July 1, 2026 – Page 2 of 2 – 91传媒 Journal

The Life and Times of Zeda Max 鈥� Part 2

When I was a young boy, I often stayed over at my grandparents鈥� home, a small bungalow located in an unnamed area of Montr茅al next to the Town of Mount Royal. The house had three bedrooms, but just one bathroom that always smelled of Noxzema Face Cream. My Uncle Nat, my mother鈥檚 youngest brother, had once lived there, but he had married and moved out several years before. When I slept over, it was in Uncle Nat鈥檚 old room. He had left his collection of Popular Mechanics magazines on the shelf of the headboard, and I loved reading them over and over again. There were also a couple of well-worn issues of Playboy, but at that time, I was more interested in science, radios and auto mechanics than in naked women.

The large bed had a yellow quilt stuffed with feathers. The material had a pattern depicting the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The quilt was enormous, heavy and oh so cozy. My grandmother would wash it regularly and hang it outside to dry, so the images were faded and the fabric was thinning out by the time I became its primary user.

The kitchen in my grandmother鈥檚 house was small. There was a narrow Formica table against one wall that sat three, a Moffat electric stove where my grandmother would make her famous gefilte fish, chicken soup and varenikis and a very unusual Philco refrigerator with a V-shaped handle that allowed the door to be opened from either side. The cupboards were not very deep and my grandfather had built an extra pantry in the basement to store any extra food and provisions.

My grandmother always had an abundance of food. She once told me a story about an incident that happened when they still lived on Rue Saint-Urbain. A very old, skinny, disheveled man knocked at the door of their apartment. My grandmother answered the knock. The man looked very poor and he begged my grandmother for some scraps of food. My grandmother felt sorry for the old man. She herself had recently arrived from Europe and she knew what it was like to be hungry and poor. She invited the man into the house, allowed him to use the washroom to clean up and then she prepared a lunch from the leftovers of the previous night鈥檚 dinner.

The man ate heartily 鈥� no one could refuse my grandmothers cooking. She even poured him some of my grandfather鈥檚 homemade wine. After consuming the meal, the man got up to leave. He thanked my grandmother over and over again, and before he left, he touched the doorknob of the front door, mumbled something in Hebrew, and then in Yiddish he exclaimed 鈥淚n this house, no will ever go hungry.鈥�听 Was he some kind of angel or just a very grateful human 鈥� we will never know 鈥�

Many years later, my uncle Morris would become the vice-president of a large chain of grocery stores. He would provide his parents with large boxes of fresh produce and other foods every week. Could this have been the result of the old man鈥檚 blessing?

From his work as a carpenter and cabinet maker, my grandfather鈥檚 hands were completely calloused. It was as if he had lost all feelings in his fingertips. When I was young, I had a bad case of acne. Pimples popped up on my face like dandelions in the summer.听 I looked like the goalie for a dart team. Today, acne can be controlled to a great extent with skin creams and antibiotics, but back in the 1960s, one of the standard treatments was the application of hot compresses to open and clean the pores. My grandfather took it upon himself to be the prime caregiver for my acne condition and so he boiled some water and threw some washcloths into the pot. When the water reached the boiling point, Zeda Max would reach in, grab one of the towels and quickly apply it to my face. The problem was that he couldn鈥檛 feel how hot the towels were, but I could. There was a cemetery not far from the house. I let out a scream that I鈥檓 sure woke up some of the cemetery occupants. My face turned crimson red and I looked like a cartoon character that had just been punched in the gut. I ran screaming down the hall as my Zeda tried to apply a second towel. He wasn鈥檛 very happy with my reaction and I believe that he yelled something in Yiddish that meant I was a coward, a chicken, a scaredy-cat or a combination of the three. It was the last time that Doctor Zeda would play dermatologist with my face 鈥�

I would spend many weekends at my grandparents鈥� house. It was my refuge and there, I could do no wrong. One day my Zeda Max told my grandmother that he wasn鈥檛 feeling very well. This was unusual because, since I knew my grandfather, he was never ever sick. Zeda Max was clutching his chest and was having trouble breathing. My grandmother called for an ambulance, and the attendants quickly put Zeda Max on a stretcher and brought him to the nearest hospital. He had experienced a near fatal heart attack and he had to stay in the hospital for several weeks. I had just obtained my drivers permit and I would take my grandmother to the hospital whenever I could to visit him.

When the doctors finally released Zeda Max, it was with a collection of prescription drugs, a strict low-sodium diet and a prohibition against returning to his work at the furniture factory. They told him that he needed lots of rest and a strict change of lifestyle in order to stay alive. His heart was damaged and it would never return to a truly healthy state.

My grandmother had to change her recipes. The use of schmaltz (chicken fat) was prohibited and she substituted Mrs. Dash for salt. Truthfully, one could notice a difference in taste and texture, but if it meant keeping my grandfather alive, we would need to accept the new cuisine.

One day I came to my grandparents鈥� house for lunch. My grandmother had just prepared a chicken noodle soup, one of my favorites. I sat down at the kitchen table with Zeda Max and I tasted the soup 鈥� it needed salt. I asked my grandmother for the salt shaker, which was now hidden deep in the pantry.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 need salt,鈥� Zeda Max said in a threatening voice.

鈥淚 think it does. The broth is kind of bland,鈥� I replied.

Zeda Max became upset. If he wasn鈥檛 having salt, then no one was. But I took the salt shaker and gave a few shakes into my bowl. Zeda Max became furious. Because of his weakened heart, he was not supposed to get stressed, but that didn鈥檛 stop him. I quickly regretted adding the salt, but his next move took me totally by surprise. He screwed off the cover of the salt shaker and poured the remaining salt into my soup bowl.

鈥淵ou want salt?鈥� he yelled. 鈥淲ell now you have it. Go on and eat your soup.鈥�

I ate the soup 鈥� It was as salty as the Dead Sea, but I had no choice. I didn鈥檛 want my grandfather to win the battle. I should have known better. It was a lesson that would follow me into my own heart bypass surgery many years later.

Paul J. Starr is a retired systems analyst who has lived his entire life in Montr茅al, Canada. On Sunday mornings he is 鈥渓iving the dream,鈥� hosting a two-hour Internet radio show featuring music from the 50s and 60s called 鈥淛udy鈥檚 Diner.鈥�

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Lincoln鈥檚 Fast and Moses鈥� Faith: A July Fourth Reflection

Judaism / Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern

On March 30, 1863, while mired in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln turned to the model of Moses to motivate the Union. It is a moment worth remembering as America turns 250 and the 91传媒 community commemorates the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz.

A month from that day, Lincoln declared, would be a 鈥渄ay of national humiliation, fasting and prayer,鈥� meant to evoke the aid of Providence in assisting the North in its fight.

His national proclamation of the occasion began by noting that it is the 鈥渄uty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.鈥�

Knowing that his biblically-infused countrymen would immediately understand his citation of the precedent of ancient Israel, which flourished when its faith was strong and floundered when its commitment to the covenant lagged, he then reminded them of their blessings, despite the dark times. 鈥淲e have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven,鈥� he noted, 鈥渨e have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.鈥�

It was then that Lincoln offered a lament that drew from Moses鈥� last speech, in the Book of Deuteronomy, that warned the Israelites to 鈥淏eware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth鈥� (8:11-17).

鈥淏ut we have forgotten God,鈥� Lincoln bemoaned. 鈥淲e have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.鈥�

Moses had concluded his admonition by instructing his flock 鈥渢hou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day鈥� (8:18). So too, Lincoln concluded, 鈥淚t behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.鈥�

On April 30, he asked that 鈥渁ll the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.鈥�

With the wish of 鈥渢his being done in sincerity and truth,鈥� the Union could 鈥渞est humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.鈥�

Lincoln鈥檚 covenantally-minded republic, what he called God鈥檚鈥渁lmost chosen people,鈥� would emerge from the conflict victorious, just as Moses鈥� would eventually return to the Promised Land after their fracture and resulting exile. Both countries, forged through faith in God, would recommit to their mandate to be a light unto the nations.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is Senior Adviser to the Provost of Yeshiva University and Deputy Director of Y.U.鈥檚 Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. His books include the newly released “91传媒 Roots of American Liberty,” “The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada,” “Esther in America,” “Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth” and “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States.”

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We Are Grieving: A Lament

Columnists / Jerry M. Mendel

What have we lost, you ask? Not a person, not a place, but decades of something almost unbelievable: a span of time in this country when antisemitism quieted to a whisper.

It was not paradise, but it was a kind of reprieve, a breath held for decades, a pause in a hatred that has shadowed us for millennia.

Loss has many faces. The death of one we love. The slow erasure of a mind by dementia. The dismantling of a democracy once taken for granted. Now, to these, we add the loss of those quiet years, the vanishing of a fragile illusion: 鈥淢aybe this time will be different.鈥�

This, too, is a kind of death, and like death, it is permanent. History tells us so, page after page of exile and edict, ghetto and pogrom, gas chamber and mass grave, all whispering the same hard truth: antisemitism, hatred of Jews, does not disappear. It mutates. It adapts. It sleeps. It never dies.

For a while, the Holocaust cast a long, shaming shadow. For decades it gave us something like a free pass, not freedom from hatred, but a buffer from its grossest forms, perhaps born of guilt, or horror too fresh to ignore.

But time erodes even horror. What was once unspeakable becomes a chapter, a footnote, a subject for denial, for distortion, for those who say it was not so bad, or did not happen at all.

And so the shadow lifts, and the old hatred steps back into the light. We are grieving. Each of us in our own way, whether we name it as grief or not.

Some of us write letters, hammering our sorrow into sentences and signatures. Some march in protests, feet pounding pavement like a heartbeat saying, 鈥淲e are still here.鈥�

Some of us moan and groan, complain to anyone who will listen, or to no one at all, because sometimes lament is the only language we have.

And some of us turn back, back to synagogues and study halls, to candles and blessings, to Hebrew words half-remembered, to stories told by grandparents in accents thick with elsewhere.

Because that is what antisemitism does, too: it presses us together, forces us to ask, 鈥淲hat does it mean to be a Jew?鈥� and then, if we have the courage, to answer with our lives.

I am grieving the loss of an illusion, that we had finally outgrown this ancient poison, that education and progress had cured a sickness older than our temples鈥� ruins.

I do not know if there is a prayer for this kind of loss, for the end of an almost-peace, for the shattering of a fragile trust in the world around us.

But if there is none, then there should be: A prayer for the end of forgetting, for the courage to remember without surrendering to despair.

A prayer for the strength to be visibly, stubbornly 91传媒 in a world that sometimes wishes we would vanish.

A prayer for those years of quiet, for the comfort they gave us, for the naivet茅 they allowed for the dream they let us dream, that our children might never learn the taste of this old fear.

Until such a prayer is written, let this be its first draft, spoken not from a prayer book, but from the ache in our throats: We are grieving. We have lost our long reprieve. We stand once more in history knowing exactly where we are.

And still, despite everything, we answer with the oldest words we know: Am Yisrael Chai. The people of Israel lives.

We are grieving, and we go on.

Jerry Mendel is USC Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, and a long-time member of Culver City Temple Akiba, where he teaches a course on the history of antisemitism.

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On Wholeness

Judaism / Peter Himmelman

At the bris for yet another grandson this week I was gifted not only a new member of our family, but something else: a rare and fleeting glimpse of eternity, an acute sense of being part of a generational chain stretching back four thousand years.

This covenant, this partnership with God and the 91传媒 people, taking place on a street in Brooklyn in scorching summer heat鈥攚ith global forces of hate and fear directed at us once again, I found myself beaming with pride to be part of this miraculous people. Knowing that I have contributed to its numbers and, in some small way, to its flourishing stands among my most important achievements.

My son Isaac鈥攚hose first child鈥檚 bris took place just days after October 7鈥攈ad given him two names, one for a warrior and the other for a prophet. He explained then that these two things felt necessary for his son, born at such a dark and uncertain time. The names had been chosen consciously, but, as 91传媒 tradition teaches, also through a measure of prophetic awareness granted to every parent in the naming of a child鈥攁 name which contains hope for a good and happy life and also a depiction of his or her essential qualities.

Today he explained his newborn son鈥檚 Hebrew name: Shalom.

Two sons, two moments, two namings鈥攁nd between them, a kind of arc. The first name was forged in vigilance and a hunger for clarity, a child armored for a world that had just bared its fangs. This one, offered in aspiration, is for a child named not for what we must withstand but for what we still dare to hope for. If the warrior and the prophet were what survival required, Shalom is what survival is for.

Shalom.

Not simply a cessation of war, as most people think of it, but something rooted in the Hebrew shalem鈥攚holeness. The paradox of oneness within infinite diversity.

This, Isaac said, is what is called for in this moment, what he knew his son would purvey throughout a long and, God-willing, happy life. If only for a moment, a feeling of shalem was palpable to me in ways both intellectual and visceral.

It is only human to see darkness and experience doubt much more readily than we see and experience their opposites. But I saw the opposite that day, in small, specific things: in the unhesitating way the room quieted for the blessings, in my son鈥檚 demeanor, proud with humble reverence as the name was said aloud, in the old men who鈥檇 lived through unspeakable horrors and the brightness of unimaginable joys, nodding in recognition of the gift of continuity.

Love was no abstraction in that room. It was a baby passed hand to hand, from generation to generation, and the way family and friends looked on with no small measure of astonishment at the miracle of it all.

Moments like these are touchstones, indelible markers of the fullness of love鈥攐f its beauty and its capacity to lift us beyond the rote, beyond a certain place at a certain time. They are not to be packed away and forgotten as so-called normal life inevitably intrudes, but nurtured and cultivated for later use. I鈥檝e chosen to write about this so that the details of the moment can be remembered, cherished.

This, I think, is belonging. And belonging is always to play a part in something larger than oneself.

Most of us have been acculturated to believe that what our senses register is the sum of reality. But standing in that space, on that street on a scorching hot day, seeing that beautiful child, it was not difficult to feel the layers beneath the surface of an ordinary Tuesday鈥攖he four thousand years pressing up through the pavement.

May all the blessings for good come to pass for our new grandson, for our friends and family, and for you, dear reader: for health, for purpose, for love鈥攁nd above all, for wholeness.

Peter Himmelman is a Grammy and Emmy nominated performer, songwriter, film composer, visual artist and award-winning author.

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It鈥檚 Really a Wonderful Life

Columnists / Mark Schiff

Rabbi Abraham Twerski wrote repeatedly about low self-esteem: how people can be led to believe that their lives are meaningless and that they have made no difference at all. What a terrible way to live, and an even worse way to leave this life, believing that you鈥檝e not made a difference.

Thinking suicide was his only option, George Bailey (James Stewart), in the movie “It鈥檚 a Wonderful Life,” was lucky that Clarence the angel came to his rescue.听 By the end of the movie, George realized he had made a difference in this world. He had friends, a wife, kids, relatives and a loving God who sent an angel to help him. Yet, without Clarence the angel, he could not see how wonderful and meaningful his life was and who he had touched.

Since our lives are not movies, we cannot expect a Clarence to help us as one helped George. We can鈥檛 always see what good we鈥檝e done in this world. If we are lucky enough to get even a glimpse, we need to tighten our grip and hold on for dear life.

Some days, no matter how many times I鈥檓 told I am loved and shown it, I still think, as George Bailey felt, I have added little to this life. Then, magically, or is it my personal Clarence, the clouds lift, the rain stops, and I think I am the luckiest person in the world, which I am, and so are many of you.

Even Moses, who did everything he could do for the 91传媒 people, could not understand why the 91传媒 people bombarded him with nonstop complaining. Even after being taken out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, they continued to complain nonstop about the food. They wanted meat, cucumbers, leeks, garlic and water, as they had for free in Egypt. Really, is anything free?

Like George Bailey, Moses felt he could not carry this burden alone and did not want to live. Even Moses could not see all the good that he had done in this life. Little did he know that thousands of years later, we would still be thankful for his leadership.

When I was six, and my aunt laughed at my jokes, she had no idea I would still feel her encouragement in my 70s.

Some Saturday nights my parents would let me pick out the movie we would go to, even if they couldn鈥檛 care less about my choice; they would go. I remember the nights my mother would make me dinner while experiencing a migraine headache.听 Their selfless acts encouraged me to be that way with my family and friends. Tears now come when I think about what it would mean to go with them one more time, with me in the back seat of our car, looking at my parents in front of me. Each one of those evenings was a miraculous moment. Those sacrifices still encourage me.听听

None of these people did these things because they wanted to be remembered. It was because they cared about me and wanted to teach and encourage me.

The saying goes, “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.”听 The good these people did for me, they will never fully see or understand. 听 Like we do for our own children and grandchildren. Like the good deeds of those before us, which still light our path; many stars that burned out thousands of years ago still light up the sky today.

My wife and I recently went to San Antonio, Texas, to visit her 95-year-old aunt, Judy. We stayed with Aunt Judy for two nights. It made her so happy to know that she still makes a difference, and it encouraged her to keep going.听 When people are happy that you visit them, that鈥檚 a good sign you鈥檝e made a difference.

Our job is to plant those seeds whose growth we may never witness. To do this, we need to remind ourselves that, however small and inconsequential those things seem, we have made a difference. And while 鈥渟eeing is believing鈥� may be true, believing without seeing is also true.

Mark Schiff is a comedian, actor and writer and hosts, along with Danny Lobell, the “We Think It鈥檚 Funny” podcast. His new book is “Why Not? Lessons on Comedy, Courage and Chutzpah.”

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Grief in our Times

Judaism / Eva Robbins

As we approach Tisha B鈥橝v, the moment in the calendar when grief becomes our focus, I can鈥檛 help but acknowledge that the 91传媒 world, in this moment, is something to grieve for as well. The kind of animosity, ill will, bitterness and “destructive” speech that fills our community, world-wide. I feel a great deal of sadness at how broken we have become since Oct. 7, 2023. It feels as if the larger goal, besides the horrors Israel experienced, was destroying the 91传媒 community writ large.

It hit home when my husband expressed a point of view to a long-time seeker of his wisdom and was totally cut off because of what he said was seen as demonstrably critical of the leadership of Israel. Are criticisms now an overriding anti-Israel statement? Do legitimate critiques and points of view somehow represent everything one holds true? Does calling out a family member who is destructive or hurtful mean we don鈥檛 love them anymore? Is it anathema to be an American who tries to hold their personal and 91传媒 values to heart?

During the three weeks before Tisha b鈥橝v we remember how the Romans began their attack, breaking the walls, creating insecurity and fear among the people. Even the sages teach that part of our vulnerability in losing the Holy Temple was what they called 鈥淪inat Chinum,鈥� groundless and baseless hatred towards other Jews. Isn鈥檛 that what we are seeing and experiencing today in the community? In officiating at an upcoming wedding, certain family members will not be coming because of the fall-out in opinions and approaches to expressing them. Colleagues are inundated and overwhelmed by the camps they referee in their synagogues because people have become so locked into a point of view that conversations and discussions are impossible. What a sad state of affairs. We have had so many enemies throughout our history, but nothing is more painful and destructive than fighting amongst ourselves.

I鈥檝e always tried to hold my 91传媒 values close to my heart while also being a steady, objective observer of critical action and events in my community and country, and even personally with those I love and share relationships with. My tradition teaches to welcome the stranger and care for the neighbor. If I care what happens to the Palestinians am I an enemy of Israel? If I judge the leaders of Israel for overstepping in their war efforts, am I an enemy of Israel? If, as a child of Holocaust survivors, I critique my government in this country for some of their attitudes and behaviors, am I anti-America? If my 91传媒 values of respect for the law, honesty, empathy and equality are foundations to question what I see occurring in this administration am I a troublemaker?

This world has become so black and white, and so have you and us. Many of us love Israel. And yet hard conversations lead to judgment and rejection. We all need each other to maintain respectful relationships, open to differences. When the great Kabbalist R. Isaac Luria introduced a totally new approach to how the world came to be and G-d鈥檚 role in it, completely different from what Torah teaches, he wasn鈥檛 accused of being anti-91传媒 or anti-Torah. He was embraced for offering something new and innovative, an alternative to add to our understanding of Creation.

Torah is understood to have 70 faces, innumerable varieties of commentary, all legitimate but never disloyal to Judaism if they move away from “tradition.” We have always embraced argument and difference of opinion, and yet now it has reached a level of disruption amongst friends, family, and community. This is what needs attention, this is what needs healing. Perhaps this is the kind of message and work we need in the coming new year.

The words and the language we use and the assumptions we make when we hear them are dangerous on both sides. Trying to find ways to share opinions while holding each other with respect and with the awareness that the spark of the Holy One is in each one of us, on both sides of different points of views. Perhaps as we honor our memories of loss we can find a pathway to embrace each other, building sacred space to be different while staying connected.

Eva Robbins is a rabbi, cantor, artist and the author of 鈥淪piritual Surgery: A Journey of Healing Mind, Body and Spirit.鈥�

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If Jews Are Not Indigenous to the Land of Israel, Then What Does ‘Indigenous’ Even Mean?

Commentary, Opinion / Micha Danzig

If the 91传媒 people – whose ethnogenesis occurred in the Land of Israel; whose language, civilization, calendar, literature, and legal tradition developed there; whose continuous presence there has never entirely ceased for more than three millennia; and whose prayers have pointed toward Jerusalem for nearly two thousand years – are not indigenous to that land, then the word indigenous loses any coherent historical meaning.

That thought struck me while recently watching Rudy Rochman on Jubilee鈥檚 Surrounded听debate series – a format built more to provoke than to clarify. Rochman made what should have been an unremarkable claim: that the 91传媒 people are indigenous to the Land of Israel. The response was not evidence but ridicule – not archaeology or history, but a familiar assertion: that Arabs are the indigenous people of 鈥淧alestine,鈥� and Jews are somehow European colonizers.

Pause there.

鈥淧alestine鈥� is not an ancient indigenous name. It was imposed by Rome after the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 C.E., when Emperor Hadrian renamed the province of Judea as Syria Palaestina听to diminish the 91传媒 association with the land. Nearly eighteen centuries later, the League of Nations Mandate retained that Roman name for the territory under British administration. In one of history鈥檚 more striking inversions, an imperial label is now treated as evidence of indigeneity, while the people whose homeland was renamed are cast as outsiders.

That inversion has become so familiar, it often goes unnoticed.

Which raises a more serious question than the debate itself: what do many activists now mean by indigenous?

Because whatever they mean, it is not how the term has generally been understood.

Historically, indigeneity refers to a people whose cultural, linguistic, and civilizational origins are rooted in a specific land; who formed as a distinct collective there; whose identity and traditions remain tied to it; and who often endured conquest or displacement while preserving that connection.

Put differently, indigeneity asks where a people became a people – not where every one of its descendants happened to be living centuries later.

By that standard, few peoples and lands match more clearly the idea of indigeneity than the 91传媒 people with the Land of Israel.

Hebrew emerged in the Land of Israel. The Israelite faith now called Judaism developed there. Nearly every major narrative of the Hebrew Bible unfolds there. The 91传媒 calendar reflects the land鈥檚 agricultural rhythms. 91传媒 law contains land-specific commandments. 91传媒 prayer faces Jerusalem. The Passover Seder ends with 鈥淣ext Year in Jerusalem.鈥� Throughout the history of the 91传媒 diaspora, 91传媒 identity remained oriented toward return.

This is not nationalism projected backward. It is a clear case of a people maintaining a land-based identity across centuries of exile.

Nor does this depend on accepting the Bible as literal history. The 91传媒 connection to the land is documented through archaeology, inscriptions, coins, external records, and linguistic continuity – alongside a continuous, if diminished, presence spanning millennia.

It is also reinforced by modern genetics.

Across Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi populations, peer-reviewed genetic studies consistently identify shared Middle Eastern ancestry – clustering 91传媒 populations with one another and with Levantine groups rather than with the European populations among whom many later lived. These findings strongly undermine post-1948 claims that Jews are primarily descendants of European converts or the medieval Khazar kingdom. That theory, popular in modern anti-Israel polemics, finds little support in modern population genetics, which instead points to a common Near Eastern origin with later admixture.

In other words, the historical and genetic records converge.

None of this was controversial until it became politically inconvenient.

The difficulty lies not in the evidence but in the framework used to interpret it.

Thus, before Jews can be characterized as 鈥渃olonizers,鈥� their status as a people must first be erased, reducing them instead to a purely religious identity.

But Judaism is not a religion in the way that Christianity or Islam are. It is not a universalist faith. It is the religious, legal, linguistic, and cultural expression of a people – the 91传媒 people – an ethnoreligious civilization tied to a specific homeland. Even the English word 鈥渃onversion鈥� only approximates the Hebrew term giyur, which means joining a people, not just adopting beliefs. A ger听enters a shared law, memory, and identity. It is why Ruth – perhaps history鈥檚 most famous ger听– upon completing her giyur, pledges, 鈥淵our people shall be my people.鈥�

For over three thousand years, Jews have understood themselves as a people – Am Yisrael.

No one argues that Native American nations cease to be indigenous because outsiders can join them. Yet in the 91传媒 case, the fact that people can join the 91传媒 people through a giyur听is used by many anti-Israel activists to erase 91传媒 peoplehood and recast 91传媒 identity as being 鈥渙nly鈥� religious.

By stripping Jews of their peoplehood, one can recast some of them as 鈥淓uropeans鈥� who merely adopted an ancient Middle Eastern faith.

But even for the roughly 44% of Israeli Jews who are Ashkenazic, that leap requires ignoring 91传媒 history.

For centuries, European societies did not consider Jews European or 鈥渨hite.鈥� Jews were treated as an alien people – Semitic, Levantine, perpetually foreign – segregated, expelled, and often massacred, culminating in genocide precisely because they were seen as non-European.

Then, with striking convenience, those same societies – or their intellectual successors – rebranded Jews as 鈥渨hite European colonizers.鈥�

Few reversals have been as abrupt – or as useful.

The same pattern appears in the colonialism argument.

Colonialism has recognizable features: an empire or metropole sends settlers to expand power, extract resources, and govern territory.

So simple questions follow:

What metropole sent the 91传媒 Zionists?

Where was the imperial center directing them?

What empire extracted wealth on their behalf?

The historical record offers clear answers: none.

Jews purchased land in Ottoman and later British-controlled Palestine – often at inflated prices. They built institutions independently. They fought the British when immigration was restricted right before and during the Holocaust. Britain armed, trained, and commanded the Arab Legion – the most formidable army opposing 91传媒 independence.

91传媒 sovereignty emerged not as an extension of empire but in conflict with it.

Colonial movements do not ordinarily wage armed revolt against the empire supposedly directing them, nor do they typically emerge by defeating both that empire and the regional armies it armed and supported.

Nor does seeking outside support make a movement colonial. The Zionist movement, like many movements of stateless peoples in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sought backing from great powers. The pattern is common: the Kurds appealing to Britain and France after World War I, later to the United States; Tibetan leadership seeking international support; or Balkan national movements aligning with larger states – all without being recast as colonial agents.

Seeking great-power support is a recurring feature of national liberation movements. It is not what makes them colonial.

These comparisons are not obscure. They are simply overlooked.

Why?

In part because antisemitism continues to shape how 91传媒 history is interpreted. But also, because contemporary usage often conflates residence with origin. A population may live somewhere for centuries without that place being where it developed as a distinct people. Indigeneity is not about who lived somewhere most recently, but about where a people took shape.

Nor is it erased by exile. Native American nations did not lose their status after forced removal. By the same reasoning, Roman conquest did not erase 91传媒 indigeneity.

Instead, a new criterion has quietly emerged: permanent political powerlessness.

In much of today鈥檚 indigeneity discourse about Israel, origin and continuity are no longer enough. To be considered 鈥渋ndigenous,鈥� a people must remain dispossessed. Sovereignty becomes disqualifying. Success becomes suspect.

Of course, this standard is not applied consistently. No one suggests that greater autonomy would make the M膩ori, S谩mi, Navajo, or Cherokee less indigenous.

Only the 91传媒 case is subjected to a definition in which established markers suddenly fail.

None of this denies that Palestinian Arabs have deep roots in the land. Indigeneity need not be exclusive. The issue is the insistence that Jews uniquely do not qualify.

And that insistence produces distortions.

Jews are variously cast as European outsiders, white colonizers, religious converts with no ancestry – and, when convenient, descendants of the ancient Israelites whose history is invoked only when it can be used against them by claiming they themselves conquered the land from the Canaanites. 91传媒 history is accepted when it indicts Jews and rejected when it legitimizes them.

At that point, the conclusion has already been decided. The definition is simply rewritten to reach it.

If the 91传媒 people are not indigenous to the Land of Israel, then indigeneity no longer refers to origin, continuity, or civilizational development. It becomes a political label – granted or withheld as needed.

And once a definition must be rewritten for one people – and one alone – it ceases to be a definition.

It becomes a weapon.

Which is why Jews need not accept the premise – or the burden. The 91传媒 case for indigeneity in the Land of Israel is not marginal or ambiguous. It is paradigmatic.

If indigeneity must be redefined to exclude one of history鈥檚 clearest examples of a conquered and colonized indigenous people – whose identity, language, civilization, and origins are all rooted in a single ancestral homeland – then the problem is not Zionism or the Jews.

It鈥檚 the people who distort the definition of indigeneity.

Micha Danzig served in the Israeli Army and is a former police officer with the NYPD. He is currently an attorney and is very active with numerous 91传媒 and pro-Israel organizations, including Stand With Us and the FIDF, and is a national board member of Herut North America.

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Charlotte Hornets Guard Coby White Visits Chai Lifeline鈥檚 Camp Simcha Without Borders

Community / Kylie Ora Lobell

Campers at Chai Lifeline鈥檚 Camp Simcha Without Borders West Coast received a special surprise this past week: a visit from Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White. He spent the afternoon giving out autographs, taking photos, and dancing with the campers on their final day at camp.

鈥淐oby brought such warmth, excitement, and genuine simcha to our campers,鈥� said Randi Grossman, director of Chai Lifeline West Coast. 鈥淔or children facing illness, moments like these are about so much more than a special visitor. They are about feeling seen, celebrated, and surrounded by happiness.鈥�

鈥淐oby brought such warmth, excitement, and genuine simcha to our campers.鈥� 鈥� Randi Grossman

The visit was a highlight for the campers, giving them the chance to enjoy being kids while hanging out with a superstar NBA player. White, who is 26, signed a three-year, $74 million deal to return to the Hornets before stopping by the camp.

Chai Lifeline, a national organization with offices in Los Angeles, helps children and families impacted by illness. Nationally, Camp Simcha Without Borders runs day camps and hosts special events in towns throughout the United States. The goal is to bring the fun to children who can鈥檛 travel, as well as their siblings. It was started during the pandemic, and in 2020, more than 1,200 took part in the first summer with Camp Simcha Without Borders.

The main Camp Simcha is in Glen Spey, New York in the Catskills Mountain, and is for children and teens with cancer and other blood disorders. Their goal is to bring childhood back to children who lost it when they were diagnosed with illness. The camp accepts children and teens in all phases of treatment, including post-treatment.

Camp Simcha Without Borders, which lasts one week, brings the magic of the Camp Simcha experience to campers everywhere. Along with meeting White, campers in LA attended a FIFA-themed party to celebrate the World Cup, where they danced, ate pizza, and were treated to rolled liquid nitrogen ice cream. They also participated in an interactive science fair, went swimming, did rock climbing, got their faces painted, and watched a magic show.

One camper, Michael, said, ” Can you please make Camp Simcha Without Borders all summer long?鈥� Another, Jonah, said, 鈥淭his was the best week ever.鈥�

As for Grossman, she is appreciative to White, who helped end this year鈥檚 Camp Simcha Without Borders with a bang.

She said, 鈥淲e are so grateful to Coby for giving our campers a day they will never forget.鈥�

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Squeezed from Both Sides

Columnists / Dan Schnur

After a week in which Democrats nominated a slate of antizionists to Congress in a troika of New York City House races, it would be tempting to think that their party is now the greater threat to Israel and to the 91传媒 community in this country. But we were simultaneously reminded by Vice President JD Vance that our challenge is a bipartisan one and that we face equally significant challenges from the political right as well as the left.

Animosity toward Israel was not the only factor that allowed three ultra-progressive congressional candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to win their primary campaigns in deep-blue districts over establishment-backed pro-Israel opponents. But there鈥檚 no question that antizionism fueled by Mamdani and his Democratic Socialists of America allies was the driving emotional force that brought Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander and Claire Valdez to victory (as evidenced by the chants of 鈥淔ree Palestine鈥� at their victory party).

The Democrats face a daunting and worsening problem with the progressive base of their party on these issues. Their congressional leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer seemed flummoxed by the uprising and most of the party鈥檚 potential presidential candidates are tiptoeing away from the type of pro-Israel advocacy that was once necessary for a plausible contender in either party.

Zionist Democrats can and will retake their party, but the path back is longer and more complicated today than it was two weeks ago. The upcoming Senate primaries in Minnesota and Michigan will provide additional guidance on the scale and scope of this challenge. If Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan win the Democratic nominations in their states, they will be just as troublesome on Israel-related issues for Schumer as the Gotham trio will for Jeffries.

But for those who prioritize their love for Israel over their domestic partisan preferences, Vice President Vance came forward this week to illustrate an equally frustrating set of obstacles we face from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Like most VPs, Vance tends to be a fairly reliable echo for his president on most matters. But Vance wants to be president himself in a few years, so he is very aware that an ill-chosen statement could create significant problems for him in a 2028 primary against the longtime Israel ally Marco Rubio. Unlike his shoot-from-the-hip leader, Vance is usually mindful of the potential consequences of his public statements.

So while Donald Trump鈥檚 angry criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu reflects his current frustration with what he sees as Israel鈥檚 lack of cooperation in ending the Iran war, Vance鈥檚 careful and premeditated comments may provide us with a more reliable roadmap of current conservative thinking on the Middle East. Vance has been tasked with the unenviable responsibility of steering the Iran negotiations toward a relatively peaceful conclusion. While attempting to navigate this excruciatingly unforgiving diplomatic landscape, the vice president engaged in an exercise in moral equivalence that was as ill-informed as it was repulsive. Using the age-old 鈥渃hicken and egg鈥� formulation in a futile effort to pacify both Israel and Hezbollah, Vance suggested that there is no way to know whether terrorist violence or Israeli defense of its citizens was the root cause of the conflict.

The problem, of course, is that there would be no need for the 91传媒 state to defend itself if Hezbollah and other Iranian clients did not attack Israel鈥檚 citizens so frequently and so viciously. Putting the two on the same moral plane allowed Vance to both excuse the terrorism and condemn the victims, implying that Israel has no right to defend itself.

Vance has waded into these waters before, with similarly unsatisfying results. Earlier this year, he did not mention Jews or Nazis in commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day. His verbal contortions to avoid denouncing Tucker Carlson鈥檚 overt antisemitism would earn him a gymnastics medal in the next Olympics. Unlike the DSA members who attack Israel as a matter of political conviction (albeit dangerously misguided conviction), Vance鈥檚 criticisms are instead the product of pure political calculation. It鈥檚 hard to know which is worse.

Dan Schnur is the U.S. Politics Editor for the 91传媒 Journal. He teaches courses in politics, communications, and leadership at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. He hosts the monthly webinar 鈥淭he Dan Schnur Political Report” for the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall. Follow Dan’s work at

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