Weekly Highlights: Criticizing Israel with love * I was meant to get married today * Yes we’ll defend annexation – but here’s the thing * Rachel Cowan’s wisdom on dying

[The Blogs]( [The Marketplace of Ideas]( Weekly Highlights Thursday, June 25, 2020 From the blogs [Criticizing Israel with anguish and love]( By [Yossi Klein Halevi]( [An unprecedented letter from US Reps Ted Deutch and Brad Schneider opposing unilateral annexation is a model of healthy Jewish discourse]( [Jason Isaacson]( [We’ll defend annexation if needed – but here’s the thing]( [If the new Israeli government, despite nearly universal objections from governments near and far and the warnings of many of Israel’s supporters in the Diaspora, follows the path promised by Prime Minister Netanyahu and in the coming weeks applies Israeli sovereignty unilaterally to a portion of the West Bank, AJC will do what it has always done: explain Israel to the wider world. We will make the point that Jews have lived in the West Bank – biblical Judea and Samaria – for thousands of years, and that applying Israeli...]( [Julio Messer]( [Annexation will not end Israel’s peace with Jordan]( [King Abdullah knows canceling the treaty might be popular now, but the long-term impact will be more poverty and, potentially, destabilization]( [CRM]( [PHOTO ESSAY: Societal collapse during the coronavirus outbreak]( By [Guy Shilo]( [As I felt the struggle of unemployment myself, I went out to the streets to document the stories of others who were facing the same situation, each with their own story]( [Paula Weiman-Kelman]( [Rachel Cowan’s wisdom on dying – and living – could help us now]( [The late rabbi, an influential mindfulness teacher whose final months I documented in a film, showed how despair is a luxury we cannot afford]( [Aaron Fruchtman]( [I tested positive for the coronavirus yesterday]( [I wasn’t feeling well, and I’d been exposed, so the results weren’t a shock, but I can’t figure out why my HMO told me to take the bus to get tested (I didn’t)]( [Alon Goshen-Gottstein]( [Coronaspection: Religious understanding in corona times]( [The combined wisdom of dozens of diverse spiritual leaders offers a unified vision of the potential for growth, hope and optimism]( [Aviva Yoselis]( [How far do we go to protect our parents from COVID-19?]( [It’s a real challenge to maintain the social distancing measures without making those who keep them feel like unhinged germophobic zealots]( [My mom is white and my dad is black. Don’t call me a ‘Jew of Color.’]( By [Kylie Unell]( [I have always felt at home in the Jewish world, and I choose not to define myself by the few negative moments in my life]( [Eunice G. Pollack]( [Yo, celebs: To Farrakhan, the enemy is the Jew, not the Blue]( [In an old Donahue interview that garnered likes from pop stars, the Nation of Islam leader shames Blacks and blames the Jews]( [Today was meant to be my wedding day]( By [Yaffa Abadi]( [But instead, celebrations are on ice due to coronavirus, and I’m sitting in bed writing this with an emptiness in my belly]( choice voices [Dana Gur]( [’The captain has turned on the Face Mask sign’]( [Wearing corona protection on flights should not be optional. It’s time for governments to pass laws making it compulsory]( [Eve Young]( [You bet my prayer is political]( [We always pray for a better world – and politics should be the way we make it happen]( [Naomi Chazan]( [Israel too must wrestle with memory, monuments and history]( [What does BLM activists’ toppling of Confederate statues in the US have to do with Israelis and Palestinians? Everything]( [Lisa Kainan]( [Homeschooling]( [Has your recent stint teaching your children at home made you reconsider the value of their school system? You have options]( [Ariel Finkelstain]( [Turning back the clock on religious services]( [The Israeli religious courts are being handed back to the religious parties — what are the odds that they’ll rise to the challenge of professionalism this time?]( [Diana Barshaw]( [I’m a racist, or the perversion of language]( [If these days it’s racist to think a white person has as much right as a black person to quote Martin Luther King Jr., then that’s a label I’ll wear with pride]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( © 2020 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL, All Rights Reserved