When Hen Mazzig came to speak at the UCLA Hillel in late October, I had no expectation of seeing him again ten days later at the Jewish National Fund’s National Conference in Boston, some 2,500 miles away from Westwood. While…
Opinion
Why the U.S. Government Should Not De-List Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps
As the Biden Administration and its allies push to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, the Islamic Republic has indicated that the benefits afforded to them under the new agreement are not sufficient and have…
What the Colleyville Synagogue Hostage Crisis Can Teach Us
An armed 44-year-old radical jihadist British citizen named Malik Faisal Akram took several hostages at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, Saturday, January 15. In his final phone call, Akram stated that he would free the individuals in exchange for…
The Danger of Iran’s Continuous Pattern of Anti-Semitic Government Leaders
In 2016, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed a 55-year-old anti-Semitic hardliner and Islamic jurist, Ebrahim Raisi, as chairman of that Iranian government’s reserve for terrorism, the Astan Quds Razavi. Fast forward to August of 2020, 60-year-old Ebrahim Raisi…
Bennett, Bibi, & Iran
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted as Israel’s prime minister on June 14, 2021, after Naftali Bennett and his Yamina party formed a government with other right and center-right Israeli parties. While both Bennett and Netanyahu have political differences, both…
Abolhassan Banisadr: A Power-Hungry President
In France, 88-year-old Abolhassan Banisadr died from a long illness on Saturday, October 9, 2021. After supporting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Banisadr became Iran’s first elected president in February of 1980 but was shortly impeached and fled to France following an…
Exploring the Jewish-Owned Delis of Los Angeles
North Beverly Drive. Pico. Fairfax. The homes Nate ’n Al’s, Factor’s Famous Deli, and Canter’s Deli respectively. During my time in quarantine and in the spirit of supporting Jewish-owned businesses, I explored the closest Jewish delicatessens the LA area had…
Conspiracies Have Reached The Mainstream
Conspiracy theories used to be a joke in society, fun stories that tried to explain world events in a convoluted way that assigned meaning to trivial details. People who believed in things that weren’t based on facts or science, such…
The Only Way to Win is to be Proud
“She drove me to Hebrew day 6-8th grade almost every day. Lives down the street from me” This was the text I received after Shabbat from a close childhood friend about Lori Gilbert Kaye, the woman who was mercilessly killed…
Apple updates icon for key diet element
Bagels are an integral part of my diet and identity and I truly feel that no bagel is complete without lox and cream cheese. This is a fact that I finally understood when Apple released the bagel emoji. When Apple…