Opinion

To play a fool on screen usually takes talent, but apparently for actor Seth Rogen, the persona isn’t much of an act, after hearing how little he knows about the history of Israel and his Jewish heritage.

Bart Giamatti, the former President of Yale University who would go on to become the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, was once the guest speaker at the dinner of a major Jewish organization. The guests of honor were the members of the New York City Board of Estimate, which at the time consisted of the Mayor, the President of the City Council, the City Comptroller, and the five Borough Presidents. In his remarks, Professor Giamatti quoted a mishnah from this week’s chapter of Pirkei Avos: “Pray for the welfare of the ruling authorities, for if it were not for the fear of it, each man would eat his friend alive.” Later in the evening, Claire Shulman, the Queens Borough President, replied, “Bart, the problem with what you said is that the people on this stage eat each other alive every day.” Professor Giamatti and Borough President Shulman actually represented different approaches to this mishnah.

One issue that has come up for discussion in recent times is the public realm vs. the private realm. Most people go along with the idea that the public realm is the important one, and either dismiss or pay lip service to the private realm. But does Torah Judaism allow us to do that? No.

With the rise in crime in and around New York City, the Queens Jewish community is growing more and more concerned with the direction the city has been taking regarding criminal justice reform and the relationship with the police. Some of these measures included ending cash bail, closing Rikers Island, and creating community jails closer to the courthouse. Councilman Rory Lancman, who represents the 24^th City Council district (which covers Kew Gardens Hills, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Jamaica Estates, Briarwood, and more), has been a strong advocate for much of these policy changes.

While the Chinese virus continues to spread throughout the world, the Governor of the hardest hit State in the Union is taking a brief hiatus from committing the COVID equivalent of germ warfare on nursing homes to extend his powers far beyond the abilities of his office. Andrew Cuomo has used his newfound celebrity status among the media elite to bring nearly every aspect of life in New York under his boot heel.

This week, in a visit to Walter Reed Medical Center, President Donald Trump was photographed and videoed wearing a mask. The reaction by members of the media is just an example of a media that is no longer hiding its bias. The masks of media objectivity are off, and continuously exposing this is Trump’s best road to re-election.