When Jews hire people to do household jobs — anybody who cleans, cooks, does the laundry, cares for children or elderly parents — we are the ones who represent the privileged class, with the funds to hire help. Jews today are generally wealthier and better educated than the majority of Americans.
They\’ve come here and to slums in the city of Gondar from their rural villages, abandoning their farms and occupations as blacksmiths, potters and weavers to live near the aid compounds and, more importantly, to be close to the Israeli officials in whose hands their fate rests.
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros once gave a speech about the tremendous growth of the Latino population in the United States.
Israel said it would resume ties with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), which recently named an ombudsman to oversee its Middle East coverage.
Iris Bahr is pretty, but you could watch her for the full span of her 54-minute one-woman production and still manage to miss that.Â
With the help of a masculine hairdo (she cut her hair for the show, and wears it slicked back) and some minimal wardrobe changes, Bahr morphs into no less than seven different characters, each with individual, and often hilarious, accents. The show is called \”Planet America, or Are You Carrying Any Fruits of Vegetables?\” and Bahr\’s characters bring differing perspectives to the themes of American isolationism, xenophobia and racism.
The issues are particularly timely, but for Bahr, who was recently nominated for an L.A. Weekly best solo performance award, they were also personal. She said she\’d finished the first draft prior to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Growing up in Riverdale, N.Y., and Herzliya, Israel, she said, \”I have the advantage of having lived in two very different cultures.\” It made her conscious of issues like terrorism and immigration long ago.
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