Your reflection on staying steady in this cruel time resonated with me.
The sense of being flattened by the news cycle is something many of us recognize right now, and some of us are experiencing very directly, with little power to influence those who ultimately make the decisions.
Your reflections on art, cooking, and small acts of human connection resonate deeply. Shared food and shared tables really do remind us of the humanity we are trying to hold onto.
Reading this from a Jewish perspective carries another layer of unease. Even in Toronto, which many of us have long thought of as a safe and pluralistic city, synagogues have recently been shot at - Bayt on Clarke and Temple Emmanuel.
Moments like that remind us that the atmosphere of hatred we discuss globally can also appear very close to home.
So I sometimes wonder about the balance between tolerance and the need to confront intolerance. Food, art, and friendship are powerful responses to violence. They remind us of the world we want to live in.
But they also depend on societies being willing to protect the possibility of living together in the first place.
As always, I’m grateful for your writing. And I agree with you about one thing completely: we need to hold onto the human connections that keep us from losing ourselves to despair - or from slipping into the habit of justifying the cycle of violence.
I often wish there were still people across this divide with whom we could speak honestly.
Your bread pudding reminds me of what my mother used to make when I was a child. It always amazed me how a dish that initially looks like such a goop tunes out so beautifully.
I seem to be also getting down on the thoughts of the world around us. The senselessness of dumbfounding and, even worse, ther ois no strategy or exit point foreseeable.
Distractions work, but to a point and the there is the reality that I lay awake thinking about in the dark.
For the first time ever I've seen some very non-specific condemnation if not hatred directed not solely at criminal and genocidal mass murderer of Israel Netanyahu, but at Israel, and Jews in general regardless of where they live. Some of it is being done by Jews who are fiercely condemning the Zionists of the ultra orthodox right. It's quite painful, and very hard to counter, but the important thing is to not let it go uncontested. To keep reminding people that the people of a country, or a religion, are not a monolith and can not be held responsible for the actions of their leaders - unless they elected them. That seems to be the source of both the violent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-Palestinian, anti-Hispanic, and the increasingly rabid anti-Jewish expressions of hatred that people of all generations feel licensed if not encouraged to express by those who seek to profit off of the misery that war and chaos brings. We currently have a US President whose sons are making billions of dollars by shaking down countries to buy munitions for a war in Iran that very few Americans support. And that's just the least of the atrocities against humanity that Republicans in our country are too feeble, beaten down, greedy or masochistic to contradict, to say stop to. So, as I have always said to you, Naomi, and even my friends that think this will just go away and they can just carry on their little businesses or affairs or some other hobby the time to rage is now. The reaction to the heinous monster René Redzepi by some of the higher profiled people tells you all you need to know about what the problems. Their brand, their monetization, their finances are far more important than their integrity or any actual religious tenets they claim to espouse. What person in power is not a blatant rapist, sex trafficker, pederast or actual child murderer. To be frank, the deserved and final verdict against the Alexander Brothers, whose parents, Orly and Shlomi Alexander, offered their $40 million Miami home as collateral for their bad seed instead of calling for their incarceration, has not helped to quell in any measure the anti-Semitism which quite frankly the Republican Party thrives on. It enables them to create scapegoats and bad guys, others to be hated while manipulating the very real fears of Jews worldwide. Have I mentioned Jeffrey Epstein? I was reading a very good piece about why Jews are hated, and how that seems to always have been the case. Again, until all the Epstein files are released, and Trump and all the billionaires that did what they did to children are brought to justice, why would we think that things will be any different? Here's a great passage from that article: "Epstein himself fits into an antisemitic myth that the Jew is the moral corrupter of an otherwise pure society, a myth that goes back to medieval times. Jewish men were oversexed. The Nazis said Jewish men sought to “defile” Aryan women. The idea that Jews control Hollywood? It was because Jews seek to corrupt America through popular culture. Henry Ford once wrote:
“Whichever way you turn to trace the harmful streams of influence that flow through society, you come upon a group of Jews. In theatrical degeneracy, a group of Jews … in the menace of the movies, a group of Jews … in this miasma of so-called popular music which combines weak mindedness with every suggestion of lewdness — again Jews.”
Epstein is the antisemite’s wet dream. The nouveau riche, privileged Jewish guy who somehow managed to get into Palm Beach society, who sent his agents into the lower-class neighborhoods of West Palm Beach to entice poor (gentile) women and defile them." https://religionnews.com/2025/07/22/jeffrey-epstein-trump-jews-antisemitism/. And so what do the Republican far right hate mongers do to whip up even more fear amongst Jews? They use it. From the same article: On the right, at a recent Turning Point USA summit, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson speculated — without any verifiable evidence — that Epstein might have been working for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
Podcaster and former Fox News and NBC journalist Megyn Kelly echoed the allegation, suggesting Epstein was probably a Mossad agent, “given his connection with Ghislaine Maxwell.” Kelly’s accusation prompted a burst of applause and the suggestion that this is being buried “because of an Israeli thing.” So why am I sharing all this? The point is to rage and get angry. Art will not help anyone. Reading or gardening will not defend anyone from genocide or violence or hatred or oppression. That's never even worked for white women, a point I recently made on social media where people seem to have their heads down just trying to advance their careers, sell books, be seen and heard to feel validated and important and justified in abandoning their responsibility to the world, and to each other. Instead of just out loudly about exploitive and murderous capitalism as practiced by those who have so much money there will never be an opportunity to live in a safe world until they are forced to share their wealth equitably with the world - because they probably made it based on exploitation in the first place - and to pay taxes and fines commensurate with the amount of finite resources that should be shared. Reading this from a human perspective, of someone who doesn't care what religion you are but believes you should be held accountable for all your actions, unease doesn't begin to express how I feel about what is going on. How many centuries, how many millennia must this take place before people stop wondering what will happen and realize it already is. Start shouting. Act Up. Derive strength and courage from being amongst other humans demanding that this violent insanity end now. Talk about it and take action precisely where it is not welcomed, in red states and right wing strongholds around the world. You have to be the society that protects each other, not think one will somehow be created in your hopes or mind due to your superior artistic or intellectual capacity. That's the traditional mistake made by Democrats. Assuming somehow, despite every indication and all the evidence required to demonstrate that they are living in their own mind, deluded, that somehow a Republican will suddenly do the decent thing, the morally right thing,or anything not expressly in their own interest. When have they ever? Fifty years ago? Not so much of late, eh? As for Toronto, besides the fact that shootings at synagogues seem to have become common occurrences an artist Dara Vandor has created a work called Pax Americana. Absolutely brilliant, How did the people of Toronto respond? "People who stumbled on the signs had big feelings — confusion, anxiety and even fury, Ms. Vandor says. People also stole them, which was fine with her." From the country that brought us Margaret Atwood, here is how she says Canadians responded: "Reaction to the earlier run of plaques has ranged from “you’re giving the Americans ideas to giving people who found it scary a way to talk about it and share their emotions,” Ms. Vandor says. “Some thought it was pro-American. Once they learn it’s an art project, it’s like, OK. People are bringing their own baggage and feelings to it.” The most distressing and depressing response was the one that people seem to be having to the shitstorm of ugly taking place that is taking out millions of people worldwide. It will take them down, eventually. They may not expect, or claim that things like that never happen here when they do because they do. Survivors always say that when they realize their cushion of self absorption has been perturbed, that their victory garden or shelter did nothing to actually protect them from a clear and present danger. According to the author of the article about Ms. Vandor what was the most common, the most banal response? "The most Canadian response: A few people expressed dismay that she was posting signs without permits." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/world/canada/dara-vandor-canada-us-trump.html. The wok cooking thing is a great idea. You should learn the art of velveting, if you don't already know it. Truly one of the most brilliant techniques ever invented. I laughed at the bread pudding blunder. Dawn was right. An old trick is to then strain the mixture very finely and create a flan, making something tasty out of scarcity. But, even the most talented of cooks makes that mistake at least once. Usually by adding too many shallots, an example where more is definitely not better unless you're frying them as a garnish, separately. Always remember, Naomi, that you have every right and should rage at your losses, especially over your son. You know, there's this Russian saying. Nothing will move a dictator except the rage of babushkas who have lost their sons to a war. Many people now desperately want someone to hear their rage. You're doing so will help give them license, will encourage them to speak truth to power, good to evil. The more people that do so, the better the chance humanity has of surviving.
Dear Naomi,
Your reflection on staying steady in this cruel time resonated with me.
The sense of being flattened by the news cycle is something many of us recognize right now, and some of us are experiencing very directly, with little power to influence those who ultimately make the decisions.
Your reflections on art, cooking, and small acts of human connection resonate deeply. Shared food and shared tables really do remind us of the humanity we are trying to hold onto.
Reading this from a Jewish perspective carries another layer of unease. Even in Toronto, which many of us have long thought of as a safe and pluralistic city, synagogues have recently been shot at - Bayt on Clarke and Temple Emmanuel.
Moments like that remind us that the atmosphere of hatred we discuss globally can also appear very close to home.
So I sometimes wonder about the balance between tolerance and the need to confront intolerance. Food, art, and friendship are powerful responses to violence. They remind us of the world we want to live in.
But they also depend on societies being willing to protect the possibility of living together in the first place.
As always, I’m grateful for your writing. And I agree with you about one thing completely: we need to hold onto the human connections that keep us from losing ourselves to despair - or from slipping into the habit of justifying the cycle of violence.
I often wish there were still people across this divide with whom we could speak honestly.
Thank-you ☀️☀️
Your bread pudding reminds me of what my mother used to make when I was a child. It always amazed me how a dish that initially looks like such a goop tunes out so beautifully.
I seem to be also getting down on the thoughts of the world around us. The senselessness of dumbfounding and, even worse, ther ois no strategy or exit point foreseeable.
Distractions work, but to a point and the there is the reality that I lay awake thinking about in the dark.
We will miss you in Oaxaca.
merci beaucoup. great thinking.
For the first time ever I've seen some very non-specific condemnation if not hatred directed not solely at criminal and genocidal mass murderer of Israel Netanyahu, but at Israel, and Jews in general regardless of where they live. Some of it is being done by Jews who are fiercely condemning the Zionists of the ultra orthodox right. It's quite painful, and very hard to counter, but the important thing is to not let it go uncontested. To keep reminding people that the people of a country, or a religion, are not a monolith and can not be held responsible for the actions of their leaders - unless they elected them. That seems to be the source of both the violent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-Palestinian, anti-Hispanic, and the increasingly rabid anti-Jewish expressions of hatred that people of all generations feel licensed if not encouraged to express by those who seek to profit off of the misery that war and chaos brings. We currently have a US President whose sons are making billions of dollars by shaking down countries to buy munitions for a war in Iran that very few Americans support. And that's just the least of the atrocities against humanity that Republicans in our country are too feeble, beaten down, greedy or masochistic to contradict, to say stop to. So, as I have always said to you, Naomi, and even my friends that think this will just go away and they can just carry on their little businesses or affairs or some other hobby the time to rage is now. The reaction to the heinous monster René Redzepi by some of the higher profiled people tells you all you need to know about what the problems. Their brand, their monetization, their finances are far more important than their integrity or any actual religious tenets they claim to espouse. What person in power is not a blatant rapist, sex trafficker, pederast or actual child murderer. To be frank, the deserved and final verdict against the Alexander Brothers, whose parents, Orly and Shlomi Alexander, offered their $40 million Miami home as collateral for their bad seed instead of calling for their incarceration, has not helped to quell in any measure the anti-Semitism which quite frankly the Republican Party thrives on. It enables them to create scapegoats and bad guys, others to be hated while manipulating the very real fears of Jews worldwide. Have I mentioned Jeffrey Epstein? I was reading a very good piece about why Jews are hated, and how that seems to always have been the case. Again, until all the Epstein files are released, and Trump and all the billionaires that did what they did to children are brought to justice, why would we think that things will be any different? Here's a great passage from that article: "Epstein himself fits into an antisemitic myth that the Jew is the moral corrupter of an otherwise pure society, a myth that goes back to medieval times. Jewish men were oversexed. The Nazis said Jewish men sought to “defile” Aryan women. The idea that Jews control Hollywood? It was because Jews seek to corrupt America through popular culture. Henry Ford once wrote:
“Whichever way you turn to trace the harmful streams of influence that flow through society, you come upon a group of Jews. In theatrical degeneracy, a group of Jews … in the menace of the movies, a group of Jews … in this miasma of so-called popular music which combines weak mindedness with every suggestion of lewdness — again Jews.”
Epstein is the antisemite’s wet dream. The nouveau riche, privileged Jewish guy who somehow managed to get into Palm Beach society, who sent his agents into the lower-class neighborhoods of West Palm Beach to entice poor (gentile) women and defile them." https://religionnews.com/2025/07/22/jeffrey-epstein-trump-jews-antisemitism/. And so what do the Republican far right hate mongers do to whip up even more fear amongst Jews? They use it. From the same article: On the right, at a recent Turning Point USA summit, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson speculated — without any verifiable evidence — that Epstein might have been working for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
Podcaster and former Fox News and NBC journalist Megyn Kelly echoed the allegation, suggesting Epstein was probably a Mossad agent, “given his connection with Ghislaine Maxwell.” Kelly’s accusation prompted a burst of applause and the suggestion that this is being buried “because of an Israeli thing.” So why am I sharing all this? The point is to rage and get angry. Art will not help anyone. Reading or gardening will not defend anyone from genocide or violence or hatred or oppression. That's never even worked for white women, a point I recently made on social media where people seem to have their heads down just trying to advance their careers, sell books, be seen and heard to feel validated and important and justified in abandoning their responsibility to the world, and to each other. Instead of just out loudly about exploitive and murderous capitalism as practiced by those who have so much money there will never be an opportunity to live in a safe world until they are forced to share their wealth equitably with the world - because they probably made it based on exploitation in the first place - and to pay taxes and fines commensurate with the amount of finite resources that should be shared. Reading this from a human perspective, of someone who doesn't care what religion you are but believes you should be held accountable for all your actions, unease doesn't begin to express how I feel about what is going on. How many centuries, how many millennia must this take place before people stop wondering what will happen and realize it already is. Start shouting. Act Up. Derive strength and courage from being amongst other humans demanding that this violent insanity end now. Talk about it and take action precisely where it is not welcomed, in red states and right wing strongholds around the world. You have to be the society that protects each other, not think one will somehow be created in your hopes or mind due to your superior artistic or intellectual capacity. That's the traditional mistake made by Democrats. Assuming somehow, despite every indication and all the evidence required to demonstrate that they are living in their own mind, deluded, that somehow a Republican will suddenly do the decent thing, the morally right thing,or anything not expressly in their own interest. When have they ever? Fifty years ago? Not so much of late, eh? As for Toronto, besides the fact that shootings at synagogues seem to have become common occurrences an artist Dara Vandor has created a work called Pax Americana. Absolutely brilliant, How did the people of Toronto respond? "People who stumbled on the signs had big feelings — confusion, anxiety and even fury, Ms. Vandor says. People also stole them, which was fine with her." From the country that brought us Margaret Atwood, here is how she says Canadians responded: "Reaction to the earlier run of plaques has ranged from “you’re giving the Americans ideas to giving people who found it scary a way to talk about it and share their emotions,” Ms. Vandor says. “Some thought it was pro-American. Once they learn it’s an art project, it’s like, OK. People are bringing their own baggage and feelings to it.” The most distressing and depressing response was the one that people seem to be having to the shitstorm of ugly taking place that is taking out millions of people worldwide. It will take them down, eventually. They may not expect, or claim that things like that never happen here when they do because they do. Survivors always say that when they realize their cushion of self absorption has been perturbed, that their victory garden or shelter did nothing to actually protect them from a clear and present danger. According to the author of the article about Ms. Vandor what was the most common, the most banal response? "The most Canadian response: A few people expressed dismay that she was posting signs without permits." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/world/canada/dara-vandor-canada-us-trump.html. The wok cooking thing is a great idea. You should learn the art of velveting, if you don't already know it. Truly one of the most brilliant techniques ever invented. I laughed at the bread pudding blunder. Dawn was right. An old trick is to then strain the mixture very finely and create a flan, making something tasty out of scarcity. But, even the most talented of cooks makes that mistake at least once. Usually by adding too many shallots, an example where more is definitely not better unless you're frying them as a garnish, separately. Always remember, Naomi, that you have every right and should rage at your losses, especially over your son. You know, there's this Russian saying. Nothing will move a dictator except the rage of babushkas who have lost their sons to a war. Many people now desperately want someone to hear their rage. You're doing so will help give them license, will encourage them to speak truth to power, good to evil. The more people that do so, the better the chance humanity has of surviving.