Ebisu Publications

In my previous post, I discussed articles by Helen Elka Meyers that justified police practices targeting the Black community. On her LinkedIn page, Ms. Meyers says she was with the New York Police Department (NYPD) for over five years, and also worked with the FBI for six months. Currently, she is a “fellow and director […]

In Response to “An American Pogrom” After I posted parts 1 and 2 of “An American Pogrom,” a reader sent me links to a couple of articles by Hannah Elka Meyers. Opposing Criminal Justice Reform The first of these two articles was published on 2/16/2023 in the New York Post, a right wing paper owned […]

As I wrote in Part I, what struck me about the cruelty that Black people experience in America, from slavery times to today’s police murders, is its resemblance to the pogroms my forebears fled. The Immigrants My parents and grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States hoping for both safety and prosperity in […]

Recently I received an article by my friend Carolyn Martin Shaw about the life and death of her brother—a young Black man murdered by police. I was profoundly moved by her account. The news media deliver us almost daily stories of such murders, along with mass shootings and updated earthquake casualties, to the point of […]

I just finished reading a book that brought back some pretty bad memories, both my own and those of others I knew. First, a little about the book, which is scheduled for publication this month: Erase Her In her gripping memoir, Erase Her, Cassandra Langer talks about being a tomboy and budding intellectual in the […]

This week I discovered an op-ed piece by a woman doctor that gave me much food for thought. I’ll refer you to the article later. But first, a little personal history: Like so many Jewish immigrants, my mother wanted at least one of her children to enter the medical field, and now and then I’ve […]

In Part 1 of this post, I wrote that in 1969, when I was 25, I had sworn never to pay a landlord more than $100/month (ignoring what I knew about inflation). Since then I had lived in a series of slum apartments and thrown myself into a life of radical activism, thinking I could […]

After a year of exile in Etna, California, with my lover, Max, we returned to the Bay Area in 1979. My plan was to continue delving into the history and customs of the ancient Middle East and eventually to write a book about the life of Jezebel, Queen of Israel. I should say that Max […]

This is the season when we exchange wishes for peace—and yet we keep making war. Why? Looking Across the Willamette Every December some householder, up in the wooded hills on the other side of the Willamette River, lights an enormous peace sign. It must cover the entire side of their house. Sylvia and I can […]

Dear readers, today I’m going to blow off a little steam—first about platitudes that I find particularly irritating. Every time I hear one of these, it’s like brushing up against a leaf of poison oak. It’s not enough to send me to the hospital, just enough to raise a few blisters. And second, I’ll be […]