1.A Year of Living VERY Dangerously

A year ago - a few days after he horrific terror attack launched by Hamas in Gaza - I wrote to all of you that our annual campaign will be unlike any campaign before. "There is nothing I can say in a letter that would even come close to what we all feel having watched the horrors not seen since the Holocaust. Not since its birth 75 years ago did the people of Israel need our help as much as they do now. Not even during the Yom Kippur War."

Sadly, I was right. Our community responded generously and with Federations across America nearly a billion dollars has been raised for those who have lost their homes; those in need of treatment both physical and psychological; those whose businesses and jobs are gone. The war continues and has since expanded to the northern border where a constant barrage of rockets has become a regular event several times a day. We have learned of new needs in communities we never before reached, and I suspect we are in for months if not years more. Hostages have been held for nearly 400 days and their release does not seem likely any time soon.

Next week we launch the 2025 campaign and I am counting on our community to show our most generous side as we always do. I wanted to share that this year (a first for us) we have supported the Druze community in Israel. Very few Federations have prioritized this very loyal group in Israeli society. They serve in combat units in larger percentages than Jewish Israelis. The tragic death of 12 kids who were playing soccer in Majdal Shams reminded us that Hezbollah rockets don't distinguish between Jewish Israelis and others.

Personally, like I did last year when I doubled the amount of my donation, I will increase my donation yet again. This is the biggest emergency of my lifetime and more than likely yours too. Feel free to go to our Federation's website, jewishnewbedford.org, even before we send you the letter and make your donation online today.

2.Far-Reaching War

"In the early hours of Saturday, Israel launched a series of airstrikes on multiple military targets in Iran, marking a significant escalation in regional tensions. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the “precise strikes” targeted strategic military sites, including drone and ballistic missile manufacturing facilities and air defense batteries. This operation was a direct response to Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel earlier this month and in April. Read more in this Jewish Journal article. The truth about what was hit and how severe the damage was will never be known, but the fact that hundreds of Israeli planes can patrol the Iranian sky uninterrupted is a strong message that is not likely going to be ignored.

CNN reports "Israel's strikes on Iran broke a 40-year taboo. Tehran faces tough choices about what to do next." "The adversaries had spent decades avoiding direct confrontation, instead choosing to exchange punches in a shadow war. Israel used clandestine operations to assassinate key Iranian figures and execute cyberattacks on vital facilities as Iran continued activating its Arab proxy militias to attack the Jewish state. Saturday’s attack marked the first time Israel has acknowledged striking Iran, bringing the shadow war into the open and crossing a threshold that has led some in the Islamic Republic to question the country’s deterrence capabilities."

3.Unsubscribe

More than a quarter of a million subscribers cancelled their subscriptions to the Washington Post. USA Today, following the Post's lead, did not endorse a candidate either and also lost readership. Abe Foxman was never without words when he headed ADL and he did not hold back in responding to the Trump presidential rally, calling it "a grotesque spectacle of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and misogyny." He also questioned ADL’s response to it in, "Former ADL chief Abe Foxman slams group for muted response to Trump's MDG rally"

"Foxman likened (Jonathan) Greenblatt to Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, which announced last week it wouldn’t make an endorsement in this year’s presidential election. The decision, made by Bezos, broke with decades of precedent and was widely interpreted as driven in part by a fear of antagonizing Trump." 

" 'It’s the same syndrome, it’s not just the Stockholm syndrome — call it the Washington Post syndrome,' Foxman said. Foxman also broadened his critique to a slew of major American Jewish organizations that he said have abdicated their duty by refraining from speaking out about Trump’s rally."

I saw a similar thing in a demonstration in Israel this week when a Bibi supporter berated the family of a hostage with such vitriol it made me scared, and I was watching it on video.

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The Forward weighs in with, "He directed a film about the 1939 fascist MSG rally - here's what he saw at Donald Trump's." "A couple of weeks ago, Marshall Curry saw a spike in search interest in his Oscar-nominated 2017 documentary short A Night at the Garden, about the pro-Nazi 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden.

"The reason soon became clear: Donald Trump was using the venue as a staging ground for a massive rally to finish off his 2024 presidential campaign. In the weeks since, everyone from a state senator to Trump’s 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton drew a comparison between Trump’s event and the one from 1939, anticipating a similar show of nativism and hate. Curry had to see the rally for himself."

"And when you got inside, it was like a switch was flipped, and suddenly all of these same people who are like my friends and family and neighbors seemed swept up by a lot of the dark stuff that was being spouted at them from the stage," he said. "And that’s the thing that struck me when I watched that footage in 1939, was that you see this audience of Americans in their hats and their suits and their dresses, and they’ve dropped their kids off with the babysitter and gone out for an evening to cheer and laugh as somebody attacks people who will be killed by the millions in the next couple of years."

4.Never Forget

Anderson Cooper sat down to talk with Holocaust survivor Irene Weiss for 60 Minutes. This interview should be must-watch TV for every citizen of the word. I encourage you to watch it in its entirety. "The veneer of civilization is very thin," she cautions. Learn more about her in "Eyewitness to History: Irene Fogel Weiss - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."

5."It's Not a Lie If You Believe It"

Jason Alexander is "living out a lifelong dream," playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Alexander is best known for his nine seasons playing George Costanza on Seinfeld.

“I was particularly drawn to it again now because of what’s happening in the world,” Alexander said. (Inspiring this item's title, perhaps George's best-known line from the series.) “We’re once again in a place where there’s a lot of race hatred, and antisemitism is a big part of that. And I just wanted to do a piece that is proudly Semitic and Jewish, and talks about Jewish tradition and Jewish culture and Jewish history.”

6.Stupid Is as Stupid Does

Twenty-five ago I lived in Montclair, NJ. It is known for its diversity. I was surprised to learn that a TikToker was arrested for ripping down a NJ restaurant's Greek flags she thought were Israeli. It gets better. I promise. "The incident at Efi’s Gyro in Montclair, New Jersey, occurred March 11, but it wasn’t until Amber Matthews posted the video to TikTok on Oct. 15 that police were able to identify her. She was arrested on Tuesday and charged with bias intimidation and harassment."

And while on Greek food, here’s a salute to the targeted restaurant and cuisine with some recipes. No tzatziki or souvlaki, I promise.

For Your Calendar

Thursday, November 7, at Noon

UMass Dartmouth Library, Main Hall

Inseparable: The Hess Twins’ Holocaust Journey Through Bergen-Belsen to America

Description: Faris Cassell presents “Inseparable: The Hess Twins’ Holocaust Journey Through Bergen-Belsen to America.” This award-winning book tells the survival story of the last living twin Holocaust survivors, in collaboration with the UMass Dartmouth History Department and Hillel.

Parking in Lots 13 and 14.

For more information about the Bristol Community College Holocaust and Genocide Center’s fall programming, please visit www.bristolcc.edu/holocaustcenter, or email ron.weisberger@bristolcc.edu.