1.A Good Start

Our annual campaign last year was a great success thanks to all of you. Since the launch of this year's campaign we have had a strong start and for that - again - I thank all of you. I do however want to ask those who have not yet participated to consider making their donations before year end. The tax deduction is just one more reason to do it now. Send your check or donate online at JewishNewBedford.org. Thank you.

2.If He Really Wanted

The main reason Hamas still holds 101 hostages is because a deal is not a high enough priority for the Netanyahu government. Yes, Hamas is a maniacal terror organization and it is using the hostages as a shield. Yes, many hostages will be killed if the terrorists think a rescue is underway. Yes, the hostages are held in poor conditions, are likely raped and abused regularly, and many are no longer among the living. But their return is not good for the survival of Bibi's current coalition. The war objectives have long ago been reached. If the deal became priority number one (as it should be) it would be done. Bibi once released 1,000 prisoners, including Sinwar, for one soldier.

With that in mind, Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said this week that Donald Trump’s advisers have told him that the US president-elect wants a hostage deal reached before he enters office on January 20. "It is criminal," was the message from Trump.

"Al Thani makes the revelation during an interview with Sky News when asked about Trump’s Monday warning that there will be 'all hell to pay' if the hostages aren’t returned by his inauguration.

“Such a statement is expected, and we hope that it will work and will be delivered to both parties,” the Qatari premier says. Read more in this Times of Israel article.

Defeated and abandoned by Iran, Hamas threatened to "neutralize" hostages if Israel launches a rescue operation. "In the statement dated Nov. 22, Hamas told its operatives not to consider what the repercussions of following the instructions might be and said it held Israel responsible for the fate of the hostages."

3.Familiar Faces

By the time he takes office, if no deal is reached, the hostages will have been in captivity for 471 days. Remember that when you read, "President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the man who helped him negotiate Israel’s deals with Gulf states during his first term to serve as his special envoy for hostages, a post he aims to elevate to the rank of ambassador. The nominee, Adam Boehler, said he’d be focused on the seven Americans among some 100 hostages who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel and still captive in Gaza."

“There is nothing more important than bringing Americans home,” Boehler, 45, said in a social media post. “Under Donald Trump’s leadership, there will finally be action and consequences.” 

"Boehler, who is Jewish, was CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation during the first Trump administration. He served with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, on the negotiating team for the Abraham Accords and was the lead negotiator in normalization talks between Israel and Morocco."

In the same news cycle, we learn that Trump picked Jewish space adventurer Jared Isaacman to head NASA. And, additionally, there is The Forward's, "Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet."

4.Fact, Fiction, Forewarned

"The first thing you hear in The Order, a propulsive thriller about a white power group’s plans to spark a race war, is a discussion of blood libel.

“ 'You were saying Jews use the blood of Christian babies,' says Marc Maron, playing Denver radio personality Alan Berg. At first Berg jokes along, asking his caller if Jews use the blood as a condiment or gravy. When the antisemite on the line calls him a kike, Berg hangs up the phone.

"The call wasn’t something to laugh off. Berg, in the film as in life, said those jeering at him during his show saw Jews as 'some mythological thing' to fault for their problems. To them, 'the only really good Jew is a dead Jew.' The words were prophetic: A splinter group of the Aryan Nations would murder Berg in his driveway on June 18, 1984, a short time after he avowed on air his belief that people, though disaffected, are fundamentally decent.

"Helmed by Australian director Justin Kurzel (and starring Jude Law), The Order is about the titular terror cell who slew Berg, robbed banks and Brinks trucks and planted bombs outside synagogues and porn stores throughout the 1980s in the Pacific Northwest." The film opens in theaters tomorrow.

5.Book of NOT Mormon

And all this time I thought you had to be a Mormon. Turns out athletic talent is the great equalizer on this Utah campus.

"BYU's star Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff scored a sponsorship deal with Manischewitz. After a historic football season at BYU, Retzlaff’s latest honor places him in the company of Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali: having his face grace an iconic box of food.

"Retzlaff, nabbed a sponsorship deal with Manischewitz, the Jewish food company’s first-ever sports deal. The deal includes special-edition boxes of Manischewitz matzah emblazoned with Retzlaff’s likeness.

"Retzlaff, 21, who grew up attending a Reform synagogue in Pomona, California, is BYU’s first Jewish starting quarterback and one of only three Jewish students at the Mormon flagship in Utah." 

6.Over 100 Years of Culinary Chutzpah

Inspired by the quarterback's sponsorship deal, I share with you some Manischewitz recipes. Open the link for many or content yourself with the three below.