News

While Israel’s fight for its survival in the wake of the brutal terror assault on October 7 remains the focal point of headlines in recent weeks, it is also an opportune moment to reflect on pointed anniversaries this November. November 9-10, 2023, for instance, marks the 85^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, “the Night of Broken Glass,” when German Nazis perpetrated a wave of violent Jewish pogroms all throughout Germany, and annexed Austria and part of Czechoslovakia in occupied areas of the Sudetenland. At least 91 Jews were killed as 7,500 Jewish businesses were vandalized and 1,400 synagogues destroyed. As recorded by Yad Vashem, up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of whom were taken to concentration camps like Dachau or Buchenwald. Many died in these camps. All of these horrific scenes were but precursors to the horrors of the Shoah, which was still years away.

Thanks to enormous interest, Yeshiva University’s Open House for women on Nov. 12 was a huge success.

Recap: The men from KKK are looking for Hope. She spots them when she’s in the park with Bonnie and Rivkah and her sister. She quickly pulls everyone into the playhouse and doesn’t explain. She’s hiding from the men. She hears them talking about not finding her and their determination to keep looking. After they finally leave, she rushes back with Bonnie to the Bowers’ house.

NEW YORK NEWS

 Federal agents conducted a raid on the home of Brianna Suggs, a prominent fundraiser and confidante to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mayor Adams abruptly canceled a White House meeting and returned to New York amid the investigation. Suggs, who works as a campaign consultant for Adams, is associated with fundraising efforts and lobbying for a real estate client.

Recap: Hope takes Bonnie to the park, and she catches a glimpse of a white Cadillac. She realizes that it’s her parents’ car, which was stolen by the KKK. She tells Rivkah that they have to leave the park.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about an imagined future for Iraq in which Rabbi Paysach Krohn leads Jewish heritage tours of Pumbedisa and Sura, with the same descriptive expertise as his tours of Poland and kivrei tzadikim closer to home in Queens. Unfortunately, this hypothetical learning experience has yet to become reality. Likewise, the entirety of Eretz Yisrael has not been brought under Jewish control, with Gaza as the hornet’s nest of terrorism that kidnaps and murders Israelis and rains rockets on population centers. But what if the near future made it possible for Jews to visit Gaza safely as tourists? What would they see?