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Slice of Life: Christmas confuses me: learning not to be the Grinch
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From the moment Halloween ends and we turn our calendars to November, my neighborhood is decked out with twinkling red and green string lights and pine wreaths. Christmas meets Thousand Oaks as quickly as gossip meets my bubby and as enthusiastically as Manischewitz wine meets a 13-year-old on his Bar Mitzvah day. Being Jewish…
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The rise of antisemitism should not go ignored
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For as long as I can remember, I have spent hours upon hours at my temple. It has become my second home in more ways than one, not only through my attendance to religious school from the age of 5, but through the memories of my last 16 years. I began as a student…
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The war in Gaza is not complex
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I have always been proud to be Jewish. But at the age of 14, I had to reckon with the fact that my Jewishness could be stripped away from me if I announced an opinion deemed wrong by other Jewish people. In 2021, I learned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the first time. I…
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Growing up Jewish during the holiday season
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Strolling through the local Target and inevitably laying my eyes on the bright, giant Christmas tree used to be my least favorite holiday occurrence. To me, it was a reminder of the pathetic one-shelf display of Hanukkah stickers that resided in the very back corner of the store. I would beg my mom to…
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Kanye West validates voices of hate
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Kanye West has become the catalyst for a new wave of antisemitism and neo-nazis to feel validated with their hate. Anyone who is on social media has by now seen or knows of the antisemitic West’s infamous “DEATHCON 3” tweet, his appearance on InfoWars with Alex Jones where he claimed Hitler was a good…
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Suspect revealed in Anne Frank’s betrayal
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For many years, historians have been looking into the prime suspect for the betrayal of Anne Frank and her family. More than 75 years later, a possible suspect has been uncovered. After working for 27 years, retired FBI agent Vince Pankoke has finally discovered a likely culprit: Arnold van den Bergh, a father, Jewish…