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.

 “The best defense is a good offense.” Though often attributed to Michael Jordan, this adage was first said by George Washington in 1799. It is also known as the “Strategic Offensive Principle of War.”

Recap: In the journal, Yishai went to help out Miriam and Ezra. Ezra is away, and there is a blizzard, and now it looks like Miriam is going into labor. Yishai must go out into the blizzard to get help. Back in the present, Yehudis is not happy in the new school. She wanted to be friends with Sari but Sari’s friend is giving her a cold shoulder. On top of that, she discovered that her father is dating someone and that someone is invited for supper.

Jacob Steinmetz’s roots and love of sports are firmly embedded in the New York area. Jacob is the son of Elliot and Sima Steinmetz, longtime Woodmere residents. His father was once a basketball player at Yeshiva University, and recently brought its basketball program to astounding successes as the coach of the YU Maccabees. Jacob’s grandparents, Michael and Patti Steinmetz, also of Woodmere, are thrilled to see their grandson become the first known observant Orthodox player to be picked in a Major League Baseball draft.