The Power of the Diaspora Networks conference, highlighted the importance of Ethiopian diaspora networks in promoting trade and investments in the region. Focusing on Jewish  experience, Powers of Diaspora forcefully argues that diasporic communities exercise a distinct form of cultural power in order to maintain powerful networks to empower the Horn of African states.

Indicating a possible shift in government policy toward “emerging” Jewish communities around the world, Israel’s Ministry of the Diaspora has created a new committee to present recommendations on what it defines as “groups with ties to the Jewish people.” 

There is still time for Israel to change its course. But that is up to Israel to decide. For Jews who live in the Diaspora, however, we can also make a decision. We can decide that the choice is not between mindlessly supporting Israel in its drive to suicide and its daily practices of occupation, settlement expansion, and all the human rights violations that these necessarily imply on the one hand and silence on the other.

Netanyahu will be reaching out to the American Jewish community in a live webcast next Tuesday, reports said, addressing the agreement and its implications for Israel, the Middle East and the world. A question and answer period will follow his remarks, according to an email invitation.

Actress America Ferrera has penned an open letter to Donald Trump in response to his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants. Ferrera has been an advocate for Latino causes and a prominent supporter of Democratic candidates for years. Her tongue-in-cheek post puts a unique spin on the uproar over Trump’s claims that “rapists” and “drug dealers” have entered the U.S. border illegally from Mexico.