Category: Science and Health

Donald Trump does not easily call to mind thoughts of honeymoons—even though he has owned several honeymoon destinations. In closing out the first 100 days of his second presidency, it is difficult to say that his honeymoon in the White House is over. So divisive is his presence in American politics, neither the press nor […]

Edward Martin, Jr., who was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as Interim U.S. Attorney, sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) on April 24 with a series of questions pertaining to its tax-exempt status from Jan. 2021 onward. “It has come to my attention that the Wikimedia Foundation, through its wholly owned […]

Maxim D. Shrayer frequently travels between the inner worlds that constitute his identity. In his latest collection of poems, “Kinship,” Shrayer offers many a glimpse into what it’s like to be living within each of his worlds. There is the scholarly side of him, as a professor of Russian, English and Jewish Studies at Boston […]

Five members of Congress last week traveled to a prison in Louisiana to show their solidarity with two Hamas supporters who are awaiting deportation. The Congressional visitors were continuing an unfortunate century-long tradition of politicians and political activists embracing tyrants, terrorists and terror supporters. In the 1920s, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin welcomed numerous American intellectuals […]

One feature of Jewish life that I have grown to love is the idea of repetition. It also happens to be foundational to our faith. From weekly Shabbat rituals, readings and prayers to the very cyclical nature of the Jewish calendar, the book Deuteronomy essentially “retells the same stories we have already read in earlier […]

Few are the individuals who are successful in life, make their fortunes and are described first and foremost not in terms of their business acumen or trendsetting but in terms of their humility and kindness to others. This is the legacy of Jack Rimokh, who passed away April 6  at the age of 87. “Despite […]

You may have heard of the recent resurrection of the dire wolf. This scientific miracle came about through extracted DNA from the blood of the gray wolf and rewritten into the genetic code to match the sequence from dire wolf fossils. simultaneously in the American zeitgeist.  In California, we need another resurrection of an endangered […]

The University of California’s proposed ethnic studies admissions requirement—known as the Area H proposal—has sparked widespread concern, and rightly so. At the center of the controversy is a faculty-driven effort to use the requirement as a backdoor for introducing into every California high school an ethnic studies curriculum likely to incite virulent antisemitism. This effort […]

Borrowing a nifty lyric from the Beastie Boys (those white-hot, hip-hop Jewish sensations): “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Hate Jews!).” Yes, the original rap song focused on an altogether different “Right”: the one to “Party!”—once an eager rallying cry at college. But those were different collegiate days—before social justice and self-importance transformed mirthful […]

After nine months on the job at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Rabbi Leah Fein still can’t believe she’s back in Los Angeles.  “I feel lucky Wilshire was looking when I was looking,” she said. But how could Wilshire resist hiring a member of its own family – even if she had been on the East Coast […]