For my first twenty years in Annapolis, my job was to make sure your money was spent wisely. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I reviewed the Governor’s budget – making cuts, suggesting which programs needed more money and how funds could be spent more effectively. Next month, I begin my second year as …more >
Today, I am a tourist. I want to get an idea of what the divided city of Jerusalem was like before the Six Day War. We drive beside the newly operational light rail system, which parallels the old seam line that divided the modern parts of the City. My first stop is Ammunition Hill, where …more >
There is something unique about being part of a meeting just inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and introducing yourself to ten religious leaders, including the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, as someone who has worked with the Maryland Catholic Conference for the last five years on repeal of Maryland’s death penalty. Especially …more >
We are on Mamilla Street, where high end shops predominate, and more than one cornerstone bears the name of the developer and the architect. (The latter is Moshe Safdie, whose body of work includes 2218 and 2220 Angelica Terrace, where I live.) Lunch is at a restaurant named Herzl because on his only trip to …more >
What do I learn tomorrow? Our speaker was referring to a necessity of the 21st Century economy, but I think it’s fair to say that 88-year old Shimon Pres seeks to answer that question every day. “Ïsrael must be based on values that are old spiritually but young scientifically,” the Israeli President told our group. …more >
“The Jewish people have some experience being treated as a minority. When in the majority, we should not mistreat a minority.” I wish I had said or written that. Our guest at lunch, from the Israel Democracy Institute, did instead. Some of the Knesset bills he opposes have been enacted; others are still pending. Many …more >
L’an prochain a Jerusalem. For millenia, every Passover seder has ended with the words, “Next year in Jerusalem.” I read that phrase in French for the first time today in the haggadah used by Jews in 1941 who were sent to to a French internment camp. That hagaddah is among the archives at Yad Vashem, …more >
One does not travel to Jerusalem. One returns. I first heard those words last year, as part of the Shehecheyanu ceremony when we first saw Jerusalem on the Family Mission, with Stewart, Bonnie, Rachel, and Elliot. They were the first words I read when I neared the Western Wall this afternoon. I had dropped my …more >
Telford Taylor was the Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He never talked about it in his Constitutional Law class. For most of the semester, he discussed Marbury v. Madison, where the Supreme Court first exercised judicial review to declare unconstitutional a law passed by Congress. So I told my guide that I wanted to …more >
Dachau had nothing to do with Hitler’s Final Solution for the Jewish Problem. It began as a camp for political prisoners shortly after Hitler gained power in the wake of the Reichstag fire. It housed people in protective custody until the investigation of their case was complete. They never were. Some for violating the Treachery …more >
