Features
First-time novelist authors best-selling book that has placed it on several “Jewish” book lists – but be prepared to be shocked
By BERNIE BELLAN A while back I was looking for a book that had somewhat of a Jewish theme but wasn’t what you might typically expect to fall into any sort of a “Jewish” oeuvre.
One title grabbed my attention as I scanned various lists of titles that had made their way on to compilations of recently recommended “Jewish” books – not only because it had excellent reviews, but because various descriptions of it that I read made it seem more like a nightmarish version of modern-day Los Angeles life than anything.
The book is “All Night Pharmacy,” written by someone by the name of Ruth Madievsky who, in her day job, is actually a pharmacist (working primarily with HIV patients at UCLA Health).
The pharmacist connection proves to be of immense importance since there are descriptions of so many illicit substances in this book that it’s hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t have a detailed acquaintance with so many of them ever being able to write so knowingly about them.
The novel’s protagonist – and narrator, whose name is never given, is 18 years old at the beginning of the story and it’s not quite clear how much time elapses by the end. She comes from a family of former Soviet Union refugees. Her mother is totally paranoid, constantly thinking that she is being pursued by the KGB, while her grandmother has been traumatized having seen her own father shot back in the Soviet Union.
Yet, aside from those passing mentions of the narrator’s quite tenuous connections to her Jewish heritage there is really nothing that would lead one to suggest “All Night Pharmacy” would be recommended reading for a “Jewish” book club per se.
But don’t let that dissuade you from taking a stab at reading this novel. Ruth Madievsky, aside from being a pharmacist, is also a poet – apparently of some renown. Her prose is incendiary in how much it crackles with descriptions of a really seedy LA.
Much of the early part of the novel takes place in a bar known as Salvation, where the narrator and her sister Debbie spend most evenings (when Debbie isn’t busy working as a stripper), fraternizing with a drug-ridden group of individuals who seem to come and go, but don’t have much in the way of storylines themselves.
Along the way of her own descent into a life of debauchery the narrator does end up with a guy by the name of Ronnie, who seems half way normal, but of whom the narrator eventually tires. As her life disintegrates around her she commits one very violent act that leads to her sister Debbie’s disappearing.
By the time she has just about reached the very abyss of despair, the narrator manages to rescue herself – at least somewhat, by taking a job as a receptionist in the emergency ward of an LA hospital. Although she doesn’t really empathize with the various unfortunate individuals who find their way into the hospital, it does seem to provide her with at least enough of a solid grounding that she can begin to free herself of the many drugs that she had been ingesting on a regular basis to that point.
Into the emergency ward one night enters a beautiful, mysterious – also Jewish, young woman by the name of Sasha, who is from Moldova. Sasha claims to be a psychic and she does exhibit an extraordinary intuitiveness about many things that leaves the narrator spellbound.
One day – and by this point the two women are living together and enjoying a physical relationship, although it’s not intrinsic to what is still quite an odd coupling, Sasha invites the narrator to come with her to Moldova.
The novel takes quite a turn at that point as we are taken to Moldova and the two women settle into a strange sort of co-existence in a former Soviet republic that has fallen into quite a state of disrepair.
Eventually the narrator returns to LA and the final part of the novel is taken up with her quest to find her long-lost sister.
There are so many twists and turns throughout “All Night Pharmacy” and the narrator ingests so many illegal substances for such a long period that it’s impossible to believe that someone so young could find her way out of a life that had spiralled out of control so badly without actually entering rehab.
Still, if you can put aside your disbelief that what you are reading is at all plausible, you will be taken on an enthralling ride.
And, why would I suggest that this book might be recommended reading for a “Jewish” book club? It would be because it touches upon many aspects of life in the 21st century that would not be uncommon for many people who, even though they might have only the slightest connection to a Jewish heritage, we could still consider Jewish.
How many young people – or older people for that matter, whose Jewish identity is almost totally forgotten, struggle with drug addiction – or other addictions? And how many others among us may have a Jewish parent or grandparent but nothing else that would distinguish us from the non-Jewish public?
In that sense “All Night Pharmacy” speaks to the reality of life in the 21st century when so many aspects of our identities are not related to anything that we might describe as “Jewish,” yet we still cling to the notion that we are Jewish – if only tenuously.
I doubt that anyone reading this book would suggest that it would have made more sense for the protagonist to find her way back to a fuller life had she attempted to put herself in touch with her Jewish roots. That wouldn’t have been authentic.
Further, it probably wouldn’t have made much difference had the author decided not to have any mention of anything Jewish in the novel at all. Yet, reading “All Night Pharmacy” says so much about Ruth Madieveky’s own background that it certainly opens one’s eyes to how someone Jewish who has experienced life in the former Soviet Union and who has a strong background in pharmaceuticals is able to integrate all those elements into a very compelling story.
Features
Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Quest And the Ukraine War
By HENRY SREBRNIK A worthy organization, of course, but it could have been granted the prize in any year since its foundation in 1961. Trump deserved the prize, but didn’t get it, due to animosity from the international liberal elites.
By 2021 Trump was out of office, but he would still have been eligible. Instead. the prize went jointly to Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and investigative reporter for CNN and a professor at Columbia University, and Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov, founder of a pro-democracy Russian newspaper, for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Again, more of a “human rights” award than a diplomatic effort to end armed conflict.
Trump has long sought a Nobel Prize and has publicly questioned the decision to award the honour in 2009 to former president Barack Obama, who had barely entered the White House at the time. This time around, despite lingering bias, I think Trump will receive it. He can’t be overlooked — because he is really bringing at least a modicum of peace between longtime foes around the world.
The August 8 agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan notched another victory for him. The photograph of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shaking hands, with a smiling Trump holding both their arms, should alone do it. And it comes after a series of such deals. He spent much of his appearance promoting his administration’s role in overseas peace processes. His last such success came at the end of July, when he intervened to bring Cambodia and Thailand to the negotiating table after a border dispute.
Trump claimed involvement in a May ceasefire between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers, though India denied, for domestic reasons, that the U.S. was a major actor. In June, he celebrated a peace agreement brokered by the U.S. between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, doing so with a signing in the Oval Office.
“Today’s signing follows our success with India and Pakistan. They were going at it. They were going at it big,” Trump reminded people. “Also the Congo and Rwanda. Now that was one, which was going on for 31 years, and we have it all done, and people are very happy.”
Several world leaders have said they were nominating Trump for the prize, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet. Among others, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have expressed their support. Pashinyan and Aliyev said that they believe Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and that they will advocate on his behalf to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Aliyev remarked that what Trump did in six months was a “miracle.”
Now comes the hardest part: the horrific Russia-Ukraine war. It has become Trump’s obsession to end it and enter the history books as a peacemaker. The symbolism of Trump meeting Vladimir Putin on the tarmac in Anchorage, Alaska August 15 was a photograph that undoubtedly made it to the front pages of every newspaper in the world. Prior to the meeting, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate who lost the presidential election to Trump in 2016, said she would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize if he managed to pull off this extremely challenging feat!
Of course, the Alaska summit was actually just a first step. The ball is now in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s court. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Aug. 20 that Russia would agree to Western security guarantees for Ukraine only if Russia and China have a veto.
Russia’s list of demands includes assurance that Ukraine will not join NATO. Conversely, Moscow will have to accept an eventual Ukrainian accession to the European Union. Remember: unlike the U.S. and Europe, neither Russia nor Ukraine can afford to lose. Both — yes, both — see themselves up against the wall.
A redrawing of national borders seems inevitable. Much of Donetsk, Luhansk, and of course all of Crimea, with their Russophone populations, will likely remain Russian. On the other hand, Ukraine will become a far more homogenous nation state, perhaps a step towards its greater democratization. Otherwise, the war will continue.
And I haven’t even mentioned Gaza.
As for Trump’s Nobel? The road ahead is rough, but it will still be a sure thing.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
How beginners can profit from crypto
There are some people who have made money through investing in cryptocurrency. However, how can crypto help you make a profit if you are a beginner who doesn’t have a lot of technical expertise? Here is a list of some of the ways you can make money with crypto without having a lot of experience in the subject.
Get in early
One way you can, potentially, earn money from crypto without needing any deep technical knowledge is by finding opportunities to get in on the ground floor. If you study any upcoming crypto launches by, for instance, looking at the list of new crypto presales from Best Wallet, you might find a coin or token which you could make a profit from. Very often, a cryptocurrency’s presale price is lower than what it trades at when it first appears on the open market. So, if you are careful, do your own research, and have luck on your side, you could make a profit from a cryptocurrency presale.
Earn interest
If you want to make a profit in a slow but sure manner, then earning interest on a crypto savings account might just be for you. Much like a traditional, fiat, savings account, your money is lent out to borrowers or, in some cases, put into liquidity pools, and you earn interest, which can be as much as 10 per cent. Most major exchanges will let you do this, and they are often pretty user-friendly, too, so it won’t require a great deal of crypto expertise. If you do put your money into a savings account, make sure you research the platform and start with a small amount, the sort of amount of crypto you could afford to lose. It also helps if you diversify somewhat and use different platforms to avoid the risk of losses.
Earn as you learn
While the debate between centralized and decentralized exchanges isn’t going to go away at any point soon, something that can work in favor of centralized exchanges is how they can give you free crypto in the form of learn-to-earn programs. These involve surveys and quizzes about particular cryptocurrencies, which reward players with some of the subject cryptos once they have completed them. Although the rewards are not exactly massive – usually a few dollars’ worth of the said crypto – they are real. What is, perhaps, even more useful is that the quizzes are educational, so you won’t just gain crypto from doing them, you will also learn more about the whole cryptosphere.
Keep loyal
If you’ve been shopping at any point this century, the chances are that you will be familiar with the concept of loyalty cards. These give you rewards for doing your shopping, or eating and drinking, at a specific chain or store. And what’s true of traditional retail is becoming ever more commonplace with cryptocurrency. Whether it’s with crypto debit cards, which give users rewards in the form of crypto, shopping platforms such as StormX or Lolli offering points, or travel sites like Travala giving customers crypto cashback, there are plenty of ways in which you can get crypto just by getting things you would normally get. And, better yet, they usually just need you to sign up and link your card to your account, so there’s no mining or staking or anything like that. As ever, though, make sure that you read the small print and check that you comply with any tax requirements for any coins or tokens earned via a crypto loyalty program.
Hold steady
Crypto investors who make money know when to get into a market and come out of it. However, one thing that can work in your favor is the simple act of buying and holding crypto. Now, this isn’t foolproof. Firstly, because nothing is foolproof and, secondly, because prices can go down as well as up. That said, there is a theory that, ultimately, this is the best way to make money with crypto, because it can involve a long-term strategy. You will, however, need to make sure that you do your own research, remember that prices can go down as well as up, and never invest more than you can afford to lose. It also helps to be patient, because you might not see a profit you want to take for quite some time. So just buying and holding can help you turn a crypto profit without having to study the technical intricacies of cryptocurrency.
Features
Team Spirit: Jewish College Sports Programs Making Headlines
For many educational institutions, sports are no longer just an optional activity: they have become an important part of the educational process. They build not only physical endurance, but also social skills, values and a sense of belonging to the Jewish community, as is often written on the website jewishsportsreview.com. Let’s take a look at the place of sports in Jewish colleges.
Features of Sports Programmes
Jewish educational institutions have always placed a special emphasis on the harmonious development of the individual. However, in the past, sports activities often took a back seat to academic subjects and religious education. Today, the situation has changed: more and more colleges are realising that sports are not just physical activity, but a tool for character building.
Sports in Jewish colleges serve several key functions:
- Social integration: joint training and competitions bring together students from different departments and courses.
- Strengthening values through fair play, respect for opponents, the ability to lose gracefully and win without arrogance are fully consistent with the ethical principles accepted in Jewish culture.
- Leadership development: team captains and sports event organisers gain experience in team management and decision-making under pressure.
Participation in sports clubs helps maintain a balance between mental and physical development, which is especially important for students who often have a heavy academic workload.
Sports Programme and Discipline Opportunities
Sports programmes at Jewish colleges are diverse and tailored to the interests of students, as well as the infrastructure of the educational institutions. In addition to traditional sports such as basketball, football and volleyball, the schedule may include baseball, tennis, table tennis and even sports related to historical or cultural traditions.
Interestingly, some colleges take Jewish holidays and Shabbat into account when drawing up their sports calendars so that training sessions and competitions do not clash with religious obligations. Students can combine sporting achievements with preserving their cultural identity.
Participation in intercollegiate tournaments is becoming an important element of sports programmes. This is not only a test of skill, but also an opportunity to represent one’s college at the regional or national level, creating a positive image for the educational institution. In such tournaments, the emphasis is often not only on winning, but also on the ability to behave in the spirit of fair play, which creates a special atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect between teams.
Impact on Student Life and Career
Sport in Jewish colleges plays a significant role in shaping the student experience. It helps students develop skills that are in demand not only in sport but also in any area of life: the ability to work in a team, make quick decisions and take responsibility for results.
Many graduates who participated in sports programmes note that this experience proved useful in building their careers. For example:
- Team leaders subsequently demonstrate high managerial competence at work.
- Players who are used to constant training and discipline adapt more easily to stress and deadlines.
- Participants in intercollegiate games gain public speaking and networking skills that help in business negotiations.
In addition to career advantages, sport improves health and reduces stress levels, which is especially important for students who are balancing their studies with community projects and religious obligations. The atmosphere of support and mutual assistance created by sports teams helps many students adapt to college life more easily, especially if they have come from another city or country.
Joining a sports team or regular training can become an important part of student life. Those considering this option should take several factors into account:
- Assess your goals: do you want to play sports professionally or just to stay in shape and socialise? This will help you choose the right level of commitment.
- Check your schedule to make sure that training does not conflict with your studies or religious obligations.
- Take advantage of college resources: many institutions offer free gyms, coaching, and access to sports clubs.
It is equally important to remember that sport is not just about winning. It teaches patience, respect for others and a willingness to work hard. At Jewish colleges, sports programmes are designed to combine these values with cultural and spiritual elements, making them unique.
Sports programmes at Jewish colleges become a space where traditional values are organically intertwined with modern approaches to education and leisure. For many students, participating in college sports is just as important as academic success. After all, team spirit, the ability to work together and support each other are qualities that stay with a person for life.