Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
I’m going to use this post as a twofer because today and tomorrow are both Jewish holidays, (yes, I know, again). I am sensitive to the fact that fall is a particularly busy time and don’t want to overload this space with holiday content. Hence, a two-for-one deal that will enable me to cover my bases and then move on to…well, who knows what.
Sukkot, which we discussed last week, ends tonight. Simultaneously, the holiday of Shemini Atzeret begins, to be immediately followed at sundown tomorrow through sundown Thursday, Oct. 25, by Simchat Torah.
In Israel and among Reform Jewish communities here in the U.S., these two holidays are often observed on the same day. But most members of the diaspora prefer to take them one at a time. Both of these holidays are holy days, (AKA major holidays known as “yom tov”), which means most forms of work – for the observant – are prohibited.
I have to confess, (lapsed Jew alert), that I was not until this moment familiar with Shemini Atzeret, which translates into the “Eighth Day of Assembly”, and officially marks the end of week-long holiday of Sukkot.
According to Jewish tradition, Shemini Atzeret signals the start of a weekly prayer for rain to support the coming year’s harvest, which continues through Passover. (Makes sense that we hold off on making this ask until AFTER the end of the eating meals outside holiday).
Simchat Torah, meanwhile, translates into “the joy of Torah.” This is traditionally a VERY raucous celebration – even rowdy, some might say – with much singing and dancing to mark the completion of the annual reading of the Torah and the beginning of a new cycle.
It is traditional to observe Simchat (or Simchas, if you prefer) Torah by eating foods that are rolled – a la the Torah scrolls. This might include blintzes, on the sweet side, and stuffed cabbage – among the most well-known/common Ashkenazi Jewish dishes – as a savory option.
Stuffed cabbage, by the way, is something of an acquired taste, in my humble opinion. I haven’t had it in a long time, but I remember my grandmother making (or procuring and serving) a version with raisins in it, which is apparently a Russian tradition. I have to admit that I miss stuffed cabbage, but am also daunted by all the steps it requires. The blanching! The stuffing! The rolling!
If someone knows where I can get my hands on some pre-made stuffed cabbage, I would be much obliged.
It looks like the unseasonably warm weather will be coming to an end today. Get outside and soak it up while you still can. Temperatures will be in the mid-to-high 70s, and skies will be sunny and clear.
In the headlines…
After decades of sitting on the sidelines of politics, Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world, has said privately that he recently donated about $50 million to a nonprofit organization that is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential run.
As of Monday, 17 million people nationwide had already cast a vote — and there are initial indications that Republicans are showing up to the polls or returning absentee ballots with more gusto than in recent years.
With two weeks left in a tight race for the presidency, Donald Trump yesterday escalated his vicious attacks against Harris, making a number of demeaning personal insults at two campaign events.
His flurry of insults had no swear words, but included a number of swipes that compared the vice president of the United States to an animal and baselessly questioned whether she was a substance abuser.
Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, said in a NY Times interview that, in his opinion, the former president met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.
A federal judge has ordered the Army to release records related to a late August visit Trump made to Arlington National Cemetery in which a reported confrontation between Trump staffers and a cemetery official occurred.
Trump will finally appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast, recording an interview Friday in Austin, Texas, according to multiple reports. Trump will visit Texas the same day that Harris is slated to host a campaign rally in the state, in Houston.
Trump went after Barack Obama for campaigning for Harris, even going as far as calling his predecessor a “jerk.”
Meanwhile, Obama, 63, surprised everyone when he rapped Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” last night in front of Harris supporters at her rally in Detroit.
President Biden stunned listeners by saying his predecessor should be locked up — 14 days before the presidential election in which Trump is the Republican nominee.
Amid rocket attacks by Hezbollah into Israel and Israeli bombardment around Beirut, Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a tour of the Middle East, renewing calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and a diplomatic solution to the escalating conflict in Lebanon.
Blinken has told Israeli leaders that “much more needs to be done” to get humanitarian aid to civilians in besieged northern Gaza, raising possible consequences in US law if action isn’t taken, a senior Biden administration official says.
Blinken also urged Israel to use the opportunity to end the war in Gaza created by the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the destruction of much of the group’s capacity during more than a year of conflict.
The Israeli military said that it had weeks ago killed Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to Hezbollah’s recently assassinated leader, in an airstrike near Beirut, Lebanon.
A federal judge on ordered Rudy Giuliani to turn over most of his possessions and available cash to a receivership controlled by the two Georgia election workers he defamed after the last presidential election.
Giuliani, 80, has seven days to make the transfer, which includes his New York condominium and his vintage Mercedes-Benz, once owned by the actress Lauren Bacall, though he can keep his three World Series rings – for now.
The women, who counted Georgia ballots after the 2020 election, will also be entitled to about $2 million in legal fees Giuliani has said the Trump campaign still owes him, the judge ruled.
But U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan also said Giuliani does not have to give the election workers three New York Yankees World Series rings or his Florida condominium — for now — noting those assets are tied up in other litigation.
Since the end of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the number of women receiving abortions has increased steadily and consistently in nearly every state that has banned it, according to a new comprehensive analysis released yesterday.
Freshman enrollment dropped more than 5 percent from last year at American colleges and universities, the largest decline since 2020 when Covid-19 and distance learning upended higher education, according to preliminary data released today.
The numbers highlight a drop in freshman enrollment, particularly at schools serving students from lower-income families that disproportionately depend on federal aid to afford college – perhaps due to the poor Federal Student Aid Form rollout.
A new poll shows Harris romping to a 19-point landslide win over Trump in New York, a result that would refute suggestions of a rightward drift in the nation’s second-biggest blue state.
The Democratic nominee scores a 58%-to-39% lead over Trump in the Empire State, a Siena College survey released yesterday shows, a margin that is close to the 23-point win President Biden notched in 2020.
The poll also found that Democrats could flip two House seats on Long Island.
Republican congressional candidate Alison Esposito says she’s courting key Hasidic voters in New York’s battleground 18th District in the run up to election day.
In a debate that bitterly pitted two battleground congressional candidates — Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) and state Sen. John Mannion — against each other, it was their record on Israel that caused sparks to fly.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, when asked about her former boss ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s potential bid for New York City’s top job as its mayor has been engulfed in scandal, said New Yorkers deserve “people with integrity” to lead the city.
Hochul pledged that the elderly residents of the Harborside, a bankrupt retirement community in Port Washington on Long Island will not be evicted.
Hochul has announced that Biden approved her request for a Major Disaster Declaration to provide federal assistance to Long Island communities impacted by severe weather on Aug. 18 and 19.
Gasoline is approaching or has fallen below $3 a gallon in most states, returning to a national average not seen since February in one of the clearest examples of prices declining after a period of rapid inflation.
Aides and allies to Mayor Eric Adams have discussed launching a charter revision commission next year, a move that would again stymie any City Council effort to gain more power over agency head appointments.
The indicted mayor and 13 of his mostly now former top aides ensnared in corruption and other probes have enjoyed annual taxpayer-funded salaries totaling nearly $3 million, a new analysis shows.
The annual salaries include $258,750 for Adams; $363,346 for then-Schools Chancellor David Banks $363,346; $275,000 for Bank’s wife, then-First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and $251,982 for Bank’s brother, then-Deputy Mayor Philip Banks.
Zohran Mamdani, a socialist New York State Assembly member from Queens, will announce today that he is entering the race to unseat Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing growing doubts over his political future.
In his campaign kickoff video, Mamdani proposes freezing rents on rent-stabilized apartments and targets both Adams and Cuomo, who is considering running in the Democratic primary next June.
In an interview, Mamdani described City Hall as “engulfed in corruption.” But while several challengers have chosen to focus on managerial competence over politics, he is planning to campaign on a progressive and democratic socialist platform.
Asked if he would disavow supportive comments about his federal indictment made by Trump at the Al Smith dinner, Adams said New Yorkers need to look at the issues, and reporters were “wasting” his time with too many Trump-related questions.
Dan Garodnick, a city official overseeing a proposed massive overhaul to Big Apple zoning rules, was blasted by local pols this week for living in a district that “won’t be touched” by the new plan.
An accused sex offender grabbed the rear end of City Councilmember Sandy Nurse yesterday morning during a surprise visit by elected officials to the jails. Correction officers intervened and pulled him away.
New York City subway ridership is hitting new milestones as it inches toward pre-pandemic familiarity, but MTA data shows there are still at least 1 million fewer daily entries at turnstiles than there were five years ago.
LaGuardia Airport is now considered the “best airport” in the country, according to a ranking from the Forbes Travel Guide. It’s the latest accolade for an airport that’s undergone a major makeover after routinely coming in dead last in national rankings.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran and three other men connected to the country’s government with participating in a failed plot to assassinate a human-rights activist in Brooklyn in 2022.
Michael S. Jeffries, the former longtime chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch, was arrested yesterday in connection with a federal sex-trafficking and interstate prostitution case.
Sex workers and their supporters are pushing back against an industry crackdown along a stretch of Roosevelt Ave. in Queens, saying that the effort unfairly targets the communities’ most vulnerable members, including immigrants and transgender residents.
People declared in need of psychiatric treatment before they can stand trial in New York City wait 60% longer for an inpatient bed than those in the rest of the state, figures obtained by the Daily News show.
The New York Liberty will celebrate its first WNBA title with a parade down the Canyon of Heroes and multiple celebrations afterward. The parade will start at Battery Park at 10 a.m. today and continue down Broadway until it reaches City Hall.
The Whitney Museum will be free to all visitors aged 25 or under, starting in mid-December.
While the COVID-19 crisis is over for many Americans, young children are still in the thick of it. Many children who were born on the eve of the pandemic entered preschool or kindergarten in the last couple of years without skills that were long considered basic.
The state Board of Elections has certified 12 write-in presidential candidates in this year’s general election.
The case against Payton Gendron, the man spending life in prison without parole for the racially motivated shooting that killed 10 Black people and injured three at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo on May 14, 2022, was back in federal court yesterday.
A New Jersey entrepreneur is proposing a $100 million project that, if approved and built, would take dredging sediment from the Hudson River and other coastal areas and process it into aggregate that could be used in construction.
Democratic candidate Matthew B. Hauf and Republican-Conservative candidate Matthew J. Turner are running for election for that rarest of positions, a new judgeship in Rensselaer County.
The Yankee will play Games 1 and 2 of the World Series – the team’s first in 15 years – at Dodger Stadium on Friday and Saturday, then play their first home game on Monday — and the ticket prices are jarring.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
