Renting an apartment can be stressful. Worries over the condition of the building, the location, safety vs. cost... it can be a real nightmare. The following is the true, and unfolding story of two young adults and their adventures in apartment hunting in St. Louis.
A good friend (the girlfriend of a childhood friend) just moved to St. Louis (from Israel) to begin her Masters in Social Work at Washington University (the top ranked program in the country).
Her boyfriend has been serving in the Israel Defense Forces for the past two years, but was able to get a few weeks off, during which they visited St. Louis and looked at apartments.
Knowing that she would be at Wash U, they scouted the usual locales, University City, Clayton, Richmond Heights, the Central West End, etc. They probably looked at 15 or 20 places and were growing disheartened that nothing looked good enough to them.
Finally, they day before they were going to leave, I got a call while at work from my ecstatic friends indicating they had found the perfect place.
I joined them to look it over and to read through the lease as a third pair of eyes. The place was pretty fantastic. Located at Maryland and Newstead, the large two bedroom has a fantastic open dining/living space in a building with a pool.
Not only had they found a place they were excited about, they had also managed to get it at a price under market value by signing a two-year lease.
But the joy would be short lived. Tune into tomorrow to hear what happened.
Read More......
Showing posts with label Washington University in St. Louis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington University in St. Louis. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Living Jews: Interview with Michael Oren
Michael Oren is the foremost historian, author, and scholar on the Middle East, and is currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He is also giving a free talk at Washington University this Thursday, April 2nd, at 7:30 PM at 560 Trinity.
The St. Lou Jew had the opportunity to interview Michael Oren, along with the St. Louis Jewish Light, and Wash U's Student Life. Read on for the interview.
Was the Gaza opp a success?
Generally, the only thing keeping Fatah alive is the IDF. This is why abbas doesn’t call for the withdrawal of troops.
It was important for the IDF to deal Hamas a decisive blow. Give Gazans an option to live like they have under Hamas, or like in the West Bank
Yes, the IDF dealt a decisive blow, Hamas fighters went underground and did not fight..a paper tiger. Israel shored up deterrent powerand eliminated hamas deterrence power.
To have gone into Gaza city and uprooted Hamas would have required the IDF to kill several thousand Gazan civilians. The leadership of Hamas was hiding under Shifa hospital and had the whole hospital wired to blow.
If Israel had successfully uprooted Hamas, who would Israel have given Gaza to?
As of the day of [the day of the interview] I decided to change the topic. I was going to give historical survey of Israel trying to reconcile being Jewish and Demographic, but will now going cover the 7 existential threats to Israel. No other country faces truly existential threats."
What do you hope students will get from your talk?
"I hope that students will appreciate this opinion not just by people who have studied this, but as someone who has lived this as well."
How would Freeman's appointment to the National Intelligence post have effected US policy and Middle East outcomes?
"I believe that certain forces in the middle east won’t react to American policy. I think it has its own dynamics, and agency, not just based on American Foreign policy, so I think that there is a limit to what extent Freeman would have been able to to twist the intelligence to meet his agenda.
I don’t think that Obama reaching out is ultimately going to change Iran’s behavior. I think it is important to reach out after 8 years of Bush, but I think it is more important that Americans be reminded of what Syria and Iran really are. This is not the first administration to reach out to Damascus
I think the most important thing people can do in terms of getting involved in the middle east is educating themselves. Many people with partial educations sometimes go and do things that are very dramatic. Be involved, read the newspapers every day, go there, get those experiences."
We recently had a chance to hear Saree Makdisi, who spoke about a one-state solution. Is this a legitimate solution, or is it an underhanded attempt to destroy Israel?
"Yes and Yes – they are not mutually exclusive. It has always been a possibility. It was one in 1948. The Palestinians could stop demanding a separate state and could demand equal rights in Israel, and you would already have parity between Jewish and non Jewish Israelis and then the Jewish state would cease to exist. The question is not so much the motivations, but whether it is practical, whether it could actually happen and the answer is ‘no’. Many Jewish Israelis wouldn’t be interested in living in a state like that. And if the state gravitates towards and Arab political culture as opposed to a Western political culture, many Israelis would not want to live there. So it is certainly a prescription for the end of the state of Israel as a Jewsih state and even for the presence of Jewish people in the area. But you have to look at other places in the area in which there is a single state solution in place, like Lebanon, like Iraq. None of these single-states solutions are really working. They have always been a formula for protracted, untractable civil strife. And so its not as if tomorrow, if there was a single state solution, everyone would be living peacefully with each other, instead it sets the state for another round of very bloody civil strife. Where states have succeeded in living more or less peacefully with one another have been situations of partitions, in which they are simply separated from one another, like in the Gulf Region. But I don’t think that is in the immediate future either, so it becomes an issue of interim solutions, so the question is, how do we better manage this conflict, and you do that by building up the Palestinian economy and institutions and uprooting illegal settlements and creating the greatest distance possible. This clears ground for a two-state solution."
The US media is often criticized as being anti-Israel…
"I don’t think that the US media is particularly anti-Israel. The European media is far far worse. If there is an unfairness towards Israel, it is in the gross disproportionality that Israel merits in the Western Media. For example, the New York Times just had a front page story about two Israeli Sargeants who claimed that they witnessed war crimes in Gaza, but you read the story and it turns out that they didn’t witness them; they just heard rumors about them. The US media is fair, while the European media is not fair."
You said that you were going to speak about Israel's dilemma as a Jewish and Democratic state, how are these issues going to manifest themselves.
"I think that we are on a major collision course with Iran, which will bring to the fore the fault lines in Israeli society between Israeli Jews and more Islamist-minded Israeli Arabs. I think there will have to be a line drawn, if Israel is to survive in the Jewish state. The question is really where the line will be drawn.
The Labor party wants to compensate Palestinians for any land taken in the West Bank, with land in the Negev, while Lieberman wants to compensate them with land in the Galilee, which is densely populated by Israeli Arabs. Lieberman sees this as a two-birds, one-stone situation in that it transfers Israeli Arabs to PA (Palestinian Authority) control. On the face of it, this appears cruel undemocratic, because the Israeli Arabs wouldn't have a choice, and most would rather live under Israel than PA, even though they don't like Israel.
Labor and Kadima are also discussing dividing up Jerusalem, but no one has asked the several hundred-thousand Palestinian Arabs who live there. Most of them would rather live under israel, even though they don't like Israel, rather than the PA as well."
Are you more or less optimistic about chances for peace than you were a year ago?
"I'm more optimistic, but not about chances for peace. Americans like to think about solutions and peace. I think in terms of survival, national strength, cohesion, deterrence... all those things are more important to me. Let me unpack that, peace is not going to happen, in the entire Middle East, because there are virtually no solutions to any Middle Eastern problems, only better managing of the conflict. Security is going to be a very elusive quality for a long time to come. But I'm very optimistic that Israel has improved its deterrence power vastly as a result of the Gaza operation, the economy is doing very well, tourism is off the charts, you can't get a hotel room, Israeli society is very robust and strong, vollunteerism is high, we had over 100% response to the reserve call up during the Gaza operation. All of the indicators show that Israel is in a vastly better position geo-strategically and economically than it has been at anytime in the last 61 years. That's reason for optimism! Israel hasn't been at peace for any second during those 61 years, so if you leave the peace out of it, we're doing very well and I'm very optimistic for the future."
Read More......
The St. Lou Jew had the opportunity to interview Michael Oren, along with the St. Louis Jewish Light, and Wash U's Student Life. Read on for the interview.
Was the Gaza opp a success?
Generally, the only thing keeping Fatah alive is the IDF. This is why abbas doesn’t call for the withdrawal of troops.
It was important for the IDF to deal Hamas a decisive blow. Give Gazans an option to live like they have under Hamas, or like in the West Bank
Yes, the IDF dealt a decisive blow, Hamas fighters went underground and did not fight..a paper tiger. Israel shored up deterrent powerand eliminated hamas deterrence power.
To have gone into Gaza city and uprooted Hamas would have required the IDF to kill several thousand Gazan civilians. The leadership of Hamas was hiding under Shifa hospital and had the whole hospital wired to blow.
If Israel had successfully uprooted Hamas, who would Israel have given Gaza to?
As of the day of [the day of the interview] I decided to change the topic. I was going to give historical survey of Israel trying to reconcile being Jewish and Demographic, but will now going cover the 7 existential threats to Israel. No other country faces truly existential threats."
What do you hope students will get from your talk?
"I hope that students will appreciate this opinion not just by people who have studied this, but as someone who has lived this as well."
How would Freeman's appointment to the National Intelligence post have effected US policy and Middle East outcomes?
"I believe that certain forces in the middle east won’t react to American policy. I think it has its own dynamics, and agency, not just based on American Foreign policy, so I think that there is a limit to what extent Freeman would have been able to to twist the intelligence to meet his agenda.
I don’t think that Obama reaching out is ultimately going to change Iran’s behavior. I think it is important to reach out after 8 years of Bush, but I think it is more important that Americans be reminded of what Syria and Iran really are. This is not the first administration to reach out to Damascus
I think the most important thing people can do in terms of getting involved in the middle east is educating themselves. Many people with partial educations sometimes go and do things that are very dramatic. Be involved, read the newspapers every day, go there, get those experiences."
We recently had a chance to hear Saree Makdisi, who spoke about a one-state solution. Is this a legitimate solution, or is it an underhanded attempt to destroy Israel?
"Yes and Yes – they are not mutually exclusive. It has always been a possibility. It was one in 1948. The Palestinians could stop demanding a separate state and could demand equal rights in Israel, and you would already have parity between Jewish and non Jewish Israelis and then the Jewish state would cease to exist. The question is not so much the motivations, but whether it is practical, whether it could actually happen and the answer is ‘no’. Many Jewish Israelis wouldn’t be interested in living in a state like that. And if the state gravitates towards and Arab political culture as opposed to a Western political culture, many Israelis would not want to live there. So it is certainly a prescription for the end of the state of Israel as a Jewsih state and even for the presence of Jewish people in the area. But you have to look at other places in the area in which there is a single state solution in place, like Lebanon, like Iraq. None of these single-states solutions are really working. They have always been a formula for protracted, untractable civil strife. And so its not as if tomorrow, if there was a single state solution, everyone would be living peacefully with each other, instead it sets the state for another round of very bloody civil strife. Where states have succeeded in living more or less peacefully with one another have been situations of partitions, in which they are simply separated from one another, like in the Gulf Region. But I don’t think that is in the immediate future either, so it becomes an issue of interim solutions, so the question is, how do we better manage this conflict, and you do that by building up the Palestinian economy and institutions and uprooting illegal settlements and creating the greatest distance possible. This clears ground for a two-state solution."
The US media is often criticized as being anti-Israel…
"I don’t think that the US media is particularly anti-Israel. The European media is far far worse. If there is an unfairness towards Israel, it is in the gross disproportionality that Israel merits in the Western Media. For example, the New York Times just had a front page story about two Israeli Sargeants who claimed that they witnessed war crimes in Gaza, but you read the story and it turns out that they didn’t witness them; they just heard rumors about them. The US media is fair, while the European media is not fair."
You said that you were going to speak about Israel's dilemma as a Jewish and Democratic state, how are these issues going to manifest themselves.
"I think that we are on a major collision course with Iran, which will bring to the fore the fault lines in Israeli society between Israeli Jews and more Islamist-minded Israeli Arabs. I think there will have to be a line drawn, if Israel is to survive in the Jewish state. The question is really where the line will be drawn.
The Labor party wants to compensate Palestinians for any land taken in the West Bank, with land in the Negev, while Lieberman wants to compensate them with land in the Galilee, which is densely populated by Israeli Arabs. Lieberman sees this as a two-birds, one-stone situation in that it transfers Israeli Arabs to PA (Palestinian Authority) control. On the face of it, this appears cruel undemocratic, because the Israeli Arabs wouldn't have a choice, and most would rather live under Israel than PA, even though they don't like Israel.
Labor and Kadima are also discussing dividing up Jerusalem, but no one has asked the several hundred-thousand Palestinian Arabs who live there. Most of them would rather live under israel, even though they don't like Israel, rather than the PA as well."
Are you more or less optimistic about chances for peace than you were a year ago?
"I'm more optimistic, but not about chances for peace. Americans like to think about solutions and peace. I think in terms of survival, national strength, cohesion, deterrence... all those things are more important to me. Let me unpack that, peace is not going to happen, in the entire Middle East, because there are virtually no solutions to any Middle Eastern problems, only better managing of the conflict. Security is going to be a very elusive quality for a long time to come. But I'm very optimistic that Israel has improved its deterrence power vastly as a result of the Gaza operation, the economy is doing very well, tourism is off the charts, you can't get a hotel room, Israeli society is very robust and strong, vollunteerism is high, we had over 100% response to the reserve call up during the Gaza operation. All of the indicators show that Israel is in a vastly better position geo-strategically and economically than it has been at anytime in the last 61 years. That's reason for optimism! Israel hasn't been at peace for any second during those 61 years, so if you leave the peace out of it, we're doing very well and I'm very optimistic for the future."
Read More......
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Catch A Fire
This past Friday night, 50 people, ranging from Wash U undergrads, graduate students in OT, PT, Med school, law school, young professionals, and a few bums gathered at a beautiful mansion in the Central West End to celebrate Shabbat.
What does this mean for the future of St. Louis' Jewish community?
Aside from showcasing my press release skills. . . nothing that dramatic perhaps, but all the same, getting together that many young, interesting, and interested people to simply connect with one another is pretty cool.
There is probably a lesson for the Federated community in here somewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on it (at least until I figure out how to monetize it).
Maybe it was the wine. Perhaps the copious amounts of free food. It might have something to do with not letting in socially awkward people.
Hyperbole is a passion of mine. But let me explain why. This is was the first event that I have been to in St. Louis since I graduated that brought together so many young Jews without preconditions or expectations (ok, so maybe we asked for a bottle of wine here, a salad there).
Its been a personal struggle to justify being in St. Louis as opposed to Chicago, New York, Boston, DC, or Tel Aviv.
But a little more than a year out of school, I think we've changed something.
Sure, it's small, but it's proof that it is possible to have a thriving young (and I don't mean sans-AARP membership) Jewish community in St. Louis.
Read More......
What does this mean for the future of St. Louis' Jewish community?
Aside from showcasing my press release skills. . . nothing that dramatic perhaps, but all the same, getting together that many young, interesting, and interested people to simply connect with one another is pretty cool.
There is probably a lesson for the Federated community in here somewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on it (at least until I figure out how to monetize it).
Maybe it was the wine. Perhaps the copious amounts of free food. It might have something to do with not letting in socially awkward people.
Hyperbole is a passion of mine. But let me explain why. This is was the first event that I have been to in St. Louis since I graduated that brought together so many young Jews without preconditions or expectations (ok, so maybe we asked for a bottle of wine here, a salad there).
Its been a personal struggle to justify being in St. Louis as opposed to Chicago, New York, Boston, DC, or Tel Aviv.
But a little more than a year out of school, I think we've changed something.
Sure, it's small, but it's proof that it is possible to have a thriving young (and I don't mean sans-AARP membership) Jewish community in St. Louis.
Read More......
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Master Debaters
First, Shana Tova to everyone, may this year bring us all, our country, and Israel new life, peace, and prosperity.
On the occasion of today's Vice-Presidential Debate, at Washington University, I wanted to try to give some insight, having been one of the lucky few, who, four years ago, witnessed the presidential debates at WU.
My presence at the debate was an example of Jewish geography at its finest: a friend of the family had a friend who worked for the Commission on Presidential Debates.
I walked from Wash U into Clayton to pick up the ticket, using an International Student ID card (which happened to make me 21) on the way to pick up a bottle of wine for the lovely ticket providing friend.
Being still a doe-eyed freshman, the whole ordeal seemed larger than life.
Hordes of media, security, and excitement.
People were excited to see the President of the Unites States... and perhaps more excited to see the man they hoped would become the President of the United States.
In a situation not too unlike the Vice-Presidential debate this year, four years ago, the Presidential debate pitted a Democrat noted for his master debating skills against a Republican for whom the bar was set abysmally low.
Let me tell you what I saw unfold in that debate.
I heard John Kerry give lucid, fairly-well reasoned responses in a somewhat academic manner. The students who were hidden from the cameras in the upper level of the auditorium nodded appreciatively at the reason and pragmatism.
I also heard President George W. Bush act a little defensive, a bit anti-intellectual. He was the defender of Joe Six-pack, even if he'd never actually been a Joe Six-Pack. His arguments were emotional in nature, and while they drew scowls and suppressed jeers from the audience up above, the randomly picked town-hall participants seemed put at ease by his simple black and white answers.
History has a way of repeating itself, or so I'm told repetitively.
If Sarah Palin has a chance, it is this same tactic, the bullied underdog, constantly being attacked by pesky things like 'facts', 'logic', and appeals to reason.
It's not that I think her unintelligent. I just haven't seen any proof yet of her grasp of complex issues.
Ultimately though, I found the debate to be an exercise in evasive tactics. Neither candidate answered a single question directly, using the question instead to return to talking points again and again
Read More......
On the occasion of today's Vice-Presidential Debate, at Washington University, I wanted to try to give some insight, having been one of the lucky few, who, four years ago, witnessed the presidential debates at WU.
My presence at the debate was an example of Jewish geography at its finest: a friend of the family had a friend who worked for the Commission on Presidential Debates.
I walked from Wash U into Clayton to pick up the ticket, using an International Student ID card (which happened to make me 21) on the way to pick up a bottle of wine for the lovely ticket providing friend.
Being still a doe-eyed freshman, the whole ordeal seemed larger than life.
Hordes of media, security, and excitement.
People were excited to see the President of the Unites States... and perhaps more excited to see the man they hoped would become the President of the United States.
In a situation not too unlike the Vice-Presidential debate this year, four years ago, the Presidential debate pitted a Democrat noted for his master debating skills against a Republican for whom the bar was set abysmally low.
Let me tell you what I saw unfold in that debate.
I heard John Kerry give lucid, fairly-well reasoned responses in a somewhat academic manner. The students who were hidden from the cameras in the upper level of the auditorium nodded appreciatively at the reason and pragmatism.
I also heard President George W. Bush act a little defensive, a bit anti-intellectual. He was the defender of Joe Six-pack, even if he'd never actually been a Joe Six-Pack. His arguments were emotional in nature, and while they drew scowls and suppressed jeers from the audience up above, the randomly picked town-hall participants seemed put at ease by his simple black and white answers.
History has a way of repeating itself, or so I'm told repetitively.
If Sarah Palin has a chance, it is this same tactic, the bullied underdog, constantly being attacked by pesky things like 'facts', 'logic', and appeals to reason.
It's not that I think her unintelligent. I just haven't seen any proof yet of her grasp of complex issues.
Ultimately though, I found the debate to be an exercise in evasive tactics. Neither candidate answered a single question directly, using the question instead to return to talking points again and again
Read More......
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