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Wars and Peace: Memoirs of a Conflict

 

When I was an undergraduate at Columbia University in the late 1980s, I took a class on Arab nationalism at the School of International and Public Affairs. One day, I found myself vigorously sparring about Israel with some Muslim students in the course when a Palestinian student name Zuheir said, “I’ve been imprisoned and beaten in many Arab countries,” cutting the conversation short. After class Zuheir and I compared notes. (more…)

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Rabbi's Corner

I hope that Hamas has been destroyed

By the time you read this message, I hope it is out-of-date.
· I hope that the hostages who have been kidnapped by the murderous savages of Hamas have been rescued and are home with their families.
· I hope that Hamas has been destroyed. (more…)

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Israel Matters!

Israel Matters! – December 2023

Israel Matters On Campus Too!

As of the date this article is written, Israel is under attack from all sides. While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) relentlessly continue their mission of dismantling Hamas in Gaza following the atrocities of October 7, amid all the tragic collateral civilian casualties due to Hamas having embedded deeply in the local population, Israeli cities and towns continue to be targeted by rockets fired from Gaza.  Other Iranian-sponsored terrorists have joined in this naked aggression: Hezbollah rockets have forced Israel to evacuate civilians from the “finger of the Galilee” emptying towns from Metulla to Kiryat Shemona. Combined with surviving residents forced to flee their homes in Israel’s south (the “Gaza envelope”), at least half a million Israelis are now refugees in their own homeland living in hotels, shelters, or with family elsewhere in the country.  Iranian-backed terrorists based in Syria have launched rockets and drones at Israel, one of which landed on a kindergarten in Israel’s Red Sea resort town of Eilat.  From the south, Iranian-backed Houthis have also launched rockets at Israel, though so far none of these have reached their targets, having been intercepted by US naval forces or Israeli missile defense systems. (more…)

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Odds & Ends / Webmaster's Odds & Ends

Syndrome K: the fake WW2 disease that saved Jews from the Nazis

Sky HISTORY by Chloe Rixon

A photo of Dr Giovanni Borromeo and the hospital Fatebenefratelli where he practised

Above: A photo of Dr Giovanni Borromeo and the hospital Fatebenefratelli where he practised

During 1941 and 1945, Hitler’s Nazi Germany murdered around six million Jews, about two-thirds of the European Jewish population, in what would become known as The Holocaust.

Although this was a time where tales of hope and salvation were few and far between, there are stories of individual people and groups who demonstrated extraordinary bravery to save lives. They were a glimmer of light during a dark time that resulted in few happy endings.

On November 12, 2023, our Kritstallnacht Community-wide commemoration will take place at Congregation Or Shalom, in person and via Zoom. We will remember the lesser-known story of Syndrome K, the fictitious disease invented by Italian doctors that fooled the Nazis and saved lives. The program will include the presentation of a U.S. Senate Special Recognition to Dr. Cristina Ossicini on behalf of her late father Dr. Adriano Ossicini. (more…)

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Odds & Ends / Webmaster's Odds & Ends

Robert Sapolsky Doesn’t Believe in Free Will. (But Feel Free to Disagree.)

Shedding the concept “completely strikes at our sense of identity and autonomy,” the Stanford biologist and neuroscientist argues. It might also be liberating.

What if Believing in Free Will Is Just a Choice?.

By Hope Reese

There is no free will, according to Robert Sapolsky, a biologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. Dr. Sapolsky worked for decades as a field primatologist before turning to neuroscience, and he has spent his career investigating behavior across the animal kingdom and writing about it in books including “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” and “Monkeyluv, and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals. (more…)

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Rabbi's Corner

Everyone is Equal

In the very first chapter of the Bible, there is a verse that may be the most important verse in the whole Bible, or anywhere. It says that every single human being is created in the image of G-d.

This sounds so simple, right?

And yet, if everyone believed this and looked at all other human beings as equals, this world would be a very different place. (more…)

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Israel Matters!

Israel Matters! – November 2023

This Time is Different – Israel Under Attack – A Personal View

October 7, 2023, may be the worst day in Israeli history.

I arrived in Israel on October 3rd.  Israel is a place I have visited dozens of times. There are so many things I love about Israel – the people, the culture, the food, the air, walking on the “tayelet” (boardwalk) along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, visiting the many historic, cultural and religious sites, and being in a place where it isn’t an effort to be Jewish.

But this trip to Israel was different.
(more…)

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