Threats to abortion pill. Israel at 75. Ex-Consul General speaks out. El Al pilot uses PA to warn passengers about dictatorship. Justin Jones talks "tikkun olam" with teens.
Plus celebrating longevity. And letting humor mitigate the pain of world events.
Newsletter #139 May 3, 2023
WOMEN
* For expertly curated updates on reproductive rights and gender politics, subscribe to Jill Filipovic’s “The Week in Women.” Odd title; strong content.
* More than 101 scientific studies affirm the effectiveness of the abortion pills used in the U.S. for twenty years, yet one flagrantly anti-choice federal judge ruled they’re unsafe. When another federal judge ruled otherwise, The Supremes granted a stay. See “Abortion Drug Ruling Could Undermine the FDA.” And read this Q and A to bone up on legal challenges to abortion.
* The Nation’s indomitable Katha Pollitt surveys our bleak future if the pill is outlawed and urges us to fund poor women’s access to abortion.
ISRAEL AT 75
*May 14th will mark three-quarters of a century since the founding of Israel. Though it has no Constitution, the new nation’s Declaration of Independence has long stood as its democratic mission statement. The document proclaims that the Jewish State “. . . will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” (emphases mine) Read it and weep for the betrayal of its founders’ vision. Read it to rebut Zionist racists and extremists. Read it to recall a time of hope, pride, and aspiration. Read it and resist.
* Though absent from most archival images, two women were among the Declaration’s founding signatories: Rachel Cohen-Kagan (above), one of the most prominent women’s right activists in the fledgling State. And, Golda Meir, nee Myerson, Israel’s first and only female Prime Minister (1969-74). Proud to be called “the best man in the cabinet,”Golda, alas, was no feminist. Which is why Israeli women were no better off after her tenure than they were before she took office.
*In a passionate video, Mika Almog, granddaughter of the late Shimon Peres cries out,“The ground beneath our feet is burning,” and begs us to help stop the madness.
*When PM Netanyahu recently nominated a shameless hatemonger to be Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ambassador Colette Avital, who held that post under PMs Rabin and Peres, deplored this “cynical act of appointing as Israel’s representative to North American Jews, an enlightened liberal community, a woman who does not hide her extreme racist views.” Thankfully, objections from U.S. Jews forced Bibi to rescind the nomination. Which proves that our leaders have clout when they choose to use it. Make them use it now.
*Mass protests by Israelis against their ultra-right wing government show no signs of abating after eighteen weeks. Besides a combined total of two million people having taken to the streets, the Histadrut, Israel’s largest labor union, called a strike. As did universities, banks, even hospitals. Israeli embassies closed their doors. Flights were grounded. Reservists refused to show up for duty. Outrage spewed from the country’s “elites” — a former P.M, a former Defense Minister, various professors, politicians, military heroes, scientists, writers, tech entrepreneurs, and yes, pilots.
“On April 18, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), Doron Ginzburg, lead pilot on an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to New York (and son of a Holocaust survivor) used the plane’s PA system to express solidarity with anti-government protestors: His message was, “…things like the Holocaust can potentially be occurring in a dictatorship and we’re fighting in Israel to remain a democratic country. Thank you all and have a nice flight.” When the event went viral, El Al threatened him with dismissal and he apologized “to those who were hurt by my words.” But it’s the government’s fascist ministers who should be asking forgiveness from Doron (and his father’s memory) for distorting the nation’s founding values beyond recognition.
* It’s no secret that racist, militant, frequently violent forms of Zionism have been growing in plain sight for decades. Palestinian citizens of Israel have long suffered second class status and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians living under Occupation in the West Bank has been nothing short of an international shanda (shame, disgrace). So“Why are American Jews so shocked by Israel’s far-right turn?” asks Shaul Magid in +972 Magazine. And what are we going to do about it?
*My column in Moment poses a parallel question: How bad does it have to get before knee-jerk Israel-lovers stop giving this Israel their unconditional love?
JEWS
*Can’t wait to see how Aleeza Ben Shalom, host of the new Neflix series, “Jewish Matchmaking,” navigates the minefields of our denominational differences, complex religious, secular, and intersectional identities, and (spare us please) pop culture Jewish stereotypes. Stay tuned.
*Check out “How Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones ended up talking ‘tikkun olam’ with Jewish teens in DC.” The Hebrew translates to “repair of the world,” a responsibility each human being is tasked with fulfilling with action and lovingkindness. Kudos to Rep. Jones for using our vocabulary to make common cause with those kids.
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
*Historian Annie Polland, Pres. of The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, a monument to the American immigrant experience and one of NYC’s most intriguing tour destinations, will interview me inside one of the old building’s restored apartments on Monday 5/8 @6:30 PM EDT. Register free to Zoom it.
*I’m delighted to be among the “Eight Over Eighty” to be honored on May 31 by The New Jewish Home, a comprehensive health care system for older adults. NJH’s motto, “Age Like a New Yorker,” artfully invokes the inexhaustible energy of our city to convey that vigor has no age limit. Honorees include bestselling author Erica Jong, world-renowned jazz bassist Ron Carter, opera conductor Eve Queller, and pioneering physician Sanford Greenberg. Attend the gala and celebrate longevity with us.
PURE JOY
**Nothing brightens one’s day more than the birth of a baby
*Or a pet who finds you an organ donor. Let’s paws to salute woman’s best friend.
[Thanks to daughter Robin Pogrebin, my prime source for happy Instagram videos]
GRIN-WORTHY
* In case you didn’t notice, today is National Paranormal Day, Have a good one!