Happy New Year! Shabbat Shalom! This is the first shabbat of the new year and decade. What big plans do you have? What is it that you have always wanted to do or work on, that hasn’t been on your To-Do list until now? Why not begin the decade making those choices? Are the wishes new and things you’ve never tried before? That’s great—opportunities to learn and grow.
Let’s make attainable goals that require you to reach for a bit, maybe ones that you need to learn some new tricks beforehand in order to accomplish. It makes life interesting and perhaps you’ll discover your latest talent!
For me, I’m starting out Tuesday with an interview with Dr. Carole Leiberman, January 7 at 1pm Pacific on VoiceAmerica. If you are unfamiliar with the show, it’s called, “Dr. Carole’s Couch.” She’s had this show for the last decade and has won multiple Emmy awards. Dr. Lieberman has spent over a decade analyzing the psychological impact of world events, as a guest and host on all major media outlets. She has appeared on “Oprah”, CNN, “Entertainment Tonight, “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” Court TV, the BBC, and numerous other high-profile shows.
Dr. Carole’s also known as the “Terrorist Therapist.” Since 911, she’s dedicated her life to helping families keep calm and carry on. She has two books on terrorism, “Coping with Terrorism: Dreams Interrupted,” a psychological survival guide, and “Lions and Tigers and Terrorists, Oh My! How to Protect Your Child in a Time of Terror.” It’s here where I believe I enter into her world…
She’s a shrink and we’ll be talking about my book, “Blasted from Complacency: A Journey from Terror to Transformation in Israel.” However, I hope she doesn’t lock the door and throw away the key, but it should be interesting. So saying all that, you know I’m excited to be on her show. I hope you can take some time to listen in : )
As you know my dream, as a result of being fodder for Palestinian missiles, is to work on Peace—both inner and outside myself. I don’t know where this will lead me, but I believe it is my life’s purpose. Doors have begun to open, like the opportunity with Dr. Carole. I think when you do what you love or that you feel that you were chosen to do, you live in a flow of offers and next steps that appear—seemingly like magic.
Are you also wondering what 2020 will bring for you? I’m hoping it is your best year ever! Well, the good news is we are in charge of directing the results. Of course, that’s easier to do and enjoy if whatever is happening is something you wanted. But if it’s something you would prefer never happened, ask yourself why x is happening and what you can learn from it. You may say “But I didn’t ask for x or y to happen.” That may be true, but you have control of your reaction to it—and you’re correct, that’s not always easy. I think knowing that always helps.
There are acts that happen however, that don’t make sense no matter how hard you look at them. 2019 ended with horrific stories of killing due to anti-Semitism. This needs to change. Can’t people just get along? Our eyes have to be wide open, it’s the year 2020, right? Will we see more clearly? Being Jewish, it’s gotten frightening. What happened to “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself? And this isn’t happening miles away in the Middle East (although it does continuously, and needs to stop there too!), it’s here in the United States and throughout the world.
Just since the Monsey attack, the Anti-defamation League (ADL) has recorded the following offenses now hitting the East and West coasts:
January 1, 2020 Brooklyn, New York: Two women yelled anti-Semitic threats at a Jewish man and subsequently punched him in the throat in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Source: NBC New York
December 31, 2019 Brooklyn, New York: A Jewish teenager was verbally harassed with anti-Semitic slurs and subsequently robbed of his ear buds and yarmulke at knife point while riding an MTA bus. Source: New York Post
December 31, 2019 West Hollywood, California: A store called Block Party was vandalized with graffiti that read “GD” and a Jewish Star spray-painted next to it. Source: WeHoville
December 30, 2019 Brooklyn, New York: A Jewish teenager walking in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn was verbally harassed with anti-Semitic slurs by two people who also brandished a knife at the teen. Source: New York Post
December 29, 2019 West Hollywood, California: The Bayou WeHo, a restaurant and bar, was vandalized with graffiti that read “Hitler was right.” Source: WeHoville
In my single days, I lived in West Hollywood. It was a fun place to live—close to Beverly Hills but more “happening.” I hope the city doesn’t become the West Coast representative for anti-Semitic hate crimes.
College campuses currently fester with Jews being attacked by both professors and students. Given the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) movements on college campuses, Jewish kids are being harassed and lectures shut down due to protests from these organizations.
These Palestinian groups work for the annihilation of Israel as they shout, “From the river (Jordan River) to the sea (Mediterranean Sea) Palestine will be free!” They also present misinformation calling Israel an Apartheid state and intentional killer of women and children. But it takes effort to understand what is being said and determine if it’s accurate—which takes time, something that is in such short supply and many people don’t make the effort to investigate their assertions. Nowadays folks presenting misinformation just say whatever they want, and if they repeat it often enough, those listening assume it is true.
University administrators often succumb to these groups’ protests and prevent pro-Israel events under the protection of free speech—why is the free speech of the pro-Palestinian groups being protected to the detriment of the Jewish students? Shouldn’t it be a fair playing field?
Universities have always been the next growing phase for our kids, but now Jewish parents must send their teens to attend programs like “Knowledge for College,” which empowers Jewish high school juniors and seniors to effectively deal with the rising anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities on college campuses. Students learn about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the BDS movement, and how to navigate Jewish life on campus. The bottom line is both Israel and Jewish kids are being attacked on college campuses across the U.S. and Canada. We need to protect our next generation.
With all of these anti-Semitic attacks sometimes it feels like we’re living in Germany before World War II, and it’s downright scary. Anti-Semitism has always been here, but now it seems like it’s become mainstream, expressed as fact, not bigoted opinion, and with proud malice. Why aren’t more people protesting, Jews and friends of Jews alike? As the saying goes, when Jews are attacked, other minorities being attacked isn’t far behind. Minorities beware.
I know if I had my druthers, this article would be filled with only happy commentary on planning for the new decade. But then again, real life intervenes and I feel like that would be irresponsible.
I invite you to Join Me On My Journey…
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