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DC to declare an official Mimouna day to celebrate end of Passover
WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s official: The mayor of the U.S. capital wants Washingtonians to celebrate the end of Passover with a traditional North African Jewish party.
In a proclamation set to be signed this weekend, Mayor Muriel Bowser will be urging her constituents to celebrate Mimouna, a feast that marks the end of the holiday and that has spread from North Africa to become popular in Israel and beyond.
“Now, therefore, I, the mayor of Washington, D.C., do hereby proclaim Sunday, April 16, 2023 in Washington, D.C. as ‘Mimouna – A Festival of Good Neighbors Day,’ and do commend this observance to all Washingtonians,” the proclamation says.
Bowser’s proclamation was shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by the Washington D.C. chapter of Sephardic Heritage International, which has organized local events around the celebration in the past and is also doing so this year. Bowser made a similar proclamation in 2021, according to the group’s website.
The celebration will take place this year at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and will feature a musical performance and traditional North African cuisine. Last year, Israeli and Moroccan government officials attended the D.C. festival. The countries normalized relations as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords.
“The festival is inspired by the Moroccan Jewish and interfaith narratives of unity, commemoration, goodwill, and friendship of neighbors,” Bowser will say in her proclamation.
Mimouna is traditionally celebrated as Passover ends — this year in the Diaspora on Thursday night, and on Wednesday night in Israel. Bowser’s proclamation and the corresponding festivities are timed for a weekend day so more people can attend.
Mimouna festivities are food-centered and particularly feature leavened cuisine as a celebration of no longer having to ingest matzah. The offerings traditionally include mufleta, a crepe-like fried pastry. The celebrations have become more common in recent years in Israel, and presence at Mimouna festivities has become de rigueur for Israeli politicians, whatever their ethnic origin.
The name of the celebration is believed to stem from the father of one of the most influential Sephardic Jews in history, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, known as Rambam or Maimonides. In addition to shaping Jewish thought and practice, the medieval scholar and philosopher lived part of his life in Morocco and was respected by Muslims as well as Jews. His father, Maimon ben Yosef, was also known for bridging Muslim and Jewish communities, and Muslims traditionally joined Jews in Mimouna festivities when Passover ended.
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The post DC to declare an official Mimouna day to celebrate end of Passover appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.