My essay, Zion, about being in Shangri-La Tibet on October 7th 2023, is now up at Liberties Journal @readliberties. 
I wrote about my despair and about trying to hold on to hope. Because, really, what do we have but hope? 
 Read the full essay at libertiesjournal.com/online-artic...

I’m pleased and honored that my manuscript in progress, Jerusalem Syndrome, was a semi finalist for the 2025 Hudson Prize. I’ll keep working on it and hope to find a home for it soon.

“For many American Jews, being pro-Israel really has little to do with Israel.” From my interview with Shaul Magid for The Sun Magazine, in which he talks about his concept of “counter-Zionism” and why so many American Jews are more “pro-Israel” than many average Israelis. tinyurl.com/c4ukn8ra

"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people" Exactly 425 years ago Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for arguing that the earth revolves around the sun.

On my laptop, I just came across this old document that dates back to the previous Trump presidency. These are tips for resistance and maintaining community. I don't remember where I got all these tips, but I think some of them are helpful... Do you have anything to add?

I asked DeepSeek if it's censored. It's own honest answer: "DeepSeek’s models are required to comply with strict Chinese regulations, including censorship of politically sensitive topics. For instance, it avoids discussing subjects like Tiananmen Square or criticism of the Chinese Communist Party."

She complained that life in Hangzhou was stressful and competitive. “But today I am Drolma,” she said, “a #Tibetan girl who is free and joyful and lives without care.” @jbher.bsky.social @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/24/c...

“But today I am Drolma,” she said, “a Tibetan girl who is free and joyful and lives without care.” Foreign Policy just published my article and photo reportage about China's commodification of Tibet. foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/24/c...

@genesegrill.bsky.social 'Humor was central to her': Portrait of Hannah Arendt as an unknown poet, translated by Samantha Rose Hill and Genese Grill. www.haaretz.com/life/books/2...

The LA Times has proposed to improve “journalistic objectivity” by having AI algorithms write “two-sides” of each stories. Soon we’ll have AI write our news, read our books, make our decisions, create our art... and then we can all just go to sleep and let AI live our lives. tinyurl.com/5xeyhjyk

“Both sides”? Who decided that there are only two sides to everything? How about three sides? Four sides? A multitude of sides? “Two sides” was a cost-cutting concept media companies came up with to claim they’re “unbiased” when quoting 2 sources without actually researching the story.

I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases) projects.propublica.org/claimfile/

As an Israeli, I must say: there’s no denying Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon agrees. 
 To American Jews and AIPEC I say: Your uncritical support of Netanyahu hasn't helped the Israeli people. It helped these extremists stay in power.

And don’t succumb to despair. Which is really, really hard.

#20BookChallenge A favorite from my teenage years. I wrote an essay about rereading it as an adult.

And if your local bookstore doesn't carry everything you're looking for, you can order used books online from independent marketplace Biblio: www.biblio.com

#20BookChallenge Funny, smart, sad, subversive: a travelogue against travel. 
I first fell in love with Diski when I read this 2014 essay in the LRB about her cancer diagnosis. Maybe the funniest patient essay I’ve read. Unfortunately,she died less than 2 years later. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

“Pro-Palestine” activists in Montreal have succeeded in canceling the screening of a film that shows architecture's complicity in the Israeli occupation. Why? Because the filmmaker happens to be Canadian-Israeli. What a way to promote awareness of your cause and make allies! Humans are indeed mad.

#20BookChallenge To distract herself from the ruins of her own life and the disintegration of Lebanon, Aaliya sets herself the pointless task of producing literary translations into Arabic that no one will ever read. Appropriate reading now, as Lebanon is recovering from yet another war.

Thanksgiving 2024

#20BookChallenge I read this book when I first arrived in the US. It has shaped my view of this country ever since. A good Thanksgiving read!

#20BookChallenge This account of Alexandra David-Neel’s 1923 journey to Lhasa inspired my life-long fascination with Tibet. I just wrote an article for Tricycle Magazine, in which I retrace her footsteps and realize she could be quite arrogant, prejudiced, and insufferable. Still, she’s my hero.

#20BookChallenge About the history of the Hmong people and their displacement to the US. About war. About the US medical system and its values. About the way culture shapes how we see the world. About disregard for other people's reality. About cultural chauvinism. About a little girl who is ill.

#20BookChallenge I read this holocaust memoir at age 15 and it has shaped my worldview ever since. Menahem Arnoni committed suicide not long after publication. Unfortunately, "Mother Wasn't Home for Her Funeral" was only published in Dutch.

“Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you."
 #20BookChallenge Stoner: I resisted it initially because I thought it’d be about smoking dope. In fact it's a quietly devastating book about life, failure and resignation. Few books move me to cry, but this one did.

“Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you." I know I'm not supposed to add an explanation, but I'm bad at following rules The Jungle: An expose of the horrors of early 20th-century extreme capitalism. Particularly scary if this is what the new US government wants to recreate.

A recent petition urged to boycott Israeli writers because they live under a genocidal fascist regime. Should we now start boycotting American writers for the same reason? 
 Don’t punish people because they live under a bad regime! Instead of picking sides and virtue-signaling, let’s forge bonds

“I learned that people do not listen to anything much that doesn’t sound like their own voices.. You are either for or against.” 
My friend Joana Chen published this call for nuance and compassion in response to two writers' petitions that have been circulating consequenceforum.org/navigating-a...

“People will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.” wrote Voltaire, who was born exactly 330 years ago today, in a letter to his friend Louise Dorothea of Meiningen. In the years that have passed since he wrote this, people seem only to have gotten madder.

I just returned to the US after a three week family visit in Amsterdam. Has everything suddenly gone dark here, or is it just that we’ve switched to winter time?

I never took to twitter/X because it takes me twenty minutes to write a good sentence and twenty more to edit it down to 280 characters. Ideally, I then use a day of reflection to make sure I’m ready to release it into the world. But I’ll give Bluesky a try. (With still 40 characters left. Wow!)

Today 35 years ago, my father died at the age of 88. This is him in 1902, one year old. Here is an essay that I wrote about him a few years ago: indianareview.org/2016/02/onli...

I’m an optimist by nature but reality turns me into a pessimist.

The biggest problem are the people who are convinced they have the solution for all the world’s problems.

We need more kindness; not more opinions. Or is that an opinion? Never mind...

The one thing for which I thank Trump: He has cured me of imposter syndrome. Whenever I feel unqualified to do something, I think of him being president.

I try to be fanatically committed to being moderate.