Culture

Thoughts on Hospitals and Healing

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For many hours every day for more than two of the last three weeks, I was in a hospital setting, supporting my beloved sister’s recovery from a major surgery. I have a lot of very personal experiences – of sorrow, helplessness, and moments of grace – that are now part of who I will forever be. This piece is about what I learned from all of this about why so many of us hate being in hospitals and what it would take to create hospitals that are truly designed to support healing. Despite everything that I am about to say, I am confident that all of us who were with my sister during this time would rate the care we received as excellent. We were in a hospital ranked in the top 5% in the US.

Politics & Society

Experiencing the Israeli Center-Left

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I do not believe that American Jews have to accept the direction that Zionism has taken, just as I don’t believe that we have to accept the idea that Jewish history is only interesting in terms of its marginalization, oppression, and trauma. But I also do not believe that we should simply throw up our hands and allow Israel’s turn toward the Right define what a Jewish democratic state looks like. So despite the despair, I choose to throw myself heart-first into reclaiming Zionism in the hopes of transforming Israel into a tolerant, progressive society.

General News

Post-Election Agenda for Progressives: Top Ten List

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When I awoke on the morning after the election, I was not completely overjoyed. Instead, I felt battered and exhausted. This was partly because the candidate I supported in a local race lost to a homophobic good ole boy. But it was also because as happy and relieved as I am about the reelection of President Obama, we on the Left simply cannot rest on our laurels. We have elected a center-left president, when what we really need is a left-wing president.

General News

Netanyahu's Bet on Romney May Make Him One of the Election's Biggest Losers

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When Binyamin Netanyahu began meddling in the U.S. election on Mitt Romney’s behalf, he began an unprecedented and brazen gambit that, this morning, has disastrously backfired. And Israelis know it. With Netanyahu’s own election only months away (set for January 22), pundits this morning in Israel recognize the clear damage Netanyahu has done to himself by disrespecting President Obama and betting on the wrong man. Larry Derfner of +972 Magazine thinks last night may soon lead to Netanyahu’s demise:
If there is one loser in the U.S. election outside the U.S., it is Benjamin Netanyahu – and all of Israel knows it. No one is fooled by his denials that he backed Romney and opposed Obama as demonstratively as he possibly could.

General News

Election Day 2012

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I voted yesterday, Election Day Eve, at my city’s Board of Elections Commissioner’s office. I had errands to run yesterday, and I wanted to work uninterrupted today. So, I went to the third floor of City Hall and cast an in-person absentee ballot. I was happy to have the choice to vote early, yet the convenience of it did not in any way detract from the importance and the beauty of casting my vote. The office is a small room, and when I arrived there were only a couple of people in line ahead of me.

Politics & Society

Vote Power and People Power

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If we suspect foul play it will not do to remain silent, as we have done in the past; this has to be the last straw if it is not to be the last gasp of our faltering democracy. But neither will it do to explode in unstructured rage.

Environment

A Misleading Defense of Genetically Modified Foods

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The FDA’s so-called determination that GM foods are as safe as conventional ones was not made by its scientists and was not based on scientific considerations. Rather, it was driven by political and economic pressures and guided by a deputy commissioner for policy who, as a partner in a major law firm, had previously represented Monsanto – and who was hired by Monsanto as a vice president after the FDA’s fraudulent policy was established.

Politics & Society

Jeffrey Goldberg was a Follower of Meir Kahane

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Goldberg is a sort of Jewish media mandarin who defines what is polite pro-Israelism in American society. If you pass muster, you become part of the acceptable Jewish mainstream. If not, you are sentenced to a form of anti-Israel Siberia. But let’s not make the mistake of thinking Jeffrey Goldberg was the only Jewish youth who succumbed to the siren song of Kahanism. There are many now- powerful Jewish leaders and academics who cut their teeth in the movement.