Style & Living

President Donald Trump and his administration have long been on a path to diminish Palestinian declarations of statehood. The Trump administration recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel, and in a historic move relocated the American embassy to Yerushalayim. David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel, is recognized for engaging the White House on such a transference, and must be commended for his painstaking efforts since assuming his position.

The recent comments by freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib during a podcast have been discussed thoroughly in the Jewish, and non-Jewish, community. Tlaib, who spun an ahistorical lie that the surviving Jews of the Holocaust were welcomed with open arms by her Palestinian ancestors, has her defenders in the Democratic Party. The nefarious aspect of the defense tactics is not claiming that she is right; rather, they attack the criticizers themselves. By doing this, their goal is to silence their opponents, and this silence has a history all its own.

“Not only one has risen against us to annihilate us, but in every generation they rise against us to annihilate us.” These words, recited during the most emotional point of the Pesach Seder, still ring true, despite the incredible freedoms American Jews enjoy. Six months after the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, last week another shooting occurred at the Chabad in Poway, California. A few days earlier, The New York Times published a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a big-nosed dog with a Jewish star necklace leading a yarmulke-wearing, blind President Trump. Anti-Semitism rears its ugly head in many forms, and American Jews must be knowledgeable of who our enemies are and where they come from if we are to continue to survive.

In this week’s parshah, Yaakov prepares to see his brother Eisav. The p’sukim go into detail explaining the preparations that Yaakov does: including preparing for war, grouping his family, and sending Eisav gifts. As Yaakov and his family make their way towards Eisav, they encounter the Yabok River, and go to pass through. Yaakov goes back and is on his own. Rashi explains that Yaakov ends up being alone because he goes back for “pachim k’tanim” – small vessels – that he left behind.

NEW YORK NEWS

Ibrahim Khan, longtime chief of staff to Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, has resigned amid an investigation into misconduct.  Khan had been one of Ms. James’s closest political advisers for nearly a decade. Three people with knowledge of the matter said it involved at least two harassment allegations by women. The accusations against Mr. Khan, who began working for Ms. James as spokesman for her campaign for New York City Public Advocate in 2013 and then, after she took office, as her Chief of Staff, were particularly sensitive for Ms. James, who oversaw a 2021 sexual harassment inquiry of New York’s governor at the time, Andrew Cuomo. “I’ve been slated to leave the office for the private sector at the end of this year,” Khan said in the statement. “This is unrelated to an investigation which, nevertheless, found no official workplace misconduct,” adding he “is proud of all we have achieved over these past four years in serving New Yorkers.”

Recap: Libby started her job as secretary at the aviation school. The two rude Arab men reappeared and demanded to know why it was taking so long to process their applications for the school. Libby had a bad feeling about them and tried to tell the boss.