Lena Dunham has signed on to write the screenplay for a Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams movie about the survival of Syrian refugee Doaa Al Zamel, Variety reported today. Here at the Schmooze, what we noticed first is that this list is stacked with Jews! What we noticed second is that this list is really…
This past weekend, my twins were accepted to their top choice for college. Like all the Jewish mothers before me, I kvelled with pride. We celebrated the good news all weekend, yet slowly but surely my naches soon turned to tsoris. My worry wasn’t about making sure they eat well-balanced meals in the college cafeteria,…
“He’s a Nazi.” “This is just as bad as the Holocaust.” Outrage like this has seemingly become the norm within American political discourse. Whenever a policy seems crass— or someone sees the specter of fascism— the American public is quick to deem the perpetrator to be Nazi. Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy on the…
The abandoned 428-year-old synagogue in Sharhorod, Ukraine stands as a powerful reminder of why millions of Jews in the world now call themselves Americans. I traveled there last week from my home in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to better understand where my family comes from. Six of my eight great-grandparents fled villages like Sharhorod – places…
There is a huge amount of rage being directed at President Donald Trump’s administration over it’s temporary ban on immigrants and visa holders from 6 countries in the Middle East and indefinite ban on Syrians entering the country. Uber has lost clients, Iraq and Iran have sought to ban US citizens from traveling there, an…
Last Friday night, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump hosted their first Shabbat meal in their new home in Washington DC. Among the invitees saying kiddish were influential members of the new Trump administration. The next day, one of the attendees, Hope Hicks, Trump’s Director of Strategic Communications, spent her Saturday publicly defending and applauding the…
I’ll never forget the feeling of gratitude and the experience of fellowship that graced my home in 2015. My family and I had been given the opportunity to host a recently settled Syrian refugee family for Thanksgiving. We said yes, but, admittedly, we did so with trepidation. Having internalized some fear of Syrian refugees after…
About 50 Jews and Muslims demonstrated in front of Chicago’s Trump Tower Wednesday evening to demand that Governor Bruce Rauner reverse his position against allowing Syrian refugees into the state of Illinois. “East Aleppo is about to fall,” said Eli Massey of Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the march’s sponsors. “It’s important for Illinois…
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