I spent Saturday morning glued to the news, watching as the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was devastated by a single white supremacist, fueled by both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. As an American Muslim interfaith activist, I’ve spent years forming relationships with the Jewish communities locally and across the country, so my heart swelled to…
Pharrell Williams is not “Happy” with President Trump right now. The President incongruously played the Williams’ song “Happy” at a rally that occurred shortly after the tragic and deadly shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday. Though this is not the first time the producer’s music has been used at Trump events, this was apparently…
I had many great honors in the years I served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. But the single hardest part of the job? The many funerals and shivas I attended. Often I was visiting after a horrific terrorist attack took innocent lives. Sometimes it was to mourn Israeli soldiers who fell in battle. Less painful,…
Around the time my relationship with my now-wife Rachael took a turn for the serious, we went for a hike in the desert and talked about religion. Rachael is Jewish. I am Catholic. Rachael’s Jewishness was mostly cultural. (Holiday recipes, yes! Holiday services or prayers, absolutely no!) By contrast, religion in all forms has always…
A powerful split-screen image greeted those following President Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh yesterday in the wake of a horrific massacre that left 11 Jews dead. As the President’s SUV pulled up to the Tree of Life synagogue where the massacre took place, thousands marched through the neighborhood, chanting Jewish prayers about love and kindness and…
Reactions to the terrible shooting in Pittsburgh have revealed the deepening rift between American and Israeli Jews. As an American who is also a recent immigrant to Israel, I find myself in an awkward position. The murderer in Pittsburgh did not just make anti-Semitic pronouncements, but specifically acted because of the activities of the Hebrew…
A defiant President Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that the sprawling demonstrations against his visit to Pittsburgh in the wake of Saturday’s synagogue massacre were “small” — and denounced coverage of the visit as “disgraceful.” Showing no signs of toning down his partisan and divisive rhetoric, Trump focused attention on himself in his first statement about…
Current events in America have been brutal. Last Saturday’s terror attack at the Tree of Life synaoguge — arguably the deadliest assault on Jews in American history — was yet another horrific tragedy. Jewish organizations have rightly been condemning this hateful act, standing together with countless non-Jewish allies in the process. This is an important…
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