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The time has come to request your absentee ballot if you plan to be out of the city during the early vote period (June 14-22) or on Primary Election Day itself (June 24). With many non-public schools ending as early as June 13  or by June 18 and summer trips beginning shortly thereafter, it’s important to plan ahead. Requesting a ballot is quick and easy, all it takes is visiting nycabsentee.com  to apply. You have until June 10 to request your absentee ballot. All absentee ballots are due back (or postmarked by) June 24 to be counted in the election.

Normally, the Hollywood Reporter isn’t on my reading list. But thanks to the algorithm I had the opportunity to read a movie review of a slick piece of anti-Israel propaganda.

Highlighting a newly released film, The Encampments, the reviewer gushes about the actions of Mahmoud Khalil and the other organizers of the Columbia University April 2024 campus-wide disruption.

As we near the halfway point of 2025, the casual acceptance of antisemitism in public life is no longer a social aberration. Political and entertainment figures, often using social media, have normalized antisemitic tropes that long ago evolved from criticism of Israel into outright Jew hatred. What constitutes legitimate political discourse or modernized ancient blood libel is hard to decipher at this point. Conspiracy theories about Jewish influence are persistent and varied, fueling antisemitic discrimination in academic, cultural, and economic spaces on the right and left. Violent incidents and vandalism against Jewish communities continue to rise and are generally met with indifference. While it’s true that some of our leaders condemn antisemitism, others downplay or exploit it for political gain. Even within our own community, there is a lack of genuine unity on what constitutes antisemitism and how we should collectively respond to it.

Once again, and all at once, the depravity of Hamas and all those who gleefully celebrated the atrocities of October 7th is all encompassing. The first phase of the deal was supposed to last for 42 days, only for Hamas to repeatedly threaten to sabotage the ceasefire. We saw our hostages’ physical deterioration and evident starvation, as well as stories of the torture they and those left behind endured deep underground. And now, the bodies of innocent hostages, the most innocent imaginable.

Most of the world will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz today, January 27th. It is likely the government of Poland is planning the annual photo-op with Polish political prisoners who survived the camp as teens or children. They will wear reproduction striped uniforms bearing a triangle with a P and lay memorial wreaths at the executioners’ wall.