Zoë

[Zoë @tkzktk]

(1/11) This assessment is harsh but fair. I am an MS51 parent of two (class of 2022, 2024). I was on the PA Exec board for 3 years, serving as president/co-pres for the first 2 years of Principal Singh's time at the school.

[Council Member Shahana Hanif @CMShahanaHanif]

Principal Singh served our school community with distinction and dedication. I am deeply saddened to see him leave MS 51 and even more disturbed by the racist smear campaign run against him. Our community deserves better. My full statement 👇

[Zoë @tkzktk]

@upshine3 Roscoe

[Zoë @tkzktk]

@Chris_arnade @PeterMoskos @razibkhan Literally came here to defend Indonesian food… That I ate in the Netherlands 😂 point taken

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

Venezuelan man:

“Those who say that the U.S. is only interested in our oil, I ask you: What do you think the Russians and the Chinese wanted here?

The recipe for arepas?"

[עמיחי שיקלי - Amichai Chikli @AmichaiChikli]

Chaim Herzog was not only the President of Israel.
He was Ireland’s son.

Born in Belfast, raised in Dublin, educated at Alexandra College and Wesley College, fluent in Irish and Hebrew, a standout in rugby and cricket, and Ireland’s junior bantamweight boxing champion. A child of Irish pride and moral courage.

At the age of twenty-two, when Europe was sinking into darkness, Herzog chose action. He joined the British Army to fight the Nazis.

He landed in Normandy, fought through Belgium and the Netherlands, crossed the Rhine, and entered Bergen Belsen, where he encountered starvation, mass death, and the ruins of humanity left behind by fascist cruelty.
Weeks later, he helped identify the body of Heinrich Himmler and interrogated senior SS officials.
This Irishman confronted evil and helped to defeat it.

And now @RayMcAdam and the Dublin City Council advance a move to erase his name from Herzog Park.

Before it is an insult to Israel,
Before it is a wound to the Jewish people, it is a betrayal of Ireland and of every Irishman and woman who ever stood against tyranny.
A moral collapse.

Fifty years ago, on the 10th of November 1975, the boy from Dublin stood at the United Nations and exposed a great lie. He ended with these words:

“For us, the Jewish people, this resolution is based on hatred, falsehood, and arrogance. Hitler would have felt at home listening to the proceedings in this forum.”

And today, once again, the same winds of hatred and falsehood rise. Hitler and Mohammed Sinwar cheer your choice from hell’s deepest abyss, @RayMcAdam, while Chaim Herzog looks upon you from above with sorrow, for a city that has lost its way.

[Zoë @tkzktk]

@nihilist_arbys WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN I MISSED YOU SO MUCH

[Armin Rosen @ArminRosen]

On Tuesday afternoon, at around 4:30 PM, I was heading back to my hotel room after an action-packed day at MEF's annual policy conference in DC, partly because I was tired but mostly because I wanted to catch one of the final episodes of Around the Horn...

[New York Post @nypost]

Inspiring the next generation: Meet the New York Post Scholars Class of 2025 https://t.co/wWdWg4Ms5G

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

The creators of No Other Land did not call for ethnic cleansing. They did not downplay the violence of October 7th.

Were they harsh when they talked about the Israeli government? It depends who you’re asking. Empathy isn’t a zero-sum game.

It’s important to remember that not every disagreement or hard conversation is hate speech. We get more done when we listen and learn from each other.

What matters is the acknowledgement of humanity, the desire to find peace through non-violence, and the acknowledgement that there is no other land for Israelis and Palestinians.

[Parmita Mishra 🔬 @parmita]

"Our results reveal that whenever handwriting movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated, resulting in the formation of more complex neural network connectivity...typewriting do[es] not activate...networks the same way that handwriting does."

[Elisha Wiesel @ElishaWiesel]

Kamala Harris once fought an antisemite in my father Elie Wiesel’s defense. He was attacked by a white supremacist in 2007 who wanted him to renounce his memoir, Night. Harris prosecuted the attack as a hate crime, and the perpetrator served time.

Does she still fight antisemitism today as resolutely? Let's review the data.

Vice President Harris spoke truth to her own base when she called out the “brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate… Israel and kill Jews.” But then she “studied the maps” and warned Israel not to go into Rafah. Had Israel listened, Yahya Sinwar would not be dead and Hamas would not be crippled militarily.

When activists pronounced her openness to an arms embargo against Israel, Presidential Candidate Harris corrected them publicly. But she said nothing earlier this month when the White House threatened an arms embargo on Israel over aid continually stolen by Hamas.

She silenced angry crowds accusing Israel of genocide two months ago, then failed to repudiate a heckler last week who used the phrase. Instead she said “what he’s talking about, it’s real”, leaving many scratching their heads.

Even worse, Harris tolerated the lie that Israel purposefully causes excessive collateral damage. “As Israel defends itself, it matters how,” she said last December. “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed… innocent civilian lives should not be intentionally targeted”.

For the Vice President to publicly mention Israel and the intentional targeting of innocent civilians in the same breath is dangerous and ill-advised. By entertaining these accusations, she ignored John Spencer’s, chair of War Studies at West Point, forceful assertion: Israel has "done everything the US military has ever done in the history of urban combat and things that we've never done" to mitigate civilian casualties. Holding Israel to impossible standards -- overlooking how America prosecuted every urban battlefield from Nazi Germany and Axis Japan to Al Qaeda after 9/11 -- falls into an antisemitic Hamas trap.

What Harris is facing has precedent. President Roosevelt stepped with extreme care as isolationist, peace-at-all-costs voters demanded we abandon Britain to the Nazis during his 1940 Presidential election campaign. Pacifying domestic opposition is part of the job. Questioning a close allies’ integrity as they fight for their lives is morally and strategically wrong.

Recent polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support Israel, blame Iran and Hamas for the conflict, and believe any ceasefire must include the surrender of Hamas.

Is Harris ready to affirm, to all audiences, that Hamas and Iran -- not Israel -- are responsible for this war and all of its brutal consequences?

That victory is preferable to compromise with terrorists who murder, rape and refuse to surrender the hostages?

That the actual requirement for long term peace is that the Palestinian people, who have turned down a state multiple times, must abandon hate?

Harris has only days left to put flip-flopping behind her. Tonight marks the first Yahrzeit, or Jewish memorial anniversary, of October 7th’s initial victims. The Tree of Life anniversary in Pittsburgh, with its swing voters, falls three days later.

She can offer moral clarity in these somber moments.

She can pledge, if elected, that applicants to her several thousand political appointments will -- in line with her husband’s National Antisemitism Policy -- be comprehensively vetted for calls to Intifada and other antisemitic hate speech.

She can show unflinching resolve to defeat our adversaries in the Middle East and extinguish antisemitism at home.

That is her path to earn the respect -- and votes -- she seeks from undecided voters who believe that standing up against terror, and for our allies, defines what it means to be Presidential.

[Zoë @tkzktk]

@SingleSexSpaces @JamesAFurey I agree that extra time for projects/ assignments usually isn't a good idea, but I have seen kids with extra time on exams (usually writing) really make good use of it, especially if they need that time to collect their thoughts or get distracted as they work.

[Zoë @tkzktk]

@Mr_Rablin Thank you! I really need this!

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

To all our young people this #YomKippur: we tried to instill in you a sense of justice, righteousness and honor for all people. We are proud when your generation actively pursues these values. But we did not intend for some in your generation to turn their backs on our people…

[Elisha Wiesel @ElishaWiesel]

DESERTERS OF ISRAEL, RETURN TO YOUR PEOPLE THIS YOM KIPPUR

I remember the last Yom Kippur my father, Elie Wiesel, was still alive. Dressed in white, he held the Torah as the Yom Kippur service began. My son and I stood with him, concerned that it might be too heavy for his frail frame. The hushed congregation heard his clear voice testify three times: “Or zarua la’tzadik,” light is sown for the righteous.

The Jewish flame which burned within him as he sang was a mystery that contained wonder at eternity, fear that he had not done enough with his life, a rebuke of God for Auschwitz, an unending love for his people, and everything in between.

Then the prayer leader began the Kol Nidrei service with the annual proclamation: “By the decree of the heavenly court, and by the decree of the earthly court—we declare it permitted to pray amongst sinners.”

These words moved me every year because for most of my youth, I was not a regular participant in Jewish life. I tolerated Jewish life , sometimes mocked it, and often fought it as a burden I had not sought. To attend synagogue was an imposition on my time and on my rational worldview.

Now a new generation is turning away from Judaism, by joining with Israel’s enemies, in the wake of Oct. 7, to unfairly malign the Jewish state. To those of you who have sacrificed your connection with your people in order to appease the God of liberal acceptance, I say, come back.

If you have turned your back on our traditions as well as your brothers and sisters in Israel: come back. Our faith has so much beauty waiting for you.

If you wear a tallit and tefillin, and blow shofar and keep kosher, but use your Judaism to undermine the right of the seven million Jews who live in Israel to choose their own destiny: come back. In attacking your own people, you have gone further than those who renounce all traditional observance.

Can the Kol Nidre prayer speak to you as it does to me?

I remember being on the outside and looking in. I felt that in the eyes of more connected Jews, I was a sinner. I appreciated that despite this, the words of the Kol Nidre invited me into the service.

The prayer stated that I, who had once chosen to shun my cultural birthright of 3500 years, was still welcome.

Only later I learned that I was not the originally intended audience for these words. The proclamation welcoming sinners dates back to a time when Jews were forced at the point of the sword to accept foreign gods and sever themselves from our people. While I took my Judaism for granted, previous generations—whether in Alhambra or a Soviet prison—understood and appreciated the treasure they had been born into, but were forced to repudiate.

Jews were threatened with death or torture in order to renounce Judaism in favor of Christ, Allah or Stalin.

Today, the pressure to assimilate in order to enjoy America’s opportunities exerts its own powerful pull.

There are more foreign gods demanding allegiance now than Abraham could ever have smashed at the dawn of our faith. Worthy ideas have been twisted since Oct. 7, against all reason, into attacks on the Jewish people.

Today, secular democracy deserves to be celebrated. Every vote matters, and minorities must be protected. Yet some elite university students, Jews among them, support the religious dictatorships seeking to destroy Israel, the only actual democracy in the Middle East with a thriving Arab minority population amongst its citizenry. Why?

Sexual identity is revered as a crucial aspect of modern-day life. Yet some of its most vocal champions, Jews among them, side with Hamas, a group that brutally oppresses and murders LGBTQ+ individuals, and attacks Israel, home to the largest Pride parade in the Middle East. Why?

Human rights work calls to young people, Jews among them, anguished by America’s racist past, and rightly so. Yet in the name of these principles, somehow only suffering caused by the Jews is elevated, while every blow aimed at Israel is ignored or justified. Why?

We as a people deserve to be inscribed in the book of life. And we will never again let the hands of our enemies or indifferent bystanders, or of anyone other than ourselves and our God, hold that pen.

Jews do not proselytize, which is why we are only 0.2% of the population, as compared to the more than half of the world which identifies as Christian or Muslim. But this means every one of us matters, including Israeli Jews who face rockets and terrorism daily.

With my father’s permission, I used to bring books with me to shul on Yom Kippur, as long as they fit inside the Machzor prayer book. He was much less concerned with whether I believed in God, or had anything to say to him. He wanted me to be with my people, where I belonged.

It is not too late to come home, where you not only belong but where you are needed.

My father wrote in 1975 about the enemy plan to turn us against each other: “We are told that this is not about Jews, this is about Zionists. They try to divide us, to pit us one against the other after having pitted us against the world.”

Hear his warning and come back. Bring your questions. Bring your empathy for the civilians sacrificed by our enemies. But put down your weaponized phrases that falsely accuse Israel of genocide and apartheid, and stand again within the tent.

Stand with us, fast with us, defy the haters of Israel. And return to your place in the story of our people this Yom Kippur.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Inspiring confidence in Palestinian allies: That I have emerged as one of the most consistent anti-Hamas voices within the Palestinian community has created immense interest in what I have to say from many in the Jewish and Israeli communities.

The problem, however, is that at my core, I am extremely pro-Palestine and deeply committed to advocating for Palestinians’ right to freedom, independence and sovereignty.

When I criticize the Israeli government’s actions and those of Netanyahu and the far-right ministers that have exacerbated settlements in the West Bank and the military occupation, the same allies and friends who were willing to engage in dialogue often turn against me and quickly dismiss all the common ground that I thought we had previously established.

Some act as though any criticism of Israel is perfectly off-limits and that Israel is somehow a perfect entity that can do no wrong.

This very quickly makes me think that many of these allies may not be as authentic as I had hoped they would be. Worse, it makes me feel as though I am merely being tokenized as a Palestinian who is against Hamas and that some of my “convenient” views are of interest while the rest are immediately shut down.

This dynamic is precisely why so many Palestinians, especially in the English-speaking diaspora, do not speak out against Hamas and Palestinian internal problems and mistakes because they don’t want their words to be tokenized by the Jewish community for a very narrow end and goal.

I am pleading with my Jewish and Israeli friends and allies who are interested in engaging Palestinians to please be cognizant of this. The goal should not be to agree 100% of the time; instead, it is to create a space where healthy, respectful, sincere, and detailed exchanges can take place unhindered.

Most importantly, getting more Palestinians to speak out requires Jewish allies to be sensitive and aware of their actions and how they are not inadvertently or carelessly pushing away potential Palestinian friends who could be vital partners in forging a different path forward based on empathy and mutual recognition.

I implore the Jewish community to grow more comfortable in hearing Palestinian critiques around Israeli policies regarding the military occupation of the West Bank, settlements, policies around Gaza, and the conduct of the war, dehumanization, and abuse that Palestinians have endured for generations.

Of course, there have been numerous mistakes committed by the Palestinian national project and Palestinian leadership. There have also been horrendous terror acts and crimes committed against Israelis by Palestinians, and many within Palestinian society want to stand against these persistent failures.

Yet it is incumbent upon my Jewish brothers and sisters to be part of the empowerment of moderate Palestinian voices who are there and ready to be part of a better future but need some nurturing and support. This will require agreeing to disagree and not having to say something every time you hear an opinion with which you disagree.

A better future awaits all of us if we will it and work towards it. Dialogue and conversations must always be a two-way street, even when they are uncomfortable and unpleasant.

[Zoë @tkzktk]

@daniela127 I was so perplexed when I got a mailing from CC member Hanif about this. Why was her office "providing security" for a Yizkor service? When it dawned on me what this actually was I felt like I could vomit

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

BREAKING: For the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the rabbis have authorized adding a new prayer:

A Prayer Thanking God for Last Night’s Rosh Hashanah Miracle, and Asking God to Continue To Look Favorably Upon His Chosen Team, the Mets, and Lead Them To Victory Over the Phillies.

[Victor Shi @Victorshi2020]

Oh my goodness. This new Kamala Harris ad is so powerful. Hadley Duvall tells how her stepfather raped her when she was 12 & then she became pregnant. But girls now can no longer access the care she got because of Trump. Billie Eilish closes the ad. Watch.

[Rebecca Traister @rtraister]

Fuck off.

[Adam 🎗️ @xMaccabix]

The Burning man festival will feature a memorial to the 405 victims of the Nova Festival massacre on Oct7th
More details of the project can be found here https://t.co/fCUG5YdN7Z

Also its to the shame of the other big festivals that none of them deemed to do this.