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.

Every person has his own particular situations that frighten him, as fear is part of the human condition. Some things are universally scary, like illness, accidents, and natural disasters. Other fears are more subjective. Many people fear the unknown. But what is unknown and frightening to one person is just plain ordinary for another, causing the other to have difficulty understanding why the person is even afraid at all.

  Dear Alice,

I just got back from Miami and I am so disappointed. For the first time ever, I actually stayed on my plan while on vacation. I didn’t touch the bread basket or desserts at restaurants, stayed away from the late-night munching aside from my “treat,” and chose sugar-free frozen yogurt instead of milk shakes. However, when I came to weigh in, I found that I had lost less than half a pound despite all my efforts! What went wrong?

Waking up to beach views in Mexico, shopping at The Shuk in Jerusalem, the clean mountain air of Northern Italy… Some of my vacations, I’ll remember forever.

Vacations can be the best, can’t they? Especially for the family. You pack everyone up, skedaddle to the perfect spot, and everyone is blown away. Ideally.