Author: Mike Nova

(J. Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — A Jewish high school in Palo Alto, California, isn’t just thinking outside the box when it comes to student recruitment. It’s thinking outside the continent.

After years of opening its doors to non-Jewish applicants — like most other Jewish day schools in the Bay Area — Kehillah Jewish High School is now actively recruiting students from mainland China.

The pluralistic Jewish school, founded in 1999, launched its new international program on Feb. 26. The original plan was to recruit students from both Israel and China, said David Weiner, the school’s admissions director. But after Oct. 7 and with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, he felt that it was too difficult to travel to Israel for meetings. So China became the goal for the 2024-2025 school year, and the Israel plans have been put on hold temporarily.

“China has been, for years, a robust market for foreign students,” said Weiner, the main force behind the project. “A lot of them are looking to come to the United States for high school.”

Kehillah is eager to welcome them, he said.

One-third of the school’s student population of 200 is already non-Jewish, he pointed out, many of them Chinese American. Their numbers have been growing in recent years, Weiner said.

“We are a Jewish school,” he said this week, “but we want our school to reflect the world’s diversity.”

The mainland Chinese students would also pay full tuition, slightly above $57,000 for the 2024-2025 academic year, in addition to an “international fee” to help support recruitment efforts. Currently, Weiner says, 30 to 35 percent of Kehillah students receive financial aid.

Last year, Kehillah began offering Chinese as one of its foreign languages, alongside Spanish, Latin and Hebrew, which is not required. So there are students of all backgrounds who will already have some knowledge of Chinese to greet the new arrivals.

Also on hand to welcome them is the school’s Chinese-language teacher, Hope Tsai, a Taiwan native who will be in charge of acclimating the students from China to American culture.

Weiner and Tsai visited China from March 1 to 10 and already have four applicants.

In the city of Suzhou, they met with leaders of the Mount Kingston Bilingual School, which already has an exchange program with a high school in Scarsdale, New York. Weiner anticipates duplicating that program, whereby students from Kehillah and from Suzhou would attend each other’s schools for a summer or semester.

In Shanghai, long known as China’s “international city,” and Shenzhen, a major center for technology, Weiner and Tsai met with parents of prospective students and educators interested in facilitating foreign study. These students would come to Kehillah for their entire high-school education, living with host families.

Tsai said that she is very much looking forward to working with the students from China. She immigrated to the United States 18 years ago, already a seasoned teacher of Chinese as a second language, and has been teaching Mandarin in the U.S. since 2007.

Her language classes at Kehillah meet daily, she said, and the students who choose to take Chinese are very diverse. Some are from Chinese American families, some are from Jewish families and some are Latino, already conversant in Spanish.

“It’s good for them to know a third language to get into college,” she said. Her own 12-year-old daughter has been learning Spanish in school since kindergarten, and Tsai said the girl’s Spanish is better than the Mandarin she learned informally at home.

“The more languages you learn, the more active your brain is,” she said.

Tsai and Weiner both believe that Chinese American, and now Chinese, parents naturally gravitate to Kehillah and other Jewish day schools because the two cultures share many common values, notably a strong commitment to education. They both said that Jews are admired in Chinese culture, although some Jews might wince to hear why.

“We think Jews are very smart and very rich,” Tsai said.

Indeed, Chinese-language books purporting to uncover the secrets to Jewish success are popular in China as well as in Taiwan. On Tsai’s most recent trip to Taiwan last year, she picked up a Chinese-language “introduction to the Talmud,” the multivolume compendium of rabbinic discourses and debates about Jewish law, practice and philosophy, which she is currently devouring.

“Talmud is very popular in China — how to use it in education and investing,” she said.

In her mini-course for introducing the new arrivals to American culture, the first thing she’ll teach is how to greet people. Tsai recalled that when she first came to the U.S., every time someone said, “Hi, how are you?” she would launch into a detailed description of her health and state of mind.

“I’ll teach them to just say, ‘Hi, I’m fine,’ and go on their way,” she said.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post A Jewish high school in Palo Alto is looking to China for new recruits appeared first on The Forward.

In a rare case, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on April 1 that a person in the U.S. has tested positive for avian influenza, also known as bird flu. Despite the positive test, however, the CDC says risk to the general public remains low.

Health officials have been tracking an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza since a new variant emerged and began killing birds on multiple continents in 2020. Sixty-seven countries reported outbreaks in 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), followed by another 14 in 2023. Human cases, however, remain rare. Only 11 infections resulting from the currently circulating strain have been reported globally since 2021.

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Since January 2022, bird flu viruses have been detected among more than 82 million birds in the U.S., according to the CDC. More recently, mammals in the U.S.—including dairy cows and goats—have tested positive.

According to the CDC’s April 1 announcement, the person who tested positive had contact with cows in Texas presumed to have bird flu. Their only reported symptom was conjunctivitis-like eye redness. They were told to isolate and are recovering after being treated with flu antivirals, which seem to work against the virus, the CDC says. (Seasonal flu vaccines do not protect against avian flu, however.)

Read More: Is COVID-19 Still a Pandemic?

The U.S.’ last human case of avian flu was reported in 2022, after someone was exposed to infected poultry in Colorado. They went on to recover.

The CDC maintains that risk to the general public is low, although people who are in prolonged close contact with birds and livestock may be at increased risk of infection. The agency advises avoiding direct contact with sick or dead animals, as well as any materials that may have been contaminated by an animal infected with avian flu. People who may have been in contact with infected animals should be monitored for symptoms including eye redness, fever, cough, sore throat, congestion, muscle aches, fatigue, and shortness of breath. The disease’s severity can range from mild to fatal.

Food safety is not a major concern at this point, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Poultry products are inspected for signs of disease before being made available for purchase, and dairy farms have been directed to destroy milk from infected cows. The pasteurization process also removes viruses from milk, and properly cooking eggs and poultry kills bacteria and viruses.

Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven’s nearly 40-year career in the U.S. military has spanned everything from deployments as a Navy SEAL, hunting down high-value targets overseas, commanding U.S Special Operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and advising Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

But McRaven is best known for planning and overseeing the 2011 raid that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden. In December that year, McRaven was named as a runner-up for TIME’s Person of the Year for his role in the operation. “There is nobody in the U.S. government that thinks we can kill our way to victory, certainly not the special-operations guys,” he told TIME in 2011, “but what happens is, by capturing and killing some of these high-value targets, we buy space and time for the rest of the government to work.”

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After retiring from the U.S. military in 2014, McRaven served as the chancellor of the University of Texas System and has written several books on leadership. Now, he has been awarded $50 million to use for charity from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancé Lauren Sánchez. He tells TIME he intends to use the Bezos Courage and Civility Award to support the children of fallen servicemembers and advocate for veteran mental health issues and education. His conversation with TIME has been edited for clarity and length.

You recently received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, with $50 million to give to charities of your choice. How are you planning to use it?

Almost all of this is going to be focused on veterans and their families, and I’m working through how best to use this money and leverage [it] so that we can maximize the impact. I will definitely be focusing on the children of the fallen, the Gold Star children who’ve lost fathers and mothers in combat. I’ve been working with an organization for many years called the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Since 1980, in the Special Operations community we’ve lost over 1,300 that have been either killed in action or in training, and they’ve left behind about 1,700 children. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation takes care of educating those children. Then I’ll see what other programs are available out there for the children of the fallen. And then the other area, of course, is mental health for servicemen. The Veterans Administration, they do great work helping veterans and their families on mental health issues. So this will be an area where I’m going to look and say, well, what don’t the VA and the military healthcare system cover?

The U.S. military is seeing record-low recruitment numbers. Last year, the military services missed recruiting goals by about 41,000 recruits. How big of a concern is this?

What we found in talking to senior leaders is that some of this was exacerbated by COVID. Our pipeline for young men and women coming into the military is generally through the high schools, and because of COVID, the military recruiters didn’t have an opportunity to get in. So you know, not having an opportunity to show the value of being in the military I think is having an impact on recruiting numbers. But I saw after 9/11 how these young men and women stepped up. They knew they were going off to war and they volunteered in droves. Anytime people are losing a little bit of hope in the United States, I say, spend some time with these young kids and you’ll regain your hope because they’re a great generation. So the military, of course, is working through this. And I think we’ll come back and we’ll find in a couple years that our recruiting numbers get back up to where we need them to be.

How are you thinking about the challenges, and the opportunities, of AI when it comes to national security?

The military has always been an organization that will adopt new technology on the battlefield in hopes of gaining some advantage over the enemy. As we begin to look at AI and machine learning, its ability to discriminate between good guys and bad guys is important. Nobody in the military wants to inadvertently kill civilians. So your ability to differentiate between who’s good and who’s bad, by using AI and machine learning, I think is going to help us be more surgical on the battlefield. But the other part about AI that is important to us is how rapidly can you make decisions. The key in the battlefield environment as the commander is [whether] you can make a decision faster than the enemy can. [AI] will help us diagnose problems quicker, it will help us resolve problems quicker. So the military will always look forward to new technology to figure out how it can make us better soldiers, sailors, Marines, and how it will improve our lethality without inadvertently killing civilians.

What about concerns that the U.S. may risk losing its technological edge to adversaries like China unless it moves more quickly?

We are still decades ahead of the Chinese in terms of our creativity, our entrepreneurial approach…our AI and machine learning is fundamentally better. So from that standpoint, we still have an edge on China. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to turn your head around and see how quickly they’re progressing. Whether it’s China or other competitors out there we need to make sure we have a technological advantage. This is why it’s important for the military to be working with Silicon Valley…and stay engaged.

Ahead of the 2024 election, a lot of America’s allies are anxious about the prospect of another Trump presidency that could withdraw the U.S. from the global stage. Do you think domestic politics is harmful to U.S. leadership abroad?

The fact of matter is, the world needs U.S. leadership. Even people that disagree with our politics understand that U.S. leadership is the most important leadership in the world, because who else is going to lead if we don’t? Nobody of any consequence really wants Russia or China leading, certainly not our allies. So we need to continue to make sure that we…keep those alliances strong, whether it’s in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, or building alliances in the Middle East. At the end of the day, it’s a little bit like the old Churchill saying: “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” And so whoever the next president is needs to continue to reinforce these alliances.

You were recently in Ukraine. What was the sense there about U.S. support at this critical point in the war?

I’ve traveled all throughout Ukraine, and I’ve had a chance to talk to a lot of their military leaders. And you can’t help but be impressed by their resilience, by their determination, by their patriotism, and I think we need to continue to stand behind Ukraine. This is a fight that they are fighting not only for their own homeland, but frankly for the Western values that we hold pretty dear. They were certainly anxious about whether or not the U.S. would continue to supply arms and ammunition for their flank. And, obviously, their concerns were founded as Capitol Hill has been slow on moving towards support. So, again, my position has been we need to continue to support Ukraine. And I hope the folks on Capitol Hill move towards providing the resources they need.

Looking at the war in Gaza, what do you think of the criticism that the U.S. is not leveraging its leadership effectively?

I think Secretary Tony Blinken kind of understood early on that the U.S. needed to lead and this is an incredibly challenging situation. Obviously the attacks on Oct. 7 were about as vile and as heinous and as barbaric as any attacks we’ve seen in modern time. So you have to understand and appreciate the IDF’s position, the Israelis’ position, on striking back [and] striking Hamas. But at the same time, of course, there are a lot of innocent Palestinians that have gotten caught up in this war. And this is where we do need U.S. leadership to step up and to do what they can to help the innocent Palestinians. Having spent a lot of time in conflict zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, no soldier wants to inadvertently kill innocent civilians. You absolutely want to take out the terrorists, you want to do what you can to make sure that Hamas never has the opportunity to strike back again. But at the same time, you have to be cognizant of the civilian population, you have to do everything you can to make sure that you’re not inadvertently killing civilians. And from what I’ve seen, the U.S. is making a strong case now to the Israelis that they need to take this very, very seriously.

We’ve covered a lot, but given your decades of experience in national security and the military, what is the thing that keeps you up at night now, in 2024?

When I was chancellor of the University of Texas System, I was often asked what I thought the number one national security problem was. And people always thought that I would answer something like North Korea or Iran. But my answer was always the same: K-12 education. Because if we’re not educating the young men and women in this country to have the STEM skills that they’re going to need, to be able to think critically, to understand other cultures, then 20 years from now, they’re not going to be the national security leaders we need to be able to deal with complex issues that are out there. So as we continue to approach the elections in 2024, I’d like to see one of the candidates talk about the importance of education.

Speaking of leadership, your name comes up fairly regularly in election cycles. Would you ever run for office?

I have absolutely no plans to run for office. I’ve been married for 45 years, and if I want to make it to 46 I’m gonna have to stay here in Austin.

The total solar eclipse passing through parts of the U.S. on April 8 stands to have a major economic impact on cities across the country as stargazers flock to the path of totality. 

Factors including the date of the eclipse and the number of states in the path of totality means that millions of people will have the opportunity to view the event— and that the cities hosting them could see a combined $1.5 billion injected into their states’ economies.

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“That number will include lodging costs for visitors coming from out of state or far away parts of their own state, as well as gas costs and food costs,” says Bulent Temel, assistant professor of practice in economics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, who performed the calculations to arrive at the $1.5 billion figure.

One to four million people are expected to travel for the eclipse, according to Great American Eclipse, an informational site that tracks solar eclipses around the world. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates the days leading up to the eclipse will be some of the busiest travel days of the season, with 50,670 flights on Thursday, April 4 and 48,904 flights on Friday, April 5. That means the spending will be spread out: “[The eclipse] is on a Monday, so you might have folks coming Friday, Saturday, Sunday, spending a few days somewhere ahead of the event,” says John Downen, Director of Impact Analysis at Camoin Associates.

Read More: How Cities Around the U.S. Are Celebrating the Eclipse

Many regions along the path of totality have spent months—if not years—preparing for the upcoming surge of visitors and money. Rochester, NY, is expecting 300,000 to 500,000 visitors across the nine–county Greater Rochester region. Local businesses have a slate of specials and planned events the weekend leading up to the event—including eclipse themed beers from local breweries and a three-day pass from the Rochester Museum and Science Center for visitors to attend a range of talks and performances. 

The area’s tourism board says that some hotels have reported demand skyrocketing an average of 1200% for the four-day span leading up to April 8— unusual demand for a Monday in the region’s off-peak season. 

It’s an economic boost that no amount of planning— or marketing—can replicate. “It’s a really great tourism opportunity,” says Shannon Ealy, Director of Communications and Marketing for the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce. “You can spend millions of dollars on media buys to get our regional brand out there, but you can’t exactly buy the sun and the moon crossing over us.” 

Read More: See the 2024 Solar Eclipse’s Path of Totality

But unfortunate weather could still put a damper on things, especially for businesses that might be stocking up for an influx of visitors, since many eclipse chasers decide where to view the eclipse based on weather that can’t be predicted until the event draws closer. “Even a simple factor like a cloudy day could just compromise all these expectations quite a bit,” Temel says. 

The real task for local business and tourism boards lies in converting one-time visitors into ones that return—without the promise of a solar eclipse. “Every single one of those visitors is a potential future visitor to the same area as well,” says Temel. “In the long run, the economic impact would be magnified quite significantly. 

Adds Downen: “It definitely presents an opportunity, especially in smaller communities, to showcase themselves and hopefully capture some future repeat visitors.” 

Read More: Where to Find Solar Eclipse Glasses—And Spot Fake Ones

Lebanon, Indiana, for example, is expecting its population to triple during the weekend before the eclipse. Joe Lepage, the city’s communication and community development director, says he hopes that the eclipse will change the way both locals and out-of-towners talk about Lebanon. 

“We have a large business park, great hospitals, establishments where people can work, but actually staying and living in Lebanon has been difficult to sell.” he says. “It’ll give people that are going back home a chance to visit and realize, ‘Hey, that little town is nice.’ But then our locals can see all the things they have in their backyard and realize, ‘Hey, my community is pretty special too.’”