Mayor of Toronto Admits to Drug Use

Article: The Mayor of Toronto, Tom Ford, was being interviewed yesterday. During the interview, he admitted to doing drugs (smoking crack) while drunk. He speculated it happened a year or so ago. He also said he is not an addict. There have been several reactions: some say he should resign; others say he should seek intervention for drug use; others say he should apologize better for his drug use. Mayor Ford has responded that he won't step down and will in fact seek reelection next year. He does not have to leave office unless police arrest and jail him for a crime.

Click here for a video of him admitting to doing drugs. Click here for a picture of him.

Discussion:

• Why are people upset that Mayor Ford did drugs?  Why does doing drugs perhaps indicate that Mayor Ford is not being responsible? Often, if someone is not responsible in one area of their lives (like doing hard core drugs), they aren't going to be responsible in other areas (like getting their job done).
• What do you think should happen to Mayor Ford for doing drugs? Why? 
• How can the public be sure he won't do it again?
• If you want, you can speak to your kids about why hard drugs are particularly dangerous, like crack. Speak about someone you know whom it impacted. (If you need an example to use, you can tell your kids that a friend of mine tragically died when she was only in her early 20s because she did hard core drugs that led directly to her death. And yes--she was a lovely Jewish girl who came from a wonderful, loving family; she got mixed up with drugs and couldn't kick the habit.) 

Hundreds of Nazi-looted Masterpieces Discovered in Germany

Article: During World War II, amidst desperate attempts to flee Europe, some Jewish families sold their priceless artwork or had them looted by Nazis. 1,500 of these pieces were believed missing or destroyed by bombing in the war, until they were recently discovered in Munich at an estimated worth of $1.3 billion. How they were found is as follows: an 80 year old man was nervously answering questions by customs clerks as he was ona train from Switzerland to Germany, carrying $12,000 in cash. Authorities eventually raided the man's apartment and discovered  thousands of artwork piled up next to cans of food. The man is the son of a well-known Nazi art-dealer. The collection includes Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Klee and other masterpieces thought lost forever. Now the process begins of whom to restore the paintings to. Just last week, Dutch museums also announced they had 139 pieces of art that probably came from Jewish families during the War.

Discussion:

• Think of a famous piece of art in an art museum. Tell a story of how it may have come to be in that museum, starting with its acquisition by a Jewish family in Germany.
• Why did the art dealer's son never tell anyone about the art work? (Afraid of being arrested, which he now has been for tax evasion; he also has been selling off art work over the years to make money)
• How would you go about the process of repatriating the art work to the rightful descendants? Discuss all the complications involved in the process.

Layoffs at Kellogg

Today's article is short, but incorporates lots of discussion topics we haven't brought up before in this blog. 
 

Article: Kellogg has announced it it having major layoffs, up to 7% of its work force, because its growth is slower than expected. It is trying to increase sales through innovative projects, like a new cereal with Omega-3, Kashi cereal, and new multi-grain Special K.

Discussion:

• What does it mean that a person is "laid off?" Why is that a word a difficult word for grownups? What does it mean for the family experiencing it? 
• Why does a company have lay offs? Think of 3 reasons. 
• Why does Kellogg hope that these new products will help the company? What is it about these new products that shows what consumers may be preferring to eat these days? What types of cereals did Kellogg traditionally make its sales on? (Frosted flakes, etc.)
• Look in your pantry and see if you can find a Kellogg product. Look especially at your cereals.
• The company is also hoping to increase sales through new ads. How could this help the company?
• Think of an ad you would suggest the company use to target kids. Act it out and have your parents email the company at: http://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/contact-us.html

Arab Minorities in Israel

Article: Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid addressed Israeli Arabs at a conference on Israeli Arab economics. He said that Jews should instinctively sympathize with Arab minorities in Israel, because Jews were minorities for so long. He also said that a Jewish democracy is a contradiction because a democracy makes everyone equal yet Judaism is favored as a premise of the Jewish state. He said that the best thing to do is for Arabs to be as educated as possible and to fully integrate themselves. He thought the best way to do this was through the National Service Program (instead of serving in the army), which would integrate them into Israeli society and give back to their own communities.

Discussion:

• In June, we spoke in this blog about Arab Israelis volunteering for National Service. What did we discuss and find out? 
• What does it mean to integrate? Why do Arabs have problems integrating today? Who is to blame and what does Lapid think can be done to fix it?
• Why do the Jews need a Jewish nation of their own? 
• Bonus: How many states are in the world? 193. Name a few nation-states, defined as states that have a common homogenous nation defining them? (Japan, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria) How many of these are Jewish nations? (Answer: 1)

Why are there so many peanut allergies these days?

Today's blog post is in honor of a 7 year old girl who asked a phenomenal question about why there are more peanut allergies than ever before. Let's find out the answer. If your child has a question or topic they would like to explore, please let me know!

Article: Peanut allergies have tripled (some say doubled) over the last decade. One study in Minnesota with this finding may not have even captured everyone with a peanut allergy, because it only included people whose allergy was confirmed in a lab, not everyone who self-reports peanut allergies.  Kids with peanut allergies have to be extremely careful to avoid exposure to peanuts because exposure could result in an emergency situation. Why this increase in allergies? Scientists aren't sure.

• One of the most common answers is that our immune system is overactive (also explaining the higher rates in autoimmune diseases today). We have so sanitized and cleaned our environment, that the diseases our body is used to fighting--cholera, tuberculosis, influenza--simply don't happen anymore. Instead our bodies have started to turn on themselves and hurt our immune systems, or cause us to have allergies. Actually many doctors are now saying kids need more time with germs and dirt to make their bodies healthier! 
• Another explanation is that we have overexposure to certain foods, causing us to have allergies. For instance, by eating too much soy (or foods containing soy), we become allergic to soy. 
• Another explanation is that some kids may have had indirect exposure to peanuts through the womb or their mother's breast milk, and then when they eat peanuts for the first time as a child, their body mistakenly treats it as a dangerous threat, and causes the person to be allergic.

 Discussion Questions:

• If you're allergic to peanuts and are exposed, what are your likely reactions? (Hives, vomiting,  swelling of the face/lips/throat, severe stomach pain, asthma, anaphylactic shock)
• What else are kids allergic to besides peanuts? (Peanut allergies are the first most common allergy in children, followed by milk/dairy and then shellfish.)
• Why do some doctors think kids are too clean and germ-free? Why is this a bad thing perhaps? 

Bnei Menashe Approved to Move to Israel

Article: Approximately 900 people from Bnei Menashe--Jews claiming to descend from the biblical tribe of Menashe--have been approved by the Israeli Knesset to make aliyah. They are joining a previous aliyah wave and will come over the next year. They live in India and Burma and are formally converting to Judaism from Christianity. Before being converted to Christianity by missionaries, the tribe practiced animism (praying to animals/plants/physical world) and headhunting (taking and severing a person's head after killing them). They believe that their founder was Menashe, from one of the 12 Lost Tribes of Israel.

Auto-Complete Problems on Google

Article: Right now, if you type "Jews should" or "Women should" into Google/bing/yahoo search engines, the auto-complete function often responds with terrible suggestions about Jews and women. The auto-complete titles are anti-Semitic or sexist. Same thing if you type in "blacks should" or "gays should." Some organizations have approached Google to change this but Google says it is not its responsibility because the algorithms are done based on popularity and other means, not by humans.

Discussion:

• What is a search engine?
• Should Google or other search engines by responsible for auto-complete or should the public decide?
• Argue both sides of the argument (free speech v. responsibility of company to curtail bad speech)
• Try typing words into a search engine and see how auto-complete works. Were you surprised by what was suggested?