A holiday ask
This is about health
We’re back!
Housekeeping notes: This Monday, paid subscribers got this month’s ET Ask Home.
I think that, in 2026, we’re going to do two new features for paid subscribers: I’ll bring back ET Read Home, but instead of a reading list each month, I’ll write about one specific book (announced the month before in case you want to read along). And I was thinking of replacing ET Ask Home with ET Speak Home, in which I do a little mini profile of different foreign language learners. But if you are a paid subscriber and hate either of those ideas, please let me know (you can also let me know if you like them).
With that! Onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
I went back on the American Prestige podcast to talk about Sarah Hurwitz’s comments on Zionism, Israel, and Holocaust education.
From Notes from Poland: “The Solidarity (Solidarność) trade union, which played a central role in bringing down Poland’s former communist regime, has won a long-running legal battle over the rights to its logo, which has become famous around the world as a symbol of the struggle against oppression.”
From the Smithsonian National Zoo: “For the first time in nearly 25 years, animal care staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Washington, D.C., are preparing for the highly anticipated birth of an Asian elephant calf. In April 2024, the Zoo’s 44-year-old male elephant Spike bred with 12-year-old female Nhi Linh [NEE-lin]. Asian elephant pregnancies last 18 to 22 months on average. Staff are closely monitoring Nhi Linh and are cautiously optimistic she will deliver a healthy calf between mid-January and early March next year. Every birth is a boon for this endangered species, as fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants are left in the world.”
The Washington Post has a report on billionaire influence on American politics.
MY VIEWS ON…
…a holiday ask!
And now for something completely different.
My husband, Neil Bhatiya, needs a kidney transplant. He was in the hospital for a few weeks earlier this fall (if you remember allusions to a personal crisis: it was that!). He was born with chronic kidney disease so we always knew this day would come, but I, at least, did not think it would be a few months after becoming parents. We are lucky that we have wonderful families and friends and also each other and, as Kipling wrote in “If,” we “can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’”
But the inescapable reality is that he needs a kidney transplant. I hope it is not offensive that I am putting this here, but if you have ever considered being a living donor, I hope you will also consider seeing if you are eligible in New York or DC. If you have not but know someone who has, I hope you will send these links to them. Please reach out to me if you need any additional information.
And I hope that you are well and take care and never have to go through anything like this. “Stay healthy,” a Yiddish teacher once told a pandemic era Zoom class. “That’s all that matters. Just stay healthy.” And I know now that he was right. And that a society’s health can be measured at least in part by how easy it is to take care of your health in it.
Or, as an Uber driver (sorry) told me when my husband was in the hospital: You have 1000 problems. Then you get sick. Now you just have one.
…AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
From JTA: “Progressive Jewish author Peter Beinart drew a volley of criticism on Tuesday from the boycott Israel movement as well as a right-wing Israeli group over an appearance at Tel Aviv University.”
Also from JTA: “More than a century ago, this busy Gulf Coast port and longtime vacation destination 50 miles southeast of Houston welcomed so many European immigrants – including some 10,000 Jews – it earned the moniker ‘The Ellis Island of the West.’”
From Haaretz: “Police raided an event organized by the left-wing Arab-Jewish Standing Together movement on Thursday night and again on Friday morning at the Haifa Congress Center. According to activists from the organization who were present, the police said they were there ‘to ensure that their messages are legal.’”
-ET
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