How Do You Jew
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The One-State (final) Solution
I wrote the below as a comment on a FB post, which I imagine will only get m more engagement from awful content like it, but I was somehow inspired and I’m pretty satisfied with what came out extemporaneously: ** The fact that this showed up in my Facebook feed is the strongest evidence yet…
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Has the day come?
For the second time in about a week, I’m sharing something written by my friend and teacher, Rabbi Daniel Gordis, which pretty perfectly encapsulates and captures my feelings and reaction to the current political and social climate in the United States and beyond. It bears mentioning that I have had no illusions about our situation…
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I Won a Grammy
And I bet you didn’t even know I could sing or produce records or anything. Well, I can’t and I don’t, but anyway my Grammy was way better, if only slightly taller, than the award they give out. I found out about my Grammy, Phyllis Hersch, the way I’ve heard people find out about winning…
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Like it was yesterday
I remember laying awake in bed the night that our daughter came home from the hospital. She was in a bassinet at the foot of our bed, and Jenn said something like “What if she stops breathing and we can’t hear her?!” What was I worried about? Boyfriends. College tuition bills. The overwhelming responsibility of…
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Memorial Day, for real
My connection to Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s memorial day, is well-established. I was born into its communal observance in Israel, I have observed it personally since the loss of two friends from my battalion, and I have been bringing the communal and personal together in San Diego for 15 years as the MC of the community…
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Uber Night #2: Weddings, drinking, and casual racism
Not in equal parts, mind you… Long story short, I had a couple of fares tonight that were attending weddings in SD, a bunch of folks who were partying (very typical Uber crowd, that), and… The fare that turned out to be my last of the night, though, was something special. In the Gaslamp District,…
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The Israel Conference in LA
I attended the Israel Conference in LA this past Thursday (it continued into Friday but I had other commitments), and wrote up this reflection for publication. I’ll be doing reviews of several of the startups that exhibited there in the coming days and weeks, and, as referenced below, I’ll also be reviewing The Unstoppables, a…
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Israel activity on and off campus
This is an eventful time in Israel-related activity in San Diego and beyond, and I wanted to get some of my thoughts and resources in one place for my own and others’ edification. In no particular order, most people know that US President Barack Obama visited Israel this past week for the first time since…
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Remember ICQ?
Do you remember ICQ, the first Internet-wide instant messaging service? Do you remember that it was invented by four young Israelis? You do? Well, I just met the guy who gave them the money to start the company – his name is Yossi Vardi, and he’s known as the Godfather of Israeli High-Tech. His son…
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Faith in government (and thus, humanity)
My faith in government (and thus, in humanity) is routinely and repeatedly crushed and restored, but rarely does that cycle run its full course within an hour, let alone a few moments. Tonight, I was pointed to this post by Lawrence Lessig, alerting me to the existence, now snuffed out, of Aaron Swartz. As the…
Got any book recommendations?