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In the final week of session for the New York State Legislature, I was proud to pass my bill A10105 – “Gittel’s Law.” In 2000, lawmakers passed a law where mental healthcare providers could face criminal penalties for certain sex offenses committed during a treatment session, consultation, interview, or examination. Mental healthcare providers can have a great amount of influence over their emotionally vulnerable patients and abuse of that influence in such an egregious way must not be tolerated. But the law has become outdated.

Jews uniquely thrived in America because of its exceptionalism and rule of law. The prosecution of former President Donald Trump could mark the end of the era of safety.

(May 31, 2024 / JNS) The last eight months have shaken the faith of many American Jews in the future of their community. The surge in antisemitism, especially on college campuses, has shattered any illusions we might have had about ensuring that Jew-hatred would be confined to the fever swamps of the far right and left in U.S. society. But as grievous as that threat to their safety may be—and the gravity of that peril cannot be overestimated—the Jewish community should also be pondering just how secure they can be in an America whose democratic norms and the rule of law can no longer be relied upon.

$1.17 billion in funding went to UNWRA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, in 2022. The United States alone gives $300 million a year to UNWRA. All this money goes for one purpose: to serve the Palestinian refugees. Seventy-six years ago, UNWRA was established to help several hundred thousand Palestine refugees who ran away from Israel during the Six-Day War in which Egypt, Syria, and Jordan attacked Israel. These Palestinians left Israel, a place they lived, not a state that was theirs! There are 49 Muslim countries. Not one would take in these refugees.  After Israel won the war, these refugees returned to Israel. It was the job of UNWRA to help them integrate.

This year, I was determined to participate in what was called the “Israel Day on Fifth” parade. I had stomach issues starting Shabbos afternoon, but fortunately on Sunday morning I was able to go to the parade despite not eating the right foods for breakfast. Sunday night, after going to the parade and later in the afternoon to the Nova exhibit, I again had stomach issues. I did not have any problem during the parade whether as a marcher or a spectator, or when I went to the Nova exhibition afterwards with my family. I look at this as a sign that going to the parade was the right thing to do.

The conviction of Donald Trump in a New York City courthouse is nothing less than a complete demolition of 248 years of a judicial system that this country has been building. This was a clear and obvious political prosecution, with no legal precedent or cause, and the former President of the United States and leading candidate for future President of the United States may go to jail over it.

Spain, Ireland, and Norway appeared on domestic news broadcasts for the first time in the better part of a century because they made an asinine statement regarding the fictional state of Palestine: They declared that they recognize a state that does not exist, has no functional government, borders or citizenry.  If they got on the podium and announced that they recognized Never-Never Land, Narnia, or Wakanda, the leaders of those countries would have been rightly mocked.  Instead, in our backwards world, they are lauded.  For all their blubbering pronouncements, there will never be a Palestinian state, for obvious reasons.