Sundown: U.S. Reps. Urge Less Hardship on Gaza
Plus Merkel’s pledge, Labor’s pains, Boteach’s bid, and more
January 26, 2010
• Led by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), the first Muslim congressman, 54 U.S. representatives signed a letter urging Israel to ease its Gaza blockade. J Street, Americans for Peace Now, and other liberal groups also signed. [Haaretz]
• Standing beside Israeli President Shimon Peres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced it was time to stop being polite and start getting real about further Iranian sanctions. (France agrees.) [Ynet]
• Tablet Magazine contributor Gershom Gorenberg pens a lovely tribute—and, maybe, elegy—to Israel’s Labor Party. [The American Prospect]
• A comprehensive look at the stunning structures that Haifa-born architect Moshe Safdie has designed in Jerusalem. [The Design Observer Group]
• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is now trying to purchase the mansion next-door to him in Englewood, New Jersey, that (over Boteach’s staunch opposition) is currently owned by Libya. Boteach says he would turn the four-acre plot into a Jewish education center. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]
• Now 84, a one-time member of the Auschwitz Girls’ Chorus—which was exactly what it sounds like—raps (below), backed by a group called Microphone Mafia. [Der Spiegel]
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Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
