ilanaBit

If we don’t like countries like Qatar donating to universities to exert influence on how they teach our young people, we certainly don’t want them donating to the government to exert influence on how they conduct foreign policy.

Is there any reporting on the rally? Did it actually happen? I searched yesterday and today and can’t find anything substantive.

Cincinnati rabbi disinvited from rally against Nazis over his support for Israel - Jewish Telegraphic Agency Rabbi Ari Jun is a self-described liberal Zionist who has advocated for the Palestinians.

If you want to understand how the Holocaust has been weaponized to erase Jews from the story of their own murders, this story is instructive: "Cincinnati rabbi disinvited from rally against Nazis" (he was a progressive who failed a bigoted progressive purity test on Israel)

“We don’t know enough about ourselves. I think it’s better to know that you don’t know, that way you can grow with the mystery as the mystery grows in you. But, these days, of course, everybody knows everything, that’s why so many people are so lost.”

— James Baldwin

One of my tools as a critic had been a Twitter list called, "Top Journalism Linkers." Designed so that I could survey the space. It was the first thing I read in the morning. When I left it had 6.8K users.

Over the weekend I rebuilt it for Bluesky. You can subscribe. bsky.app/profile/jayr...

Child hostages identified but body Hamas released was not their mother, Israel says Hamas has handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead.

Heart breaks again for Bibas family. The cruelty of Hamas cannot be overstated or glossed over indefinately. Harder and harder to question those who say they cannot live with neighbors who routinely act in bad faith.

apnews.com/article/isra...

True. I pondered using “humans” rather than “Americans”, and maybe “westerners” is appropriate in this moment in history. I dunno, but there’s a lot of bubbling anger around that doesn’t have appropriate outlets.

Americans are so bad at expressing anger in a meaningful way, when we’re triggered, any old place will do.

Via Robbie Gramer at Politico, in a legal filing a USAID employee details trying to leave Kinshasa, Congo with their family and leaving their possessions behidn amid panic created by Trump and Musk's sudden shutdown of the agency

“I’ve found it throughout my life; a bully is the weakest person.”

— Donald J Trump
Feb 11, 2025 12:54pm
Oval Office

Musk’s reaction to to Kanye plugging swastika merch on his platform is just to laugh

He’s fully let go of trying to maintain any illusion that he cares about this stuff happening on X.

Opinion | The World’s Richest Men Take On the World’s Poorest Children I’ve seen U.S.A.I.D. operate around the world, and it’s not woke — it’s lifesaving.

The world's richest man is taking food and medicine from the world's poorest children
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...

For the amount of money we spend on YouTubeTV, we should be able to selectively turn off Tom Brady.

DEI Is In The Firing Line - But At What Cost? | Entrepreneur As AI reshapes the workplace, businesses that prioritise Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) gain a strategic advantage - driving innovation, reducing bias, and staying competitive in a rapidly evo...

Facts matter

Are businesses actually doing themselves a disservice by appeasing DEI opponents?

Empirical research consistently contradicts these claims. FTSE 100 companies with the most diverse leadership teams outperformed their peers by 36%.

www.entrepreneur.com/en-gb/leader...

We’ve been transported into Back To The Future II, and Biff is president.

Marion was married to Elie for 56 years until his death in 2016. She passed away yesterday at the age of 94. May her memory be a blessing.

Photo: The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity

Marion also initiated the establishment of the Beit Tzipora Centers in Israel, which provide educational support to Ethiopian Jewish children.

Marion went on to translate 14 of Elie's books from French to English. She also produced TV programs and wrote and narrated a Holocaust education documentary. In 1986, she and Elie co-founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

By that time, he was an established writer, and she was working as an editor and translator. They bonded over their individual connections to the Holocaust and their shared interest in humanitarian causes, eventually marrying in 1969.

…including his renowned book Night.

She was born on January 27, 1931, in Vienna. During WWIl, her family fled Nazi-occupied Austria and eventually found refuge in Switzerland in 1942, before immigrating to the US in 1949.

Marion and Elie Wiesel met in the 1960s in New York.

Since there wasn’t a single post on Bluesky to share, I’m sharing Humans of Judaism’s Insta post…

“Many know Elie Wiesel for his profound words on the Holocaust, but not everyone knows that his wife, Marion, played a significant role in translating much of his legacy into English

Raham Emanuel this morning on political strategy going forward, “we have to be where the American people are at their kitchen table, not where we want them to be, but where they are.”

Badass Bishop Mariann Budde

Well… 1 down 1460 to go

YouTube video by Shabbat on Broadway Hanukkah on Broadway | “Tomorrow” Reimagined Featuring Julie Benko and Cantor Azi Schwartz

This is really a lovely way to end the Festival of Lights!
youtu.be/FoIwtDVd0FI?...

And he’s off!
#santa

Isn’t “creators” a slightly less pathetic euphemism for “influencers”? I certainly don’t want those “look-at-me-look-at-me” yahoos investigating anything.

The #norad Santa Tracker chat feature is as evasive as everyone else

It’s an optical illusion used in filmmaking as well called forced perspective