A Jewish Scorecard: Trump vs. Sanders

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “A Jewish Scorecard: Trump vs. Sanders.”

In nine months, we will go to the polls again to elect the next President of the United States. Right now, it’s looking like it will be Donald J. Trump versus Bernie Sanders. What is the scorecard of these two men when it comes to the State of Israel⁠—the Jewish homeland that we have returned to after 2,000 years of exile, persecution, and deep yearning, and where the majority of the world’s Jewish people currently reside?

In the end, no candidate is perfect, and each has their own critical flaws. However, you, as the voters will need to tally the score for yourselves and decide who will be President in 2020 and what that means for this country as well as for the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

(Photo: Adapted from Flickr post by The White House (Public Domain) and Linda Sarsour’s Twitter account profile picture)

And There Came A New King Who Knew Not Joseph

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “And There Came A New King Who Knew Not Joseph.”

As we commemorate Passover, we remember that:

In Egypt, the Jews rose to the highest ranks, with Joseph being second only to the Pharaoh, and “Israel settled in the land of Egypt in the region of Goshen; they acquired property in it and they were fruitful and multiplied greatly.” (Genesis 47:27) But then: “A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” (Exodus 1:8) Similarly, in Europe, the Jews had risen to the highest ranks of society, they were free and prospered. They prospered and thrived religiously, and built synagogues and yeshivas to worship and learn in. Moreover, the Jews thought they were Germans (and other European nationalities), like everyone else, and that they were fundamentally safe. That is, until there arose a “new king,” Adolf Hitler (may his name be cursed forever), “who knew not Joseph.”

What will happen in America that we all love–will the pendulum swing once again to hate and anti-Semitism, where there comes a new king that does not know Joseph? 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Taking The Bullet

So I learned many valuable lessons when I worked at the U.S. Secret Service–I loved it there!

But one of the lessons that sticks out it that sometimes you have to take a bullet for the President!

This lesson stayed with me and I believe it applies to a lot of other situations in life as well.

Sometimes you take one for the 

– Team

– Cause

– Relationship  

It’s easy to say you are going to preserve you self by “dodging a bullet,” but often it’s really just the opposite that is needed. 

If you take the bullet, you are putting yourself subordinate to a larger cause and what is really important. 

Taking one to safeguard the President of the United States is definitely a larger cause. 

But also your team, the success of an important cause or project, precious relationships that have been built over time–these can all mean more than taking even a significant hit. 

This doesn’t mean to be stupid, become anyone’s punching bag or just take people’s sh*t for nothing. 

Rather what it does mean is that you can suck it up sometimes–when the ends justify the means–and jump in front of that bullet to preserve something bigger and more important than just yourself. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

It’s Fight or Surrender!

This is why President Reagan was able to “tear down that wall” and win the Cold War. 

He was a true role model for leadership and what a President is. 

– Faith in G-d.

– A strength of convictions.

– The Integrity that touches hearts. 

– Courage to carry forward. 

– Pride in our nation.

– Judicious use of our might.

Go USA! 😉

Ramath Orah Synagogue

So the other day, I received this wonderful email from someone working on the 75th anniversary of Ramath Orah Synagogue on the Upper West Side in Manhattan where I grew up. 

My grandfather (Opa), Simon Blumenthal, had served as the President of that synagogue for many wonderful years.

I remember always being so proud of him for his dedication and hard work for the community. 

I look up to him when he got up to give the announcements at the pulpit. 

And he built the beautiful center bimah, the special succah downstair with the roof that opened up to the sky at holiday time, and made many other truly impressive improvements to the synagogue. 

He and his wife, my grandmother (Oma), Hilda Blumenthal were an absolutely beautiful couple and the finest of people. 

My parents, Fred and Gerda Blumenthal, continued in their footsteps and to be members at Ramath Orah long after we had moved away to Riverdale, and they were contributors to the shul and attended the annual synagogue dinners for many years. 

Even though the synagogue was mainly filled with elderly people at the time, we always knew and prayed that it would become revitalized again, which it did and is now. 

Pictured at the bottom is me as a kid sitting with a talit over my shoulder and in my grandfathers (the President’s chair) in the front of the synagogue.

Aside from leading and singing the regular Yigdal and Adom Olam prayers, I loved to sit with my father and grandfather in synagogue.

We prayed together, and we stayed together as a family and community. 

I miss them all so much, but am sure they are up in Heaven together sitting in the Big Synagogue in the sky basking in the light of Hashem and watching over me and my family today!  😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

CNN News May (Sometimes) Be Fake, But The Flowers Aren’t

As CNN (and other news outlets) continue to go after the President of the United States with a vehemence, and three of its journalists had to resign, I thought it was important to remember that while there may be much news these days that is ugly and fake, there are still many things in life that are still beautiful and real like these gorgeous flowers.

While we look to the media for honest and fair news reporting to educate and inform us all, it continues to be more than disappointing that they not only seem to take sides, but as one of their own producers admitted, they are looking out for their own ratings more than for the benefit of the American and global news consumer. 

Political biases, chasing after ratings, alternative facts, fake news…what are people across the political and viewpoint spectrum to do to get to the truth?  😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

What ISIS Saw Today

So this is what ISIS saw today…

After the U.S. dropped the Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) on it in Afghanistan.

30 feet long, 21,600 pounds, GPS-guided, equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, and a blast radius of 1 mile!

The largest non-nuclear bomb in our arsenal that sucks out all the oxygen and lights the air on fire. 

It was never used before in battle, and it is wonderful to see that we are finally pulling out the stops on radical Islamist Terrorism. 

It’s time to make them crap their pants and see nothing but spots before their eyes. 

Terrorists, there is a new President in town–and the game is up! 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Divided States Of America

So the way the alt-left are fighting it out with President Trump…with violent protests, riots, marches, insults, beatings, fires, broken windows, and sheer contempt,  you’d think we were in a third world country under a brutal dictator, or worse.  

Gone is the respect, decency, compromise, and diplomacy among valid differences of opinion and points of view. 

Talking it out and working it out…forget about it. 

Aside from taking up arms, it’s almost like this country is in a second civil war. 

The United States has become the divided states. 

Hitler, Nazis, Stalin, Commies!

California wants to secede (like Texas wanted to previously). 

Lawsuits against the President.

Screams, posters and groups of “Not my President.”

Celebrities threatening to pack up and leave the country. 

Refusals to carry out the laws of the land. 

People joining the resistance and underground. 

Secret communications in agencies. 

Plotting and threats for a military overthrow of the Presidency. 

Calls for blowing up the White House.

Tweets calling for assassination and pics posted of what it would look like. 

Yet there are no death camps, no razor sharp wire, no attack dogs ripping the flesh off people, no forced labor, no death marches, no brutal beatings, no starvation of prisoners, no poison gas showers, no crematoria, no firing squads, no mass graves, no gruesome experiments on twins, no vicious assaults, no sexual abuse and rapes, no Star of David patches to be worn, no threats to exterminate. 

While of course, we need to ensure “Never Again” for all of us– even the slightest inkling of it–is there really a bona-fide “again” or “inkling” here in the first place? 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Not A Newspaper, But Rather A Hatepaper

Many are raising concerns about media bias and censorship in this most polarizing of times for our nation. 

Media like the New York Times that many used to look up to is endlessly going after the President of the United States and has become a hateful disgrace for its bias, hyperbole, and rancor. 

No longer a respectful investigative and informative newspaper, it’s now become a bona fide one-sided, bigoted, hatepaper.

Sure, media is going to represent the views of its owners, but today’s New York Times is what happens when hate and party politics become it’s sole purpose for being. 

When people and media are balanced, fair, and rational, they present good and bad–both sides of the argument. 

When they are biased and hateful and simply a tool for power elite propaganda and mind control then this is what you get…the New York Times Sunday Review Section–here’s a list of their articles today:

– The Commander in Chief Who Buried Humility
– How to Listen to Donald Trump Every Day for Years
– Why Would We Need To March?
– Racial Progress, Then Racist Progress
– Under The Big Top (Apparently the circus [Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey] couldn’t compete against a Trump presidency)
– Sheer Dispair
– The America We Lost When Trump Won
– Placing a Bet on the New President (I’ve Been hearing he’s surrounding himself with swampy people)
– The Tempting of the Media (The traps for the press in the Trump era)
– Why I Cannot Fall in Line Behind Trump

Yes, our freedom and democracy is under attack by bias and bigotry, but perhaps you need to look closer at the supposedly mainstream newspapers that you are reading for the true hateful filled columns that they have come to represent.  

May G-d save this republic from not only corrupt politicians, but also a media that is in some cases no better, and perhaps as in this case, maybe even worse. 

Who are the deplorables when the windows of innocents are being smashed, the cars being burnt, threats of bombing the White House are broadcast, and the hate-mongering media keeps bashing and bashing and bashing.  😉

(Source Photo: Rebecca Blumenthal)

Mystical 613 – Inauguration

So we are continuing to see the mystical, holy 613–the number of commandments in the Torah (Bible). 

– From the number of views on my LinkedIn Profile, 613, in the last 90 days.

 – To the tag the laundromat put on my dry cleaning, 60013.

– And to the caption, Day 61 – 1:31 PM, on the latest episode of the tv show, Alone, on the History channel. 

For those of you of faith…there are no coincidences–every leaf that falls from the tree is only at the will of the One Above. 

As I watched the inauguration of President Trump yesterday, it was inspiring that he featured the most number of religious leaders (6) at any inauguration.

And Trump, the President and billionaire himself, said that the military protects us, and law enforcement protects us, but the greatest protection is from G-d!

Further, I was amazed that one of the clergy that spoke at the inauguration was Rabbi Marvin Hier–the head of LA’s Simon Wiesenthal Center (that memorializes the Holocaust/Jewish Genocide that occurred just more than 70 years ago). 

It was a true moment of awe, when Rabbi Marvin Hier said joyfully in front of the whole world (including the anti-Semitic United Nations and former President Obama with their evil resolutions against the Holy Land):

“Bless all of our allies around the world who share our beliefs…[and] by the rivers of Babylon we wept as we remembered Zion. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.”

Perhaps, just perhaps…we are really entering the time of the redemption–when G-d will shine his light on his people and there will be peace, health, and prosperity for all the righteous of the world. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)