Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

Theodor Herzl predicted that there would be those dancing around the Golden Calf once the Jewish state was established. That dance, depicted in this weeks Torah portion, seems to shadow the Hebrews since the beginning and is intertwined with natural human confusion between immigration as an essence vs. it merely being a tool toward a greater mission.In Lech Lecha, Abraham emigrated out of Ur of the Chaldees. God made clear right away that this exodus had an essence: And I will make of thee a great nation. God reiterated that the mandate was for Abrahams seed to inherit the land. The migration out of Ur of the Chaldees was just a necessary tool for its fulfillment: I am the Lord Who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. Abraham seemed to have had his own Golden Calf moment. Unauthorized, Abraham seemingly assigned his God-given inheritance rights to his servant Damascus Eliezer: And Abram said, Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is to be my heir.Years of waiting for offspring led Abraham to conclude that Gods plan must have changed. He then unilaterally negated the mandate, based on rational reasoning, such as his wifes old age, as opposed to faith.While Abraham first understands his error And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness he then seems to lapse right back into doubt: O Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? God reacts with what could be interpreted as a punishment or adjustment to the plan; informing Abraham that he is taking his seed into exile! There was apparently a need for a redo another exodus. Indeed, God notes that the fourth generation will come back from exile into the Promised Land with great substance. This materializes, but when Moses leads this fourth generation out of Egypt, that same confusion ensues.God made it clear that this exodus, just like Abrahams, has an essence: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. The mandate God gave Moses was for his people to accept God as their Lord. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. Moses goes up to Mount Sinai to fulfill the mandate. But downstairs there are those who think the mandate was merely the Exodus from Egypt. They tell Aaron, Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.Forty days without Moses is a long time. The Hebrews reach a conclusion, which just like Abrahams, is based on rationality and not faith. Unauthorized, they assign the God-given appointment of Moses to an object they created themselves: the Golden Calf. God retaliates, as he did in response to Abrahams actions. God first contemplates replacing the nation seeded by Abraham with a new one seeded by Moses. Once Moses pleads with God not to do so, a different adjustment is made: building the Tabernacle. Many biblical interpreters point to causality between the Golden Calf and the subsequent order to build the Tabernacle. INDEED, FOR the next six months, the Hebrews believed in the Lord, and he seems to count it to them as righteousness. The people even over-donate to the building of the Tabernacle, which turned into the cornerstone of Judaism 1.0. For the next 1,400 years, Judaism was anchored around the worship in the Temple, until the Romans destroyed it and exiled the nation of Israel. When this European exile was about to come to an end, Theodor Herzl, who led the exodus, now had a valuable asset that Moses and Abraham did not: 2,000 years of nationwide learning of Abrahams and Mosess actions.Herzl applied the lessons to the new exodus. Indeed, right at the onset, even before he made his plans public, he predicted, We shall have to go through bitter struggles: with a regretful Pharaoh, with enemies, and especially with ourselves. The Golden Calf!Just as Herzl anticipated, the regretful Pharaohs appeared. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II at first assured Herzl that he would let the Hebrews go, but then his heart seemed to be hardened. Two decades later, the British received a mandate that included the building of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but then reneged.Yet, it was the other part the bitter struggle with ourselves that was the monumental hurdle to Zionism. A day after predicting the appearance of a Golden Calf, Herzl stunningly stated that he was ready for it. I am prepared for anything: lamenting for the flesh-pots of Egypt, the dance around the Golden Calf, also the ingratitude of those who are most indebted to us.While the Golden Calf surprised Moses, Herzl was ready to confront it. He did so by underscoring that the exodus from Europe was not the essence but just a tool. To explain this, Herzl offered a profound interpretation of the Torah, arguing that the Exodus from Egypt was neither about leaving Egypt, nor about arriving in Canaan. It was, as Herzl called it, education through migration.Herzl understood the Torah in ways others did not. In this and other aspects, Herzl remains one of the most misunderstood and understudied figures in Jewish history, as is his Zionism. Herzl predicted this part as well: There are those people who do not understand us properly and think that the goal of our efforts is to come back to our land. Our ideal goes further than that. Our ideal is the great eternal truth.Indeed, some misunderstand Herzls Zionism so much that they argue that now that we are in Israel, we have entered a period of post-Zionism. This would be akin to labeling Abrahams arrival in Canaan as post-monotheism and the Hebrews arrival in Canaan as post-Judaism.On the contrary: Monotheism only began to develop upon Abrahams arrival in Canaan, and Judaism only began to flourish upon the arrival in Canaan. Zionism, this infinite ideal as Herzl called it, is only in its infancy.Using the analogy of stock market speculation, Herzl addressed those future skeptics: Once we are over there, the dancers around the Golden Calf will be furious at my barring them from the Stock Exchange. He argued that such stock market speculation was all right in the time of our captivity. Now we have the duties of freedom. We must be a people of inventors, warriors, artists, scholars, honest merchants. Herzls Zionism was not about immigration but about a transformation: changing Jewish behavior and the Jewish mindset. Indeed, the emancipated nation of inventors is now increasingly celebrating its sacred duties of freedom. The writer is chairman of the AIFL think tank and author of upcoming book Judaism 3.0 How Judaism is transforming to Zionism. Visit Jewishtransformation.com. For more on the parasha and Herzl, visit ParashaandHerzl.com.

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Parasha and Herzl: The Golden Calf reappears - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

TEL AVIV TheZionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called on Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to fire newly-appointed senior advisor,Phillip Agnew, for what ZOA calls maniacal, Jew-hating, Israel-bashingstatements.

Agnew has in the past described Zionism as racist and exploitative.

The Zionist Organization of America strongly urges presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders to fire Sanders new Jew-hating, Israel-bashing senior advisor, Phillip Agnew, ZOAs president,Morton A. Klein, and its chairman, Mark Levenson, said in a joint statement Monday.

The two called on leaders of other Jewish groups including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt; American Jewish Congress head David Harris; the Conference of Presidents Arthur Stark and William Daroff; and American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) CEO Howard Kohr to rally together in condemning Agnew, whom ZOA also described as a dangerous, maniacal Jew-hating bigot and militant extremist.

You dare not be silent! they wrote.

In a 2015 article for Ebony magazine, Agnew called Zionism a racist, exploitative, and exclusionary ideology.

He also slammed former President Barack Obama over the latters comparison between the Jewish right to self-determination in Israel and the civil rights movement.

Agnew is the co-founder of Dream Defenders, a group created in response to the 2012 killing of African American teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The group backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and has promoted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

In 2016, Agnew shared acartoon on Instagram of the World Trade Center on fire as two boomerang-shaped planes, with U.S. Interventionist Policy imprinted them, were embedded in the buildings.His accompanying text read: #neverforget what goes round comes round.

The ZOA strongly urged Sanders to immediately fire Agnewand to condemn his comments.

Sanders has faced criticism for his close association with others with extreme anti-Israel or even antisemitic views, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour.

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Zionist Organization of America Calls on Bernie Sanders to Fire Jew-hating New Advisor - Breitbart

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Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

Metula is a special place. It has always lived on the edge. No place in Israel is more remote: the town has the northernmost house in the country, the northernmost falafel joint, the orchard nearest Lebanon and the most impressive waterfall. Its the only place surrounded by an international border on three sides, the only place in Israel where people wear a sweater on hot summer evenings, the only place where everybody still remembers what the South Lebanon Army was.

Mount Hermon to the northeast is white now, its giant peak covered in snow that gives the Galilee panhandle a European look. From the view at the 'Rotem' lookout west of Route 90 and slightly south of this town of 2,000, the place looks like a pleasant European village red-roofed houses surrounded by gardens, a stream, deciduous fruit trees that any minute now will burst into hot pink blossoms, and a great mountain watching over it all.

But when youre in Metula, you can also see the wear and tear. The town is more than 120 years old. The main drag, Harishonim Street, has wonderful, well-maintained stone houses alongside abandoned houses that look like theyre about to collapse. In some front yards, anemones bloom in white, purple and red.

Since its earliest days in the 19th century, Metula was meant to be a farming town, a mountain resort and a border military outpost. This is all still the case, but the farming is disappearing. There are still kiwi groves and apple orchards, but most farmers have abandoned that calling; it wasnt profitable. About one-third of the residents are still farmers, but they say imports are killing them.

Tourism is now the biggest question mark. Until a few years ago, there were 250 hotel rooms and about 100 bed-and-breakfasts. The idea was that the farming-tourism combination would work and people could make a living.

But now most of the B&Bs are rented to students at nearby Tel Hai Academic College. The prices are lower, but maintenance is simple; the owners have basically given in.

Today there are probably around 20 to 50 bed-and-breakfasts in Metula; around 500 students live in the town. A few pleasant little bars have opened on Harishonim Street, places more intended for temporary residents than for visitors.

If any of the latter come, its on weekends and they usually stay in Metula for only a few hours. They stop at the Canada Center, which offers ice skating, bowling and a swimming pool. Then they head up to Dado Lookout for the magnificent view, and then they move on.

The days are gone when the likes of poet Hhaim Nahman Bialik and Zionist leader Menachem Ussishkin would spend two weeks in Metula taking in the fresh air. It only takes two hours to drive to Tel Aviv now and nobody stays for two weeks in one place. A sign from the old days in front of an old hotel where students now live urges people to visit Metula to escape the ravages of malaria in the Hula Valley below.

Cries of the cranes

Absolutely everyone I spoke to in the town, from the mayor on down, complained about the hardships. Some were optimistic, others sounded almost desperate. Either way, theres something of a love for Metula.

From Amir and Orly Shoshanis porch you can see the Galilee and the Ayun Stream. You can also see the other side Lebanon. Flocks of cranes glide in circles over our heads. The Shoshanis have five rooms for guests, intended for couples. Three of them are handicapped accessible. They dont have a Jacuzzi or a pool.

We offer guests our quiet, Orly says. We fall silent and listen to the cranes; then Amir mentions that the armored vehicle that passes right in front of us belongs to the United Nations, and a Lebanese Army jeep is driving along with it. The helicopter we hear also belongs to the United Nations. Most of the guests at the Shoshanis guest rooms are nature lovers who travel through the area. The Shoshanis also offer tours of the region and will pick you up at the end of a hike.

The view from the porch and the conversation makes clear that the powers of Metula the farming, the tourism, the border are its core. You cant be there and ignore the border; you can almost reach out and touch Lebanon. Nor can you ignore the landscape and the fresh air.

Roni and Fanny Bachmutsky once raised fruit trees, but now they only produce olive oil. Their small olive orchard is near the Tanur Waterfall. They raise one kind of olive Syrian and produce about three tons of tasty oil a year. They straddle the line between tourism and farming.

They once tried to open a small visitors center next to their house but gave up; too much red tape. Today they use their living room to host visitors, who come to hear about olive oil and venture a tasting. Thats how they sell their products.

Hardly anyone stays here for most than two hours, says Roni, who was born in Metula. The roads today are good, cars are new, your company pays for the gas, and everybody goes home. Its a different world, and in Metula were having a hard time surviving this competition like we have a hard time competing with imported olive oil.

Miriam Hod manages the family boutique hotel, Beit Shalom, with her husband Haim. The hotel, in the heart of Harishonim Street, has 13 rooms in a charming old stone house. Next door is a restaurant-gallery where Hod shows her artwork and tells the familys history. They also offer lectures on local history and architecture.

Hod tells her guests how soldiers of the South Lebanon Army were rescued on the day the Israeli army left Lebanon in 2000. Twenty SLA families now live in Metula; for two years Hod housed some of them in her home. She says the families are fitting in well in Metula, but its hard for them, too.

We need to get people acquainted with Metula again, she says. Its an amazing place. It has everything. But in Europe, the government supports farming and tourism. Here the feeling is that Zionism and ideology have been wiped out by the state. Tourism is fighting to survive and people complain all the time that were expensive.

We cant compete with prices abroad. Its a simple calculation paying town taxes, electricity and manpower. Were lowering our prices all the time, offering a room for 700 shekels [$200] midweek, after our huge investment, and they say were expensive. On the contrary, the state should support us.

The idea of how to support the town comes from Asher Greenberg, a longtime farmer in Metula, who rents out rooms to students. How come in Eilat they dont pay VAT for hospitality and we do? he asks. Let them cut VAT and well cut our prices.

Rooftop restaurant

David Azoulay has been the mayor here for four and a half years. For 13 years he was an officer in the Combat Engineering Corps serving in Lebanon. He says he was born in Kiryat Shmona nearby and has only lived in Metula for 20 years.

With unflagging enthusiasm he tells me about the advantages and wonders of the place. We start out in his office in the Metula Local Council building (the oldest municipal building in the country, he notes) and then go for a tour. The withdrawal from Lebanon was good for Israel and bad for Metula, he says.

Until 2000, tourism flourished here; guests at the Arazim Hotel, for example, included UN people and media teams. Every day 3,000 people passed through Metula. A whole battalion lived here. It was a powerful economic stimulus. From the day the Good Fence was closed, things started to decline, Azoulay says, referring to the days when people actually passed through the fence between Israel and Lebanon.

There are lots of special and beautiful things here, but were not on the main visitors route, were at the end, Azoulay says. You have to come here especially. Another problem is that people have to put more effort into maintaining hotel and hospitality places. This is the time to renew things, offer new attractions, do a face-lift.

On one of his recent visits to Metula, Tourism Ministry Director General Amir Halevi, proposed that if supermodel Bar Refaeli, who was convicted of tax evasion, is sentenced to community service, she should do it in Metula. This would be the best way to improve the towns image.

But until Refaeli gets here, other ideas have come up. The first stage is to reopen Harishonim Street the way it was done in Zichron Yaakov, Azoulay says, referring to the 19th-century town on Mount Carmel, founded, like Metula, thanks to philanthropist Baron Edmond de Rothschild. They were able to turn it into an attraction for visitors with hotels, restaurants, cafes and galleries. Were also a veteran colony of the baron.

Another idea is to turn the Good Fence back into a tourist attraction. Theres a historical story here that only we know how to tell and we should take advantage of it. Meanwhile, a cliff-climbing site is planned for the Dado Lookout west of the town, as is further development of the Ayun Stream Nature Reserve. A walkway is now under construction along the stream on Metulas eastern side, which will lead to the Tahana Waterfall on the Lebanese border.

Azoulay says he also wants to see a new hotel built, belonging to one of the big chains, which he says would boost tourism. He also wants the town to host three festivals a year here. Currently there are only two a poetry festival on Shavuot and a motorcycle festival. One of Azoulays big dreams is to renovate the old British Mandate-era police fortress and incorporate it into the tourism scene.

Just think, well have a restaurant on the roof and everyone sitting here eating can look out at Beaufort Castle, he says, referring to a Crusader fortress in Lebanon that was the scene of a famous battle between the Israeli army and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1982. Theres nothing better than that, he adds.

Another ambitious plan of Azoulay's is to change the route of Israels national hiking trail to pass through Metula, or at least add a branch that reaches Metula. Why does the trail begin at Dan and not here? he asks, referring to an antiquities site and nature reserve to the southeast. Were the northernmost place and theres no reason people shouldnt start hiking the trail from here.

When asked about the occupancy rate of Metulas hotels, Azoulay is less enthusiastic. Finally, he says, I know that a 20 percent annual occupancy rate is nothing. Pricing is part of the problem. The open skies policy is part of the problem, he says, referring to the agreement letting all European airlines fly directly to Israel and Israeli carriers directly to all EU airports. Everybodys going abroad and were forgotten, shunted aside.

A moment later he asks, full steam ahead, what I think about making a tourist attraction out of one of the six tunnels dug by Hezbollah under the border that the army has discovered. That would be a hit, he says. Hundreds of thousands would come to see it.

As we stand at the Rotem lookout and take in the view, Azoulay says: It will be the best here when peace comes. Then Metula will go back to fulfilling its real role a vacation town on the road to Lebanon. It will really flourish.

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We tried having a peaceful vacation on the Israel-Lebanon border - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

TAKING SHAPE: ABSTRACTION FROM THE ARAB WORLD, 1950S-1980S at Grey Art Gallery (through April 4). The graphic simplicity of the Arabic alphabet means that it can be made to look like almost anything, from a rearing horse to a pixelated television screen. Most of the artists in this exhibition had some European or American training, and alongside unusual sandy palettes and a few unexpected details, youll see plenty of approaches that look familiar: lucid colors la Josef Albers, crimson bursts of impasto similar to early Abstract Expressionism. But unlike European artists, they also have an alphabet with an ancient history in visual art and this gives their abstraction a very different effect. (Heinrich)212-998-6780, greyartgallery.nyu.edu

T. REX: THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR at the American Museum of Natural History (through Aug. 9). Everyones favorite 18,000-pound prehistoric killer gets the star treatment in this eye-opening exhibition, which presents the latest scientific research on T. rex and also introduces many other tyrannosaurs, some discovered only in this century in China and Mongolia. T. rex evolved mainly during the Cretaceous period to have keen eyes, spindly arms and massive conical teeth, which packed a punch that has never been matched by any other creature; the dinosaur could even swallow whole bones, as affirmed here by a kid-friendly display of fossilized excrement. The show mixes 66-million-year-old teeth with the latest 3-D prints of dino bones, and presents new models of T. rex as a baby, a juvenile and a full-grown annihilator. Turns out this most savage beast was covered with believe it! a soft coat of beige or white feathers. (Farago) 212-769-5100, amnh.org

VIDA AMERICANA: MEXICAN MURALISTS REMAKE AMERICAN ART, 1925-1945 at the Whitney Museum of American Art (through May 17). This exhibition, which fills the Whitneys fifth floor, represents a decade of hard thought and labor, and that effort has paid off. The show is stupendous, and complicated, and lands right on time. Just by existing, it does three vital things: It reshapes a stretch of art history to give credit where credit is due. It suggests that the Whitney is, at last, on the way to fully embracing American art. And it offers yet another argument for why the build-the-wall mania that has obsessed this country for the past three-plus years just has to go. Judging by the story told here, we should be actively inviting our southern neighbor northward to enrich our cultural soil. (Cotter) 212-570-3600, whitney.org

WORLDS BEYOND EARTH at the American Museum of Natural Historys Hayden Planetarium (ongoing). This new space show is a bit like being thrown out of your own orbit. Surrounded by brilliant colors, the viewer glides through space in all directions, unbound by conventional rules of orientation or vantage point. Dizzying spirals delineate the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. At one point, museumgoers are taken along a journey from the perspective of a comet. In illustrating the far reaches of our solar system, the show draws on data from seven sets of space missions from NASA, Europe and Japan, including the Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and still-active ones like Voyager. With a sense of movement and scale that only a visual presentation could convey, Worlds Beyond Earth makes an unforced point about the dangers of climate change. Another celestial body might have an alien sea that contains more liquid water than all the oceans on Earth, as its narrator, Lupita Nyongo, states. But Earth itself, she adds later, is the only place with the right size, the right location and the right ingredients an easy balance to upset. (Kenigsberg) 212-769-5100, amnh.org

AGNES DENES: ABSOLUTES AND INTERMEDIATES at the Shed (through March 22). Well be lucky this art season if we get another exhibition as tautly beautiful as this long-overdue Denes retrospective. Now 88, the artist is best known for her 1982 Wheatfield: A Confrontation, for which she sowed and harvested two acres of wheat on Hudson River landfill within sight of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. Her later ecology-minded work has included creating a hilltop forest of 11,000 trees planted by 11,000 volunteers in Finland (each tree is deeded to the planter), though many of her projects exist only in the form of the exquisite drawings that make up much of this show. (Cotter) 646-455-3494, theshed.org

ZILIA SNCHEZ: SOY ISLA (I AM AN ISLAND) at El Museo del Barrio (through March 22). Snchez, who will turn 94 this summer and is still at work, has spent some 50 years making abstract yet sensual sculptural paintings, approximately 40 of which are gathered here to lead the viewer through her career. While modern art has a firmly established tradition of objects that simultaneously hang on the wall and jut into space, Snchez does something different. Lunar con Tatuaje (Moon With Tattoo), one of her most elaborate pieces, features two semicircular canvases with raised half-moons in the middle. Frenzied groups of lines arc between various points, accompanied by arrows and an occasional eye or hand. The picture isnt legible, but it calls forth a kind of cosmic knowledge. Such is the duality and lesson of Snchezs art: Its grounded in the material world but points toward something metaphysical. (Jillian Steinhauer) 212-831-7272, elmuseo.org

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18 Art Exhibitions (and 1 Architectural Wonder) in N.Y.C. Right Now - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

Read: Alexandra Styron on reading her father

By the time my father laid down the final words of Nat Turner, in January 1967, race relations in America had moved into another gear. Malcolm X was dead, the Civil Rights Act of 1966 was dead, and Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were organizing a neighborhood-watch group that would become the Black Panther Party. Stokely Carmichael, the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had begun promoting a new phrase in response to what he recognized as the countrys psychological conflict over black self-determination. We gonna use the word Black Power, he told a passionate crowd at UC Berkeley, but we are not goin to wait for white people to sanction Black Power. In a rebuke to white allies, Carmichael insisted that black people must be seen in positions of power, doing and articulating for themselves. If white America continued to interfere or obstruct black Americas objective, move over, Carmichael warned, or were goin to move on over you. The civil-rights movement, it seemed, had a new prophet, and loving enemies into friends clearly was not his bag.

My father no doubt heard Carmichaels words. But he had no idea what they signaled for him personally. Through much of 1967, he was at ease, enjoying the swell of prepublication buzz for Nat Turner. The Book-of-the-Month Club (the Oprahs Book Club of its time) paid my father the highest price for a novel in the companys history. The paperback, serial, and foreign rights sold in a frenzy. Hollywood came calling. That July, when riots erupted in Newark, New Jersey, and in Detroit, newspapers asked him to help white America understand what was happening. By October, when the first reviews appeared, Nat Turner was a juggernaut. Magnificent, The New York Times declared. A new peak in the literature of the South, Time wrote. It will endure as one of the great novels by an American author in this century, the Los Angeles Times predicted. In November, my father was awarded an honorary degree by Wilberforce University, a historically black institution in Ohio. The experience was uplifting and emotional, one he often described as among the most meaningful of his adult life.

As a writer, my father owned the risks he took. An aerialist doesnt blame the weather when he decides to perform in heavy winds. Still, its easy to see how all that early publicity might have worked against him. And how the same racial inequities that made Nat Turner relevant when it was published also contributed to its troubles.

In the late 60s, there were almost 2,000 daily U.S. newspapers and dozens of literary-minded magazines. But with the exception of John Hope Franklin in the Chicago Sun-Times, no black writers were invited to critique Nat Turner in any major national publication. Worse, perhaps, were the reviewers who used their platform to condescendingly explain the novels virtues. Arguing for my fathers unique qualifications in The New York Review of Books, the literary critic Philip Rahv wrote:

Only a white Southern writer could have brought it off. A Northerner would have been too much outside the experience to manage it effectively and a Negro writer, because of a very complex anxiety, not only personal but also social and political, would probably have stacked the cards, producing in a mood of simmering rage and indignation, a melodrama of saints and sinners.

The first signs of black dissent appeared by the new year. Articles in, among other publications, The New Leader, The Negro Digest, and Freedomways condemned the novel and the white media that endorsed it. Around the same time, an ugly spat erupted in The Nation between my father and the Marxist scholar of African-American history, Herbert Aptheker. (They both behaved like self-important assholes.) In February, The New York Times ran the first of several pieces exposing an angrier vein: Styrons Nat Turner, the house nigger, declared the professor Michael Thelwell, is the spiritual ancestor of the contemporary middle-class Negro [the] type with whom whites including Mr. Styron feel most comfortable. The writer William Strickland groused that the novel was the worst thing thats happened to Nat Turner since he was hanged. My fathers critics took issue with the books dialect and character development, with what he put in (a master who teaches Nat to read, motive for the rebellion separate from bondage) and what he left out (a black wife, unyielding conviction). But probably his greatest crime, as my father reflected 25 years later in an essay for American Heritage, was apparent from the books first sentence: How dare a white man write so intimately of the black experience, even presuming to become Nat Turner by speaking in the first person? In June 1968, the backlash reached its zenith when Beacon Press published William Styrons Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond. The book generated its own front-page notices, and kept the Nat Turner dispute alive well into the summer.

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The First Novelist Accused of Cultural Appropriation - The Atlantic

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Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

Ari Feldman

Nikki delivering Purim goodies to her quarantined friends.

NEW YORK (JTA) The run-up to Passover is the busiest time of the year for Masbia, a nonprofit that operates three kosher soup kitchens in Brooklyn and Queens.

The organization has to order all kosher-for-Passover food and scrub one of its locations kitchens so it can prepare food without any trace of bread or other leavened products. Right before the holiday is also when most people show up to stock up on groceries swelling from 2,000 families in a typical week to about 4,000.

Before Passover, everybody comes, Executive Director Alexander Rapaport said.

But thats in a normal year, and this year is shaping up to be anything but normal.

With the coronavirus wreaking havoc on communities, Rapaport is scrambling to provide for the people who depend on his organization to feed their families and whose need might deepen as quarantines, school closures and work cancellations become more widespread.

Some of the people in the first rounds of quarantines in New York were people who were able to take the personal hit financially, meaning to say they were able to order food from ordering services or give their friends or family a credit card and things like that, Rapaport said.

If people who were hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck or the very poor who are already struggling with food will be hit with quarantines or with kids home from school, that will immediately affect their ability to feed themselves.

Demand at the pantry has already soared as people stock up ahead of possible quarantines and food shortages, Rapaport said. Meanwhile, volunteers worried about the virus have been coming in less often.

The whole food economy may collapse on different levels, so [Im] kind of anticipating the worst-case scenario, he said.

Rapaport is far from the only Jewish social service provider grappling with the emerging consequences of the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization labeled a pandemic on Wednesday. The situation is posing unique challenges for those who rely on Jewish social services and the organizations that serve them.

Masbia is now preparing boxes with enough food to feed one person for two weeks, the length that people potentially exposed to the virus are being asked to quarantine, rather than just providing items to supplement recipients diet.

The Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse, which supports victims in the Washington, D.C.-area, announced that it is safety planning with people who may be quarantined with their abuser. The group urged those needing help to call its helpline.

And organizations that provide interest-free loans say they are making emergency aid available but have concerns about when and whether people whose jobs are suspended will be able to make repayments.

On Sunday, Hebrew Free Loan of San Francisco an organization that provides interest-free loans mostly to members of the Jewish community announced that it is offering emergency loans of up to $20,000 to those suffering economically as a result of the coronavirus breakout. Three people have already applied and are in the process of being evaluated, the organization said.

Weve learned that the important thing is to get out right away to offer assistance, Executive Director Cindy Rogoway said.

Rogoway anticipates that some people who already are receiving loans from the organization may not be able to pay back on schedule if they are unable to work due to the coronavirus. She said the organization depend[s] very heavily on the repayments in recycling the loan flow.

I am concerned, Rogoway acknowledged. We will have enough for the immediate onslaught, but I think what we also have to look at is that people may need to ask for payment forgiveness or [to slow down] their monthly payment, and that could start to really hurt the cash flow.

The New York-based Hebrew Free Loan Society, which serves Jewish and non-Jewish residents of New York City, Westchester County and Long Island, launched a similar program on Monday. It will provide interest-free loans of $2,000 to $5,000 to those in financial struggle because of the coronavirus.

We are prepared for a whole raft of financial needs that people will be experiencing because of coronavirus outbreak, said Rabbi David Rosenn, the groups executive director.

The Hebrew Free Loan Society typically requires applicants to provide two guarantors who can assure that loans will be repaid, but in this case the organization is only requiring one.

It is raising money from private donors and working with the UJA-Federation of New York to cover the costs of the additional loans.

The federation is coordinating with a number of other Jewish organizations, including synagogues, nursing homes and educational institutions, to anticipate needs that may arise as the outbreak progresses. For Shabbat, UJA-Federation delivered 600 boxes of meals last week to congregants of Young Israel of New Rochelle, an Orthodox synagogue that was closed after a member tested positive for the virus and many members were quarantined.

This is a preparation phase, and we feel like the best information we have and the best thing to do is to be prepared, said UJA-Federations chief planning officer, Deborah Joselow.

The Met Council, a Jewish organization that provides annual aid to 225,000 New Yorkers of all backgrounds, is working to ensure that its programming including providing food to low-income recipients and housing to seniors will continue to run smoothly amid the outbreak. The organization is ordering food and other essentials while making arrangements for its non-essential programming to take place remotely.

We are working on projections to determine what additional food and resources we would need if in fact folks would have limited access or lower-income folks wouldnt have enough money to purchase that, CEO David Greenfield said.

Meanwhile Rapaport, the director of the soup kitchen network, said hes trying his best to prepare in a situation full of unknowns.

Theres no protocol we can follow or something that was done at a different disaster, he said. Especially before Pesach, it is just unprecedented.

The post Preparing for the worst-case scenario: Jewish aid groups scramble amid the coronavirus outbreak appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Preparing for the worst-case scenario: Jewish aid groups scramble amid the coronavirus outbreak

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I wish the pastrami and corned beef were sliced with knives, as they are at Katzs Delicatessen. On the other hand, Pastrami Masters makes sandwiches in four sizes, not just a single one the size of a hiking boot. Neither deli uses rye worth singing about. As for the pastrami, if it were not for the different slicing techniques, Id call it a tie.

The Lebanese food was more convincing before the change of ownership. The falafel lately has been densely packed and gummy; makdous, baby eggplants stuffed with spiced chopped walnuts, have been bland and rubbery; the dips and salads have wanted salt and another squeeze of lemon. Lamb shawarma is still wonderful, though, so thickly seasoned with cloves, pepper, cinnamon and other spices that it is almost furry. And while the kenafeh I had gave the impression of having been stashed in the dessert case too long, the baklava is still sweetly evocative, doused with just enough rose water to give you the sensation of lying on a bed near an open window next to a rosebush on a warm night in June.

These are nice embellishments, but when you go to Pastrami Masters your main objective will be one form of brisket or another served in some old-fashioned New York way. This is not, to be clear, a modern, artisanal product of the kind that people now associate with Brooklyn, with meat from weird-looking heritage breeds and Levantine spices that flew to the United States in their own business-class seat. For that kind of pastrami sandwich, now that Harry & Idas is gone, your best bet is lunch at the new Hometown BBQ in Industry City, where the meat is smoked on site and sliced as thick as dominoes.

It is very good, but it has a little more Texas in it than the archetypal skyscraper sandwich from a New York deli, which is what you get at Pastrami Masters. Naturally, a full line of Dr. Browns canned sodas is available. As always, Cel-Ray with hot pastrami on rye is a beverage pairing as harmonious as Muscadet with oysters.

Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.

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Hate in the Age of Multiculturalism

As a youngster growingup in Somers, Ihad dozens of experiences where a friend or classmate,or I, wastargeted because ofreligion or another personal characteristic.

Isawswastikas on every stop sign from my house to the school via the route I drove. I was told,I hate Jews but youre ok by a classmate while we sat in the guidance counselors office..I was invited to Sunday dinner at a classmates house and sat frozen as the adults around the table took turns telling jokes about Jews and Blacks.

In our senior group photo, two friends are behind me making the Nazi salute. While these are hateful actions, Im not sure thepeoplewhocommitted themwere fully aware ofthe effecttheir actionshad onme (whether they were joking or not).

I watched as my black friend was violently pushed back and forth down a line of males as she came down the stairs between classes. I stood by unsure how to help classmates who were called a fagorchink or spic. And I had to find a way to make peace with the fact that my friends were either oblivious to what was happening or also didnt know how to help.

Its whythisMartin Luther King, Jr.quoteresonates so strongly with me:

In theend, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

HOW CAN I BE OBJECTIVE?

With that as the backdrop, whenRJN(River Journal North)askedmeto cover a panel discussiontitledHate in the Age of Multiculturalism,hosted by state Sen. PeterHarckman, who represents District 40,I made no claim to being an objective observer.

This was the third event on the topic held by SenatorHarckham, but the first time thathe assembled apanelstrictlyof students.Theytalkedfreelyand bravely about the challenges they face, in the hope of finding solutions, or, at the very least, new approaches to try.

Held in late Februaryat Lakeland High School in Shrub Oak,N.Y.,andmoderated by SenatorHarckham,the audience of more than 150 students and educators heard fromsevenstudents,including six seniors from Peekskill, Lakeland, and Walter Panas high schools, and an eighth grader from Mildred E. Strang Middle School in Yorktown Heights.

They reflectedthe diverse cultures of the 40th Senate District, includingAfrican-American, Latinx, Jewish,and Islamic, and LGBTQ.

MALE PRIVILEGE, JR.

We heard from a16year old boywho said heand his friends were turned away from a party because of their skin color. A Muslim student was called terrorist by abusloadofmiddle schoolers and high schoolers. A young woman was threatened by two males at her camp, who saidthey were going to assault her.Shecould tell thatthey thought it was acceptablebehavior.

As the roomconfrontedhow to combat hate, a few questions were asked. Is it the responsibility of the parents or the school? What is social medias part in this? The answers amongst the panelists were noteasy to come by. Iknow the feeling and the frustration.

Sometimes were raised with beliefs from our families. Sometimes our beliefs are totally differentfromwhat weve been told.

Takepolitics.Thereprobably is at least one personin your family who doesnt agree 100% withyour point of view. As family and community members, we all have a responsibility totreat others as they would like to be treated, to coin a phrase,and to demonstrate that for our kidsandwith our kids.

SCHOOLS ON THE BALANCE BEAM

Schoolsface a formidable challenge in coming to grips with bigotry andtheanti-social behavior thatanimatesit. Theycant appear to take sides in a way that marginalizes any one group. Their role isto remain neutralfor the most part, to sustaina sense oftradition to make some people happy,andto addcurriculum or ideas that satisfy others.

Teachers need to appear neutral onhot-button issues,whilenot being deprived of adhering totheir personal beliefs.

Some of social media is destructive and unproductive. Other times, its expanding my awareness and exposure to so much more out there, in a good way.

If that sounds complicated, and almost contradictory, thats because it easily can be.

One of the commendable aspects ofwhat SenatorHarckhamis tryingtoaccomplish with these community forumsis toencourage students and adults totalk and to listen toeachanother.

The panelists I witnessed weretransparent,vulnerable,kind,andthoughtfulinsharingtheirmany ideas onhowwemghtmakethings better. The audienceitselfwas full of diverse teens and adults who shared personal stories.

WHAT ABOUT ME?

Ayoung maleexpressed frustration thathe was not represented on the panel. Some lashed out in knee-jerk reaction about hisbeing a white male (withoutactually knowingif that was 100% true). They said thiswas not hisopportunity. Others acknowledged that he showed up to be a part of the discussionabout inclusivity, pointing out the obvious irony of trying to justify the exclusion of someone like him.

Again, this is complicated.

All white malescan not, and should not, be painted with the same broad brush, any more than stereotyping other groups should be tolerated.Its easy togeneralizeand making assumptions about people we dont even know. Its easy to hate; its hard to understand.

In my professional life, Ive participated in sensitivity training for Diversity & Inclusion atNBCUniversal.

We immersed ourselves in workshops, speaker series, cultural events and volunteerism. Through those groups, I learned about the challenges people face. Ibecame more aware of how my reaction or passivityaffected my life day today.

EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER

If we appliedthat notiontolocal government andschools, itcould be a powerful first step.Volunteers would own and run their individual groups with the guidance of the institution or government office.

In schools, the students could host a music event for Hispanic Heritage Month (cultural), a volunteer project like a coat drive (perhaps with a church, a temple,and a mosque),or acareer day (where various industries are represented with executives and administrators of all colors, sexual orientation, religions and abilities).There could bea collaborative event that celebrates differences andraisesmoneyfutureschoolprojects.

In local government, a town could throw cultural events like Lunar New Year,Divali,or Cinco de Mayotoshine a light ondifferent traditions, bringingpeople together through food andcustoms.

MORE SAMENESS THAN DIFFERENCE

There could be charities that workin unison on a jointevent. Smaller career development programs that arethoughtfully-craftedfor different groups of people can help local businesses in many ways.Imagineatraditionalcommunity dinnerthat invitespeopleof variouspolitical viewswhomeet each other and find commonalities. Because those similarities do exist.

The bottom line is that there is aneed to see and celebrate more diversity in leadership roles within our schools and towns.It means educators, coaches, town councils,chambersofcommerce. Its imperative to have different people in the room when decisions aremadeor ideas are generated to ensure a global point of view.

At the end of the day, every person (including this outstanding panel of students and the attendees in the room) wantsto feel heard, equal,and safe.

Hate comes from fear, from misinformation andfrom a lack of interaction with others not exactly like you.

Who wantsto burn energy fighting, hating,and feeling (or being)attacked.Better towake up and feel peace, love,understanding.

We cannot undo whats been done. We can only takesmallsteps each day in listening to each other and doing our best tonot reflexively judge.Myselfincluded.

You may agree with me. Or you may think Im Miss Mary Sunshine full of unicorns and rainbows. Thats your opinion,and I respect you for it.

More than 150 students and educators attended the February panel discussion hosted and moderated by N.Y. State Sen. PeterHarckham. Photo:Office of State Sen.Harckham/TomStaudter

Teach Our Children Well

Sen.Harckhamasked the studentpanelwhere theresponsibilitylayto teach tolerance,withparents or schools, or both?

Below is a sampling of comments by the student panelists

GenniferBirnbach is a writer and brand marketing consultant with a background in Diversity & Inclusion. Instagram @genniferwithag.inc

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Bernie Sanders, photo via Wikimedia Commons, and Jeremy Corbyn, photo by Garry Knight via Flickr CC

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,478, March 11, 2020

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The acceptance of a non-legal working definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016 was an important step forward in the battle against this widespread hatred. It included 11 examples of antisemitism, several of which concerned anti-Israelism. Yet no definition can fully encapsulate the dark and expanding universe of post-modern antisemitism. It includes hate statements and positions by Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, former German Socialist leader Sigmar Gabriel, and many others.

In the global battle against antisemitism, a definition of this hatred is essential. This is why a number of countries, cities, universities, and other institutions in Europe have accepted the non-legal International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism for internal use.

The text was approved in 2016 by the Board of the IHRA, which consists of representatives from 34 countries. Most are EU members; others include the US, Canada, and Australia. The definition had to be approved unanimously to be accepted.

The IHRA definition document includes 11 examples of antisemitism, several of which concern Israel. Nevertheless, a special definition of anti-Israelism would be worthwhile. No definition of antisemitism, including that of the IHRAeven if the initiators had added many more examplescan come close to covering the multitude of issues that contain elements of antisemitism or touch upon it. This is partly the product of the post-modern era we live in. Many issues have fragmented, and antisemitism is one of them.

There is a vast and dark universe of issues beyond the IHRA definition that touch upon antisemitism. Many did not exist in the classic pre-WWII religious or nationalistic/ethnic version of antisemitism.

Much publicity has been given to the institutional antisemitism of the British Labour party, which came into the public eye after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Party Chair in September 2015. He has displayed antisemitic attitudes on numerous occasions, but the IHRA definition is not helpful in identifying his actions and comments as antisemitic. It does not cover, for instance, his welcoming of representatives of the genocidal Hamas and Hezbollah Islamist movements to the House of Commons, or his references to representatives of those extreme anti-Israeli terrorist organizations as his friends and brothers. Nor does the IHRA definition cover Corbyns verbal and financial support for a Holocaust deniers organization or his willingness to appear on a podium with another Holocaust distorter.

Another figure in the antisemitism universe, if a less overt and unequivocal one, is Bernie Sanders, a leading contender for the US Democratic presidential nomination (and a Jew). When Sanders refers to the Palestinians, it is their dignity he discusses. One wonders about the dignity of those Palestinians who, in their 2006 parliamentary elections, gave a majority to Hamas, which openly states as its mission to murder Jews in large numbersbut Sanders does not address such matters. He does, however, speak freely about Israels racist government and racist prime minister. The juxtaposition of these statements shows Sanderss affinity for extreme Palestinian antisemites.

Before WWII, antisemites had no reason to hide their antisemitism, as it was a commonplace and socially acceptable hatred in Europe. Nowadays, explicit antisemitism is no longer politically correct in mainstream Western society. Thus, smokescreeningthat is, being an antisemite but pretending not to behas become more prolific. An antisemite might even falsely claim he or she is a friend of Israel. This kind of pattern can be seen in statements about Israel made by former German FM and socialist party leader Sigmar Gabriel.

A crucial issue that complicates the understanding of contemporary antisemitism is that the main type of antisemite in the Western world has mutated. During the rise and rule of the Nazis, many Jew-haters were full-time antisemites. This was not only the case with Germans. Norwegian war-time PM Vidkun Quisling, for instance, was also in that category.

Nowadays, most antisemites are part-timers. A part-time antisemite might make only one major antisemitic remark and then not repeat it. Consider, for example, German ambassador to the UN Conrad Heusgen. In explaining one of his countrys many anti-Israel votes there, he made a morally repugnant statement at the UN in March 2019: We believe that international law is the best way to protect civilians and allow them to live in peace and security and without fear of Israeli bulldozers or Hamas rockets.

The largest German daily, Bild, wrote a response to Heusgens equation of Palestinian rockets to Israeli bulldozers. It said: This equivalence is pure malicein a week in which the Israeli population frequently had to flee from rockets shot by Hamas terrorists the bulldozersare a measure the Israeli government takes against illegal building which concerns mainly Palestinians, but also Israeli settlements. The Simon Wiesenthal Center included Heusgens UN statement in its 2019 list of the worlds major antisemitic incidents.

As antisemitism is no longer politically acceptable, the denial, whitewashing, and minimizing of antisemitism have grown exponentially. The UK Labour Party is a prime example, as it is full of antisemitism whitewashers. A poll of paying Labour members in March 2018 found that 47% believe antisemitism to be a problem, but feel the extent of the problem was exaggerated to damage Labour and Jeremy Corbyn or to stifle criticism of Israel. A further 31% said antisemitism was not a serious issue. Sixty-one percent thought Corbyn was handling the antisemitism accusations well.

Many cover-up techniques have been developed. One even finds whitewashers of extreme, overt cases of antisemitism. The Nazi-esque floats at the carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst in February 2020 and 2019 are one example.

Louis Farrakhan is Americas leading antisemite. Many of his statements about Jews fit the IHRA definition. He calls Jews termites and poisoners. Yet how does one identify people who want to be in his company? Is being intentionally photographed with such a leading antisemite itself an antisemitic act? Probably not, but it is somewhere on the spectrum. Barack Obama did this in 2005 before announcing that he would be running for president. (He managed to suppress the photograph for a number of years.) Other Democratic members of Congress, as well as leading figures in the Womens March (who had defenestrated Jewish founders of the movement to consolidate their leadership position), also got close to Farrakhan.

Claiming that Jews themselves are the cause of antisemitism is a key factor in the historic origins of this hatred. When Christians brutalized Jews they claimed that their resulting suffering was divine punishment for their not recognizing Jesus. This motif of Jewish guilt returns in many versions. Sawsan Chebli, the socialist State Secretary for Federal Affairs in Berlin, tweeted one day after this years memorial on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: Sure, what happened back then is sad. But when it comes to the return of hatred,the Jews are not entirely innocent. Just look at the settlement policy, the annexation I hear this very often, not from Muslims, Arabs or refugees, but from Germans without addendum.

The Berlin Spectator reported that Burkard Dregger, CDUs leader at the Berlin House of Representatives, accused Chebli of spreading classic antisemitism and blaming Jews for their own past suffering. Yet Chebli has come out against antisemitism and even received an award for it. She is a representative of an ambivalent form of antisemitism.

There are many other examples that belong in the dark universe of antisemitism. New ones are emerging all the time in what is an ever-expanding universe.

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Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is a Senior Research Associate at the BESA Center and a former chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He specializes in IsraeliWestern European relations, antisemitism, and anti-Zionism, and is the author ofThe War of a Million Cuts.

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NYU Adjunct Professor for International Relations Roy Germano lives a few blocks from the hasidic Jewish community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. His work in bringing different perspectives to contemporary conflicts was instrumental in bringing him closer to the local Jewish community after witnessing recent violence directed towards his neighbors, by his neighbors. Arutz Sheva asked him why he does it, what it taught him, and how he sees his future role.

Please tell us something about yourself, and what in your background may have spurred you to explore a culture foreign to you in general, and the Crown Heights Lubavitch community in particular?

"Ive been curious about other perspectives and cultures for as long as I can remember. Prior to making videos with the Chabad community, I spent many years in Mexico and Central America doing research on the root causes of migration to the United States. That research resulted in a film called The Other Side of Immigration, a book called Outsourcing Welfare, and a documentary series called Immigrant America. I was initially drawn to the immigration issue because I was shocked by all the xenophobia I was seeing in the U.S. Its a big problem here. I wanted to make films and write books that would put a human face on this highly charged issue.

"Something similar happened with the Chabad community in Brooklyn. About a year ago I started noticing news reports about a spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes in Brooklyn, particularly in Crown Heights, where I live. I realized that after living in Brooklyn for ten years, I had never had a conversation with anyone from the Hasidic community. But the rise in hate crimes made me realize that no matter our differences, more people from my side of the neighborhood should be standing united with our Jewish neighbors during this difficult time."

How did you first meet Yoni Katz?

"Last summer, shortly after noticing all the news about the increase of hate crimes in Brooklyn, I read an article in a local newspaper about Yoni. It talked about the tours he was giving of his community in Crown Heights and the work he was doing to promote unity through a project called Unite the Beards. I was intrigued and thought that going on his tour could be a good opportunity to build a bridge and get to know my neighbors. I really enjoyed the tour, and Yoni and I stayed in touch in the weeks after. Wed meet for coffee and have some great conversations. After about two months of hanging out, we decided on a whim to make a video about the process of getting to know each other. There was no plan, just walk and talk and stand together during this difficult moment."

Have your personal views changed since beginning this project, and how?

"They have. Im not Jewish. Im not religious in general. Its always been hard for me to understand why anyone would make religion the center of their life. But in the course of getting to know Yoni, Ive come to recognize the value of religious practices in ways that I hadnt. I now appreciate how they can foster a sense of community and bring joy, hope, and a sense of purpose to peoples lives. These are all things that secular people could use more of."

What has been your single greatest surprise? Disappointment?

"Perhaps thats been my biggest surprisethat Ive come to see the value of religion in a way that I hadnt previously. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that in coming to appreciate these religious traditions and commitments, Ive also seen how naturally they create bright lines between groups of people. We just have to make sure that those bright lines dont stop us from trying to get to know each other.

"I understand how challenging that can be if you believe with all your heart that the teachings of your religion are the only true way. But I think the world is better off if theres a two-way exchangean effort from all parties to see and understand the world through other peoples eyes, even if you disagree with them on fundamental questions. Thats really at the heart of my philosophy: Its okay to disagree and hold different views. In the end, were all human beings who deserve love, recognition, and respect."

As an Adjunct Professor at NYU for International Relations, do you see local community relations as a microcosm for international relations, and if so, what have you observed that could be extrapolated to benefit the cause of peace between nations?

"If individuals learn about each other and learn to empathize with each other, there should be more trust and more desire to compromise and coexist peacefully. We dont have to agree on everything to get trust and peaceful coexistence. The need for more empathy is why I think international travel and cultural and educational exchange are so important.

"The problem, however, is that some politicians and group leaders derive a lot power from conflict. So they use their platforms to stoke fears, scapegoat, and fuel mistrust. Thats a difficult force to overcome. But Im optimistic that if we promote empathy at the individual level, it will aggregate and possibly change how our leaders and our nations interact."

Do you see your role in this project more as a reporter or an activist?

"This feels different than journalism and activism. A reporter would try to tell the whole story and get different perspectives. Im obviously not doing that here. An activist is fighting for a particular cause. Im not necessarily doing that either, although I hope the videos play some small role in reducing anti-Semitism. But really my goal is to listen and learn and build bridges with neighbors."

Have you considered visiting Israel as a continuation of this project? Do you see any future for yourself in conflict resolution given your skill in bridging and facilitating understanding?

"Ive never been to Israel, but Id love to visit and capture the experience on camera. Do you know any sponsors? And yes, Im interested in conflict resolution. One of my strengths is the ability to empathize and understand different sides of an issue. I encourage your readers to reach out to me through my website if they think theres any issue or conflict that I can assist with."

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