It’s like a finger lightly flicking a tiny switch. That’s how the recent terror attacks have reawakened the trauma for those who experienced the events of that era – except tragedy never repeats itself in exactly the same way.

Eleven people have been killed in Israel in three separate terror attacks over the past week, the largest weekly toll since 2006 at the tail end of the Second Intifada.

A generation of both Israelis and Palestinians who grew up in the midst of suicide bombings do not want to see a repeat of such a scenario. Both sides understand the catastrophe that they lived through during those violent years.

…retreat is hardly surrender, and others cautioned that the progress made Tuesday doesn’t mean that Russia is ready for serious discussions on ending the war. That would require a better outcome for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to sell at home as a victory.

…at a meeting in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian teams, the atmospherics were a great deal more positive and the outlines, however faint, of an overall settlement to this horrendously destructive war began to come into focus.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed Russia’s pledge to drastically cut back its military activity in northern Ukraine, saying “Ukrainians are not naive people” and vowing to continue defensive military efforts.

The University of California is considering a proposal that would have the effect of not only requiring students to be indoctrinated in bias but also subjecting those students to a program that delegitimizes their very existence.

…the experiment on which these conclusions are based is so muddled, and the data reported is so ambiguous, that in fact they support no conclusion, either positive or negative, about the effects of this particular ethnic studies course in these particular schools and times.

UC Berkeley must mandate ethnic studies classes in order to give the campus community an understanding of the diversity of California, to value our diverse ethnic histories and to contribute to the unlearning of a Eurocentric understanding of the United States.

Staffers inside the Beltway will often say that the real D.C. is more Veep, the HBO satire of Washington incompetence, than House of Cards, the Netflix soap opera about a calculating House leader turned president. (I’d say the show that best captures the atmosphere, overall, is C-SPAN’s Book TV.)

It shows how far-right systems of thought can boomerang on those who try to benefit from the political energies unleashed by them — while still maintaining distance from their sources to avoid getting too tainted.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has come under scrutiny for refusing to criticize the far-right of his party—including former President Donald Trump and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar—reportedly said he would have a meeting with Cawthorn to talk about his comments.

… when the series was rebooted in 1985, they brought a former yeshiva principal on board to write it. Under Alan Zelenetz, Spector’s Jewishness became more than just a fun fact — Marc struggled with antisemitism, assimilation and even a kabbalistically-inspired villain named Zohar, all while driven by a “moral zeal” we might define as tikkun olam.

Without knowing where the MCU will take the character, we can only hope they’ll decide to explore the richness of Moon Knight’s Judaism. The character experienced and witnessed anti-Semetic violence and fought back, a theme that remains all too relevant now. Though his powers come from a god of Egyptian mythology, the relationship to the moon feels connected to Judaism…

The casting of Oscar Isaac in the lead role raised concerns that Marc’s Jewishness would be erased in his transition from page to screen. Those same concerns have only increased with Moon Knight comic writer Alan Zelenetz’s recent interview with Forward, where he claimed that it’s “perfectly OK” if Marc isn’t Jewish in the series.

The potential for virtual worship is already apparent. Even though the metaverse is often called “soulless,” other religions do have a presence. I visited a detailed virtual mosque that attracts passing avatars with the rhythmic chanting of the Quran. It sits next to a towering standing Buddha statue.

“We’re new age, but old school. Our principles haven’t changed but we know how to adapt to the modern day and then apply the principles of yesterday to today,” said Rabbi Shmuli Nachlas, who is leading Chabad’s metaverse project with his longtime friend Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm and tech expert Alex Gelbert.

Wherever there are Jewish people, there are Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries working to teach, guide and uplift them. Even when they are avatars… For Rabbi Shmuli Nachlas and his partners—Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm and tech-expert Alex Gelbert—it is the next place to connect with their fellow Jews.