Tag: Israel

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #196 (7/2/2025): Danielle Khalaf and the ACLU 

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RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #196: Danielle Khalaf and the ACLU

airs July 5, 2025 on Dave’s Gone By. Also watch here:  https://youtu.be/vYp0ZQLKcFQ

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for Independence Weekend 2025. 

Hatred to the right of us, hatred to the left of us—especially to the left of us these days—Jews can’t look at the news without nitwits giving us grief, and bigger nitwitslauding and defending them. 

The latest example comes to us from Detroit, Michigan, a city with so much Muslim integration, they might as well call it “Baby Beirut.” However, these people are not illegal terrorists; they are citizens and immigrants working, striving, paying taxes, and sending their kids to school.

One such kid is 14-year-old Danielle Khalaf. Of Palestinian origin, she does not like Israel very much. She also presumably watched one too many NFL games and noticed some athletes taking a knee rather than standing for the “Star Spangled Banner.” Well, little Danielle thought, “This is my chance to change the world!” . . . because who doesn’t take their political cues from a precocious, pubescent adolescent at East Middle School?

Instead of rising and saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, as millions of children have dutifully done since 1892, kooky Khalaf stayed seated and silent. That is her right as an American citizen: the prerogative to criticize the government, to wave the flag/wear the flag/or burn the flag, to buck peer pressure and march to your own drummer, even if the drummer plays like Lars Ulrich. 

I’m sure Danielle, a stubby potato of a girl, who you can tell will be a middle-aged cat lady by the time she’s 22, dreams of being “courageous” like Greta “Look at Me” Thunberg. But Khalaf is far from the first person to pass on the Pledge. Atheists have long bristled at the “under God” part, and people with harelips can’t pronounce “indivisible.”

So Khalaf is entitled to her narcissistic snit over America’s military support of Israel. But her teacher, Carissa Soranno, was not happy about it and called the girl out over her Gaza grandstanding. Maybe Soranno’s pro-Israel. Maybe she’s just appalled by the girl’s refusal to pledge allegiance to this nation and no other. Soranno told her, quote, “Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don’t like it, you should go back to your country.” When the girl repeated her sit-down protest the next day, Soranno called her “disrespectful” and said she should be ashamed of herself.

This hurt Danielle’s feewings. She was “traumatized,” she said. Awww. So traumatized she tattled to the American Civil Liberties Union. Ughhh. They filed a lawsuit against the school district and the teacher for violating Khalaf’s rights and for making her suffer, quote, “extensive emotional and social injuries.” (gasp) If a snowflake melts in a cafeteria, does it make a whine?

Nabih Ayad, a spokesperson for the Arab-American Civil Rights League, rebuked the teacher in the press, calling her insensitive for picking on a student who was merely exercising her constitutional right. The school district then said it had taken “appropriate action” against Soranno.

And maybe that’s reasonable. A teacher should display more maturity than a 14-year-old over whom she has power, and the woman’s response to Khalif was harsh, disparaging, maybe even inappropriate. Soranno acted in the heat of a moment that she might have finessed or counted to ten and avoided. But she also spoke her truth: this teenager thumbing her nose at America hurt the teacher’sfeelings.

So why isn’t the ACLU defending her? Why does Princess Jasmine get to snub the stars and stripes—a slap in the face to everyone who ever fought and died for this country, by the way—why is her free speechlessness protected, but the teacher’s isn’t? Soranno didn’t smack the kid. She didn’t dock her grade. She didn’t put baby in the corner and make her wear a dunce hijab. She didn’t glue her eyes open and force her to watch Schindler’s List. She merely called Khalaf shameful and disrespectful, and asked her, insultingly but fairly, if this country’s military choices are so hateful to her, why doesn’t she snag a one-way ticket to any country in the Arabsphere, where, of course, young women are free to do whatever they please?


Before she becomes another brainlessly woke college student blocking traffic and sleeping in a green tent, maybe this 14-year-old should learn that just because your actions are legal doesn’t mean you’re not responsible. If you give me the finger, and I call you an asshole, why does the ACLU protect your finger but attack my asshole? That didn’t come out right, but you know what I mean: freedom of speech works both ways. If Khalaf can make her stupid statement, Soranno should be able to denounce her. The school district then has the right to chastise Soranno, while patriotic parents have the right to berate the school.

Nothing is more American than a free exchange of anger, mistrust, and derision, all of it protected, as it should be, by the founding fathers. Danielle Khalaf is getting all sorts of sympathy for sitting, but I stand with Soranno. And when it comes to the ACLU’s lamebrain lawsuit, I paraphrase the Pledge and hope the teacher receives the justice meant for all. 

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. Yankee Doodle dammit. 

(c)2025 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

—> https://youtu.be/vYp0ZQLKcFQ

–> https://davesgoneby.net/?p=126874

Dave’s Gone By #988 (6/28/2025): AKA PABLO

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Here is the 988th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, June 28, 2025.

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews comedian Pablo Lewin and offers his Rabbinical Reflection on Zohran Mamdani; Greeley Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Bunyan); Bunion Watch; StoryTime (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva)

Guests: comedian Pablo Lewin; spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: flying sloths, exercise, dentistry, hummingbirds, frog refuse, Riverside Tower
01:18:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Pablo Lewin
01:58:00 GREELEY TIMES
02:24:30 STORYTIME: “Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva”
02:53:00 Friends of the Daverhood
03:08:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195: Zohran Mamdani
03:20:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Bunyan & BUNION WATCH (03:21:30)
03:25:00 DAVE GOES OUT

Pablo Lewin
Rabbi Sol Solomon
Bunyan, CO
your host and his Froggo friend
Potato takes in the view from the Riverside Tower Hotel

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/28/2025): PABLO LEWIN & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with comedian PABLO LEWIN

Topics include: stand-up comedy, aviation, ham radio, Israel.

Segment airs June 28, 2025 as part of the 987th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                    

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195 (6/28/2025): Zohran Mamdani

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #195 (6/28/2025): ZOHRAN MAMDANI

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 28, 2025 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast. 

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read. 

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.

© 2025 TotalTheater Productions. All Rights Reserved.

 More on Rabbi Sol: shalomdammit.com

TRANSCRIPT:

RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195 (6/25/2025): Zohran Mamdani 

airs June 28, 2025 on Dave’s Gone By. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_8PqbgcvwE

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for late June 2025.

Well, congratulations, progressive Democrats. Your efforts to transform once-magnificent New York City into a terrifying shithole are going splendidly. On June 24th, Primary Day in NYC, voters rejected Andrew Cuomo—whose only sin was hubris and killing a bunch of old people during COVID (ask yourself: were they missed?). Instead, these lefty losers pulled the trigger – er, lever – for Zohran Mamdani.

Who is Zohran Mamdani? Or, more precisely, who the fuck is Zohran Mamdani? He’s the son of a Columbia Professor of Colonialism (that should tell you something right there) and of a filmmaker mom who’s spent a decade boycotting Israel. Little Zohran got his start stumping for a Palestinian pastor and joining the anti-Zionist Democratic Socialists of America. Bolstered by these unassailable credentials, in 2020 Mamdani was elected Assemblyman for Astoria and Long Island City, Queens. 

Like so many liberal Democrats, Mamdani has ideas that sound good on paper: raising minimum wage, free busing, government-run free grocery stores for the poor (can you say, Russia 1970s?), prison reform. But like so many socialists, he has no idea where to get the money to pay for this Marxist utopia. But that’s okay; all politicians promise pie in the sky but deliver olive loaf in the gutter. The disaster of Mamdani is not inexperience and economic naivete. His worthlessness boils down to one issue: virulent hatred of Israel. When you elect someone whose rallying cry is “globalize the Intifada,” who calls Israel’s revenge against Hamas “genocide,” and who refused to co-sponsor Holocaust Remembrance Day, you’re putting power in the hands of a dangerous, evil radical.

The very fact that Mamdani was backed by AOC and by Bernie Sanders, a self-hating Communist kike if there ever was one, tells you everything you need to know—except that this guy isn’t even Arab! Mamdani is Ugandan—the country that gave us Idi Amin, child soldiers, and anti-gay legislation that makes Yemen look like Rainbow Station on Christopher Street.

So, New Yorkers, when November rolls around, you have a choice. You can reelect Mayor Adams—who may not be Giuliani but he certainly moved the city past the DeBlasio debacle. You can go Republican with Curtis Sliwa, who’s run so many times, he should campaign in jogging shorts. (Actually, I think he does.) And, by the way, the platform of pro-police, anti-crime, anti-illegals, conservative Sliwa also includes pilot testing universal basic income. Put that in your progressive pipe and smoke it!

Oh, and there’s also an independent candidate: Jim Walden, a high-powered attorney who has as much chance of winning as I have of growing my foreskin back. Then again, the impossible and unthinkable have happened so many times the past couple years, I keep Ripley’s Believe it or Not on speed dial.

What I do believe is that Big Apple Democrats now have their own Trump – a scary wildcard they chose mainly to signal their exasperation with the status quo. Or at least I hope that was the motivation. The other option is that pro-Muslim anti-Semitism has become so ingrained in the left—even the Jewish left—that they’d vote for Bin Laden if he used the right pronouns. 

Me? I fear for New York and America, not because Zohran Mamdani will build concentration camps or start pogroms, or close all the delis. I dread a culture that turns a blind eye to hateful ideology and a deaf ear to common sense. Too often, socialist policies meant to provide a safety net instead ignite lawlessness. But look on the bright side: there’s always sharia law. 

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, (you should pardon the expression), New York.

(c)2025 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

Dave’s Gone By Interview (5/24/2025): BERNIE FURSHPAN & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with public speaker BERNIE FURSHPAN

Topics include: cabaret, Metropolitan Room, the Holocaust, Judaism

Segment aired May 24, 2025 as part of the 984th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                   

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By #980 (3/15/2025): THE IDES HAVE IT

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Here is the 980th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, March 15, 2025.

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #191 (Mahmoud Khalil), Greeley Times; Bunion Watch; Dave’s Big Dictionary (stratagem); StoryTime (Farmer White’s Best Friend); Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Bristol).

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: big duck, pie, Chipotle, Baylen’s tics
00:58:30 GREELEY TIMES
01:18:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN w/ Joyce: rest-stop frogs
01:28:00 STORYTIME: Farmer White’s Best Friend
01:41:00 BUNION WATCH: Pringles!
01:46:30 DAVE’S BIG DICTIONARY: stratagem
01:58:30 DAVE GOES OFF: The Trumpet of the Swan
02:11:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #191: Mahmoud Khalil
02:20:00 Friends of the Daverhood
02:29:30 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Bristol, CO
02:33:30 DAVE GOES OUT

he who shall remain brainless
Rabbi Sol Solomon
Bristol, CO

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #192: (3/15/2025): Mahmoud Khalil

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #192 (3/15/2025): MAHMOUD KHALIL

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired March 15, 2025 the Dave’s Gone By video podcast. 

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read. 

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.

© 2025 TotalTheater Productions. All Rights Reserved.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

 More on Rabbi Sol: shalomdammit.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for mid-March 2025. 

Let me tell you about a man who’s having all sorts of trouble…because he made all sorts of trouble. It’s a fella named Mahmoud Khalil, a foreign-born graduate of Columbia University now facing deportation even though he has a green card. Why would he be taken from his home, without arrest, and threatened with expulsion from this great country? Why would our power-mad president focus on this individual and make an example of him, even though he has seemingly committed no crime?

I’ll tell you why. Because this Khalil snake, that the left wing—including Jews — have embraced to the point of calling him chummily by his first name, Mahmoud, like he’s their innocent little brother, this Khalil got himself involved in protests at Columbia that did break laws, that did threaten people, that knowingly disrupted access to college life on campus. 

Understand something about this Khalil character — one reason he’s here is because when he was a kid, his family to had escape their homeland of Syria. Yes, Israel is such a violent and terrible oppressor of the Arab world; meanwhile, 580 million harmonious, Koran-loving Syrians slaughtered each other in their own Civil War. Where were all the campus protests about that little party, I wonder?

Anyhoo, Khalil comes to the US on a student visa and starts working on his master’s degree, yet somehow he has time to get involved in all these anti-Israel demonstrations. In fact, he was suspended from Columbia when police swooped down on one of the protests that occupied and vandalized buildings. Khalil says he was just there to negotiate between the students and the admins, but why was he tangled up with these yahoos in the first place?

Which goes to why this is more than just a case of a harmless imbecile engaging in free speech. Or even hateful speech. Khalil can rant all he wants about Zionist oppression and Israeli “apartheid,” but if you are leading a group that creates unsafe conditions and then refuses to pack up its tents and go when the police say, “pack up your tents and go,” your green card hits a red light. 

Khalil says he spent the last two years deliberately threading the needle—not getting too close to the lawbreaking, not spending his nights on the lawns or blocking pathways to school buildings. How prudent of him. And yet, despite keeping one foot on the sidelines, he still provided aid and comfort to our lawbreaking enemies. So you Jews who are defending this piece of rancid hummus in the name of free speech, wake up. The Khalil case is about unlawful assembly, intimidation, and destruction of property. It’s just icing on the cake that he supports virulent anti-Israel rhetoric from radicals who champion a race of people who frequently cut off heads in the name of religion—the religion of peace, no less.

So grant Mahmoud Kha-loser his due process. Give him a fair trial and allow him to plead his case: “Your honor, I’m a social justice warrior whose weapon is merely words. If I say `Israel should be pushed into the sea and all the Jews drowned with it,’ well, who’m I really harming? So please let me stay in America so I can raise my son” [yes, Khalil’s wife is eight months pregnant and ready to spawn] “so I can raise my son to despise the Yids as much as I do. God bless America. Hartley Hall Akbar.”

Should Mahmoud Khalil legally prove himself, fair enough, he stays. And he can wish Israel all the injury he pleases. But free speech works both ways. I can wish him a thousand kinds of cancer, and pray for his baby son to be torn to pieces and devoured by raccoons, who then defecate the baby’s remains into a felafel that Mahmoud and his wife are forced to eat at gunpoint. Before they’re shot anyway.

What? Offensive? Hate speech? But…but…it’s just words. Sure hope they don’t deport me from Great Neck back to…Brooklyn. This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.

Dave’s Gone By Interview (12/31/2024): CHARLES GROSS

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 Dave Lefkowitz chats with theater critic CHARLES GROSS 

Topics include: theater, Two on the Aisle, Israel

Segment aired Dec. 31, 2024 as part of the annual Daverhood New Year special edition of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations.  For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2024 TotalTheater Productions.                            

More information on Dave’s Gone By: davesgoneby.com

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #189 (9/21/2024): Hezbollah Jokes

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RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #189 (9/24/2024): Hezbollah Jokes

airs Sept. 21, 2024 on Dave’s Gone By.  

Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the beginning of autumn, 2024.

Whether secretly, guiltily, worriedly, or flat-out joyously, every Jew is having a big “Who’s Your Daddy?” moment right now. After nearly a year of rooting out the Gaza animals of October 7th while trading fire with the opportunistic vermin of Southern Lebanon, Israel needed a shot in the arm. They got it by giving hundreds of our enemies a pow in the pants!

All these terrorists across Lebanon and Syria had been communicating through pagers—I guess because their mommies wouldn’t let them have cell phones like big-boy psychopaths. Well, those Israeli-made pagers were programmed to detonate, and detonate they did. The Arabs should have known something was up when they opened the box and the first thing they read was, “Para Explotar, Marque el Ocho.”

These paramilitary Islamists suffered hundreds of injuries to faces, eyes, hands, genitals — now they look as grotesque as they behave. And, yes, a couple of civilians and children died. I guess up in heaven they can mingle with all the dead Jews from the music festival. And, yes, we’re all anxious about this new brand of warfare and what method of retribution the Islamists will select. But from the Yom Kippur attack to 9/11 to the Supernova Festival, our nemeses have never displayed a hint of human decency. So, nu, you think this long-deserved punishment will suddenly turn them evil? I say, “Now’s the time to be proactive and invent some poison prayer mats.” 

But I can’t let this fantastic reminder of Mossad ingenuity and Jewish toughness go by without a little more levity. My friends, I bring you jokes: twisted punchlines for my Israeli brethren, who get knocked down but punch right back.

Why are Israeli pagers a bargain?
You get a lot of bang for the buck.

Do the Syrians listen to Spotify?
No, they carry a boom box.

Did Mossad make a list of all their targets?
Yes, and they paged through it. 

What was the most impressive thing Israel pulled off?
They pulled off dicks, lips, fingers…

Did Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil enjoy his time in Beirut?
He had a blast!

Did you know that Aqil had blue eyes?
Yeah, one blew this way, one blew that…

(Okay, that was an old one, but this next one’s mine): 
Why are the Lebanese such fine pool players?
Their balls go straight into the pockets.

At what part relay races do Lebanese men excel?
The hand off.

Why are Syrian generals feeling so lonely?
They lost all their privates.

(I didn’t write this next one, but I have to share it:)
What wireless carrier were the Lebanese using?
A-TNT.

Why was the Mossad attack like Nazis euthanizing the mentally ill?
They made all the nuts disappear.

What Broadway musical just came to Syria?
Maim.

What Italian movie just came to Lebanon?
Blowup.

Why shouldn’t Lebanese men drink?
After they feel a little buzz, they fly to pieces.

What will Syrian men use to avoid Covid?
Wrist sanitizer.

How can you tell when a Lebanese man is gay?
His vibrator goes up his ass.

What do Syrian genitals have in common with an English breakfast?
Bangers and mash.

What do a Lebanese man’s testicles have in common with The Flintstones?
Bam Bam. 

What’s the funniest thing about all these Hezbollahs being killed or disabled?
Everything.

Happy New Year, my friends! This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. Time to turn the page!

(c)2024 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

Dave’s Gone By Interview (7/20/2024): MINDY FRADKIN & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with performer MINDY FRADKIN

Topics include: Israel, Princess Wow, hats, Woodstock

Segment aired July 20, 2024 as part of the 952nd episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2024 TotalTheater Productions.                                                   

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

More about Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com.