Columns ‹ Opinion
Placing Race and Gender Over Ideals and Achievements
In the mid-term elections, Democrats won control of the House of Representatives while focusing more on the ethnicity or gender of the new legislators than on their ideas or agendas.
The media prattle endlessly over the election of the first two Muslim women in Congress, or the first two Native American Women, one of whom is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter...
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GUEST BLOG BY RABBI HANOCH TELLER: An Echo to Pittsburgh
Every history-aware Jew hearing of the horrific massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27 made an instant mental connection to the Holocaust. Especially now, as Jews around the world plan the November 9-10th 80th anniversary commemoration of its terrifying prelude—Kristallnacht. While the differences in scope between the Pittsburgh...
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Stress Blessing, Not Blame
It’s a shame that politicians on both sides tried to blame their opponents for the horrific synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. Liberals attempted to tie the gruesome killing to the president’s harsh language; some Republicans shot back by trying to blame media for the brutal attack.
In perspective, this incident should have provoked gratitude instead...
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“The Kingdom of Kindness”
I first learned about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting hours after it happened, when I walked to my own synagogue’s Shabbat services near Seattle. Like other Sabbath observers, I was isolated from the news until I saw a good Christian friend who had showed up at our place of worship, standing vigilantly at the back of the sanctuary.
As it turned out, our...
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Vote for Collaboration Over Confrontation
Americans of every perspective say they’re disgusted by the polarization, pettiness and unbridled anger that have come to characterize our politics.
The great majority of us say we want more cooperation and civility, but there’s only one way to vote for those qualities on Tuesday. If the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives,...
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The Pittsburgh Synagogue, Anti-Semitism and Trump
All my life I have reminded fellow Jews in America that we are the luckiest Jews to have ever lived in a non-Jewish country. I know what I’m talking about. I wrote a book on anti-Semitism, taught Jewish history at Brooklyn College and fought anti-Semitism since I was 21, when Israel sent me into the […]
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A Land of Miracles
My kid brother Harry recently unearthed an old photograph showing me as a baby, held proudly by my great-grandfather, Samuel Idstein. He was close to 90 at the time, having left Germany with his family just before World War II. Neither he nor his six children ever attended college but all of his grandchildren did, becoming educators, research scientists, doctors...
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Beto’s Blunder
Congressman Beto O’Rourke has broken fund-raising records in his challenge to Texas Senator Ted Cruz, but on a CNN townhall this new liberal “Wonder Boy” made comments that should doom his $60 million campaign and terminate his political future.
The Congressman re-affirmed that he’s ready to vote to impeach President Trump for collusion...
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What I Learned About Young People While Trying to Buy a Car
This past week, I went to five car dealers in an upper-middle-class suburb of Los Angeles to see what SUV I’d like to lease. I wanted to patronize local car dealers because I want them to stay in business. In each case, I experienced the following: I was greeted pleasantly upon entering the dealership. A […]
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Losing Her Million Dollar Bet
Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to affirm her Native American identity and to collect a million dollars in the process: President Trump in a rally promised to pay that much if DNA tests could “prove she’s an Indian.” Now she cites tests indicating her genetic Indian ancestry is as much as 1 in 64, or as little as 1 in 1,024.
No, she won’t collect her bet...
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Different Views of “Community Service”
You might expect Senate candidates to disagree on policies but in today’s polarized politics they often differ on fundamental values as well. In the Voters’ Pamphlet in Washington State, candidates list their “Community Service” and Republican challenger Susan Hutchison, cites a wealth of involvements, including board membership for Children’s...
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When I First Realized America Is Exceptional
I moved to California from New York City in 1976. The founder of what was then America’s largest Jewish retreat center, the Brandeis Institute (not affiliated with the university), Dr. Shlomo Bardin, asked me to work as his assistant. He was 75 years-old; I was 25. One weekend the next year, he announced to the […]
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No, The Gold Rush Wasn’t Racist
At Cal State Long Beach, a handsome statue known as “Prospector Pete” will be moved and sports teams will drop the the 49ers mascot because Gold Rush references now count as racist. One Native American activist said that “walking by a statue that’s put in a prominent place… that’s another type of trauma that’s being imposed on me.”
But if the...
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The President Can Act Immediately to Launch a “War on Waste”
In the last weeks before November’s crucial election, President Trump should make bold moves to address a looming crisis that most politicians prefer to ignore: soaring budget deficits and a crushing national debt.
A new group, OpenTheBooks.com, calls for a “War on Waste” to curb the outrageous spending, like squandering a million dollars to prepare...
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Lessons from the Kavanaugh Climax
For three reasons, confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh has been a damaging disaster for Democrats.
First, those Democrats have been indignant in defeat, and America hates sore losers.
New talk of impeaching Kavanaugh, or continuing to smear him, only makes the Democrats look extreme and vicious. Second, the whole Kavanaugh fight united Republicans more than ever...
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The Real Basis for Anti-Kavanaugh Hysteria
Hysterical opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court isn’t based on the alleged sexual assault of a teenager in the distant past; it’s based on fears of judicial assault on the purported “right to abortion” in the near future.
The determination to defeat Kavanaugh started long before Christine Blasey Ford’s charges, and stems...
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