ever more massive expenditure of public resources, risking inflation, according to Democrat former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Less than 9% of the bill is directly related to Covid-19 pandemic testing and vaccine distribution. Beyond that are welfare programs, bailout grants to state and local governments, handouts to airlines and union pension plans, and a wish list of other progressive causes, including an astonishing $170 billion on education even as most public schools are only now finally reopening after a year of shutdowns.

This spending bonanza was pushed through the House and the Senate with little Republican input and did not secure a single Republican vote. Republicans had proposed a $600 billion package focused on immediate needs as well as some fiscal stimulus. In rejecting their proposal, Biden chose to stamp his presidency not as one of unity, but one of partisan power. To do so he used the Senate’s “budget reconciliation” rule to avoid a filibuster. And now, with that model in place, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is securing from the Senate parliamentarian the use of the same 50-vote process for the next Biden spending package, an unprecedented $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill (The American Jobs Plan).

This spending bonanza was pushed through the House and the Senate with little Republican input and did not secure a single Republican vote.

This first of several “infrastructure” bills includes some traditionally bipartisan investments in roads, bridges, highways and broadband internet. But the Wall Street Journal reports “this accounts for a mere $115 billion of Mr. Biden’s proposal. There’s another $25 billion for airports and $17 billion for ports and waterways…The rest of the $620 billion earmarked for ‘transportation’ are subsidies for green energy and payouts to unions for the jobs (his) climate regulation will kill. This is really a plan to build government back bigger than it has ever been.”

“The magnitude of spending is something to behold. There’s $85 billion for mass transit plus $80 billion for Amtrak, which is on top of the $70 billion that Congress appropriated for mass transit in three Covid spending bills. The money is essentially a bailout for unions, whose generous pay and benefits have captured funds meant for subway and rail repairs.” 

This is separate from the anticipated introduction of yet a third $1.8 trillion “human infrastructure” spending plan. To pay for all of this spending, Biden is proposing large tax increases on corporations and high-income earners, which may slow growth, negate expected revenue, and accelerate the off-shoring of jobs (Ford Motor Company announced it is moving a plant from Ohio to Mexico).

Proposed sharp increases in the individual capital gains tax rate are opposed by both Republicans and centrist Democrats as threats to economic investment and small businesses and younger start-up entrepreneurs.

The President’s attempt to push through some $7.5 trillion in cumulative social welfare spending will define the Biden presidency. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens cautions that the European welfare state model risks massive corruption and stunts growth and innovation, which will be necessary to compete with China in the 21st century.  Mr. Biden may tax and spend America “into a kinder, gentler place of permanent decline.”

PERSONNEL

On the issue of U.S. – Israel relations, two of President Biden’s more senior officials seem an improvement over the Obama era.  Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is a thoughtful, pro-Israel diplomat, with a longtime appreciation for the Jewish state’s struggles in a difficult Middle East.

And National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has approached his relations with Israel in a spirit of collaboration and respect for intelligence sharing.

However, if “personnel is policy,” the Biden administration has nominated some concerning choices for the pro-Israel community.

Colin Kahl:  Undersecretary of Defense, worked in the Obama State Department where he was an architect of the controversial JCPOA (Iran Nuclear Deal) and the transfer of funds to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was a staunch opponent of sanctions on Iran and even opposed a bill to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Council. Mr. Kahl also opposed recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Uzra Zeya: Undersecretary of State for civilian security, democracy, and human rights, worked as a staffer at the controversial “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,” compiling research for a book that argues that “the Israel lobby has subverted the American political process to take control of U.S. Middle East policy by establishing a secret network of ‘dirty money’ PACs.” 

Maher Bitar:  Senior Director for Intelligence on the National Security Council, is a longtime Israel critic and board member of Students for Justice in Palestine. He has supported the Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment movement’s attempt to harm Israel’s economy, accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” and written that “Israel’s “political existence as a state is the cause for Palestinian dispossession and statelessness.”

A number of other nominees have come under fire for some concerning perspectives, including:

Sarah Margon, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, is a longtime Israel critic.  As head of the Washington, D.C. office of Human Rights Watch, she applauded castigation of Israeli settlements and supported the boycott, divestment, and sanctions economic movement against Israel.

Kirsten Clarke, Assistant Attorney General, has endorsed and defended some bitter enemies of Israel.

THE BORDER CRISIS

There are over 1 million Mexican nationals waiting patiently in line to enter into the United States legally. Another 4 million hopefuls in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe are as well.

Under the Trump administration, illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border were reduced dramatically — the 2020 numbers were the lowest in 45 years for those cutting in line and presenting themselves without going through legal process.

While Trump reduced the trafficking of young children, the early 2021 numbers are rising dramatically.

This means Mexican drug and slave labor cartels are empowered again, threatening families in Central America, using migrants as “mules” to carry drugs into the U.S., and enabling “coyotes” who are known to rape young girls and women along the journey to the U.S. border.

Mexican President Obrador has placed the blame on the Biden administration, which, in a series of moves, is creating a humanitarian crisis at the U.S. border.

Unfortunately, some of those entering the United States also have Covid-19 and risk passing it onto others in overcrowded holding centers.

Biden has ordered officials to release many migrants without passports or identification into the general population without any requirement that they appear at a future legal proceeding.

Some are being put on flights at taxpayer expense  and released into the general population.

Mr. Biden’s supporters would point to his Congressional address, in which the President returned to longstanding and reasonable policies of seeking a pathway to citizenship for many immigrants who have been in the United States for a long time, which has earned some GOP support for two proposals recently passed by the House.

The American Dream and Promise Act would benefit some 4 million eligible applicants with a 10-year conditional status before they can apply for citizenship. Those brought illegally to the US as children and the roughly 400,000 people living in the US with Temporary Protected Status would qualify.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would create a two-year temporary residency status for agricultural workers. The Certified Agricultural Worker status could be renewed indefinitely as long as the recipient continued to work. After 10 years of work and a $1,000 fine, immigrants could gain a green card.

PARTISAN POLITICS

In announcing his executive order to cancel the XL Keystone Pipeline, Biden offended our Canadian neighbor, cost thousands of American jobs and reduced U.S. energy independence.

To help fulfill a partisan agenda, Biden has expressed support to end the U.S. Senate filibuster, the rule that requires 60 votes to move a bill forward in the Senate, a tradition Biden now claims is a “relic of the Jim Crow era,” but which he previously fiercely championed, in what he called “his single most important” Senate speech.

Democrats are long familiar with the filibuster, having mastered its use to work against civil rights legislation in the 1960’s, led by longtime Senate Majority Leader Robert K. Byrd (D-WV). Mr. Biden (and Mr. Obama and Mr. Schumer), all frequently touted the importance of the filibuster asserting that it protects the minority from majority domination.

In fact, last year, when they were in the minority, the Democrats used the filibuster some 327 times, including to prevent passage of a police reform measure pushed by African American Senator Tim Scott (R-SC).

Pushing to end the Senate filibuster would open the door to legislative efforts to make D.C. and Puerto Rico into U.S. states. Democrats have also presented a plan to pack the U.S. Supreme Court, and Biden is backing an effort to federalize all U.S. elections through HR.1 in the Congress.

In his first 100 days, our president has shown more boldness than humility.

President Biden promised in his inaugural address to show “a little tolerance and humility.”

In his first 100 days, our president has shown more boldness than humility.

Larry Greenfield is a Fellow of The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship & Political Philosophy.

The First 100 Days: Biden’s Dull but Bold Presidency Read More »

Mothers and Genetic Screening: 5 Commonly Asked Questions

Leave a Comment / Health /

Just in time for Mother’s Day, we talked with Gene Test Now’s licensed genetic counselor Daniella Kamara about some commonly asked questions regarding genetic screening for prospective mothers.

Q: I hope to be a mother some day. Why should I consider carrier screening?

Carrier screening is an important tool that can help empower couples with information to help them create their desired family. This type of genetic testing tells people what genetic conditions they carry, meaning they do not have the disease, but if their partner is a carrier for the same condition there is a 1 in 4 or 25% chance that they have a child born with that disease. As you can imagine, this information can be important when someone starts thinking about starting a family in order to make informed decisions.

Q: If I’ve already had a healthy child, do I need to consider carrier screening before having another baby?

Yes! As mentioned above, when two people are carriers for the same genetic condition there is a 1 in 4 chance they have a child born with that disease, which means 3 in 4 chance or 75% chance that they do not. Just because you have had a healthy child does not mean you are not a carrier for anything, therefore carrier screening can still be informative. Furthermore, if you had limited carrier screening before your first child, it is good to check in with your healthcare providers to see if more updated carrier screening is available.

Q: What if no one in my family has had a genetic condition?

Most genetic conditions are rare, so a lot of the times there isn’t a family history of genetic diseases and often, family members do not share if they were found to be a carrier for a particular disease even though this information would be important for the family to be aware of. Remember, the risk for having children with these conditions exists only with two individuals that are carriers for the same conditions, so if no one in the family has had children with someone who is a carrier for the same condition, we would not see a family history of the disease. For these reasons, carrier screening is still very important and informative.

Q: My mom was tested for Tay-Sachs when she and my dad got married. Why do I need to be screened?

When carrier screening first started, Tay-Sachs was the condition that most individuals were screened for and, luckily, genetic carrier screening has come a long way since then. Today, individuals undergoing carrier screening typically are tested for over 200 genetic conditions that can be seen in individuals of all different ethnic backgrounds and ancestries. So although your parents may have been screening for certain things before they got married, the information for the testing we do today is much more comprehensive and can provide further information for you and your partner.

Q: I did direct to consumer genetic testing, such as 23andMe or Ancestry. Do I really need genetic screening?

Yes! These types of genetic testing are not considered medical grade tests and although they can identify some carriers, they are not considered comprehensive and can sometimes even be inaccurate. Medical decisions and/or family planning decisions should never be made based on results from these types of genetic tests. Speaking to a genetic counselor or other healthcare provider is strongly advised.

An exclusive offer from Gene Test Now for Jewish Journal readers. Save $36 on an in-home genetic screening kit from JScreen. Click here to learn more about getting screened. JScreen tests for more than 200 genetic conditions, including those that are more common in individuals of Jewish ancestry, as well as diseases that are common across ethnic groups.

GeneTestNow.com is a nonprofit initiative of the Doris Factor Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles.

Mothers and Genetic Screening: 5 Commonly Asked Questions Read More »