Colors: Blue Color

In contrast to New York City, where many functions of government are decided by the City Council, in Nassau County there are multiple layers, such as school boards, fire districts, the town councils, and the county legislature. Their roles and members are not as well known to voters as their state and federal representatives, and one young candidate hopes to raise awareness of local government.

There are 49 days of counting between Pesach and Shavuos, the period known as S’firas HaOmer. There are 50 states in the union. Following up on the popularity of our Chol HaMoed travel guide and my other job teaching American history at Touro College, I am sharing this guide, which combines Jewish observance with Americana.

In the decade following the collapse of communism in Romania, the city of Cluj had a nationalist mayor who painted park benches in the national colors and signs written only in Romanian. Such tactics were designed to make the city’s ethnic Hungarians feel like outsiders, suffering discrimination and humiliation in their native city. Author Edith Pollak can relate to this experience of alienation.

When my family immigrated to New York, we experienced elements of Jewish American culture that were fading from the scene. We vacationed at The Pines Resort in the Catskills shortly before its closing, and having spent many of my after-school hours at the public library, I fell in love with the quick one-liners of the comedians who performed at The Pines in its heyday.

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