Ellen Ginsberg Simon, at The Blogs

Ellen Ginsberg Simon

Jan 6, 2026, 5:34 PM

Venezuelans celebrate after US President Donald Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country in Santiago, Chile, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

People prefer to exist in the stark simplicity of unrelenting duality. Perhaps it is soothing to frame an uncontrollable world around a less complicated lens, but it no more changes the material nature of that world than it absolves...

Dec 17, 2025, 9:23 AM

Dear Old Brown

Illustrative. Students sitting in the College Green outside Sayles Hall on the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island. (Wikimedia Commons via JTA)

The happiest moments of youth’s fleeting hours We’ve past neath the shade of these time-honored walls. And sorrows as transient as April’s brief showers Have clouded our lives in Brunonia’s halls. The final verse of Brown’s Alma Mater song have played in...

Nov 24, 2025, 9:43 PM

Brown University – The Jewish Ivy?

On Nov. 7-9, Brown University openly and proudly celebrated 130 years of Jewish life on campus. (Photo by Ellen Simon)

On the weekend of November 7-9, Brown University hosted its unprecedented celebration of “130 Years of Jewish Life at Brown.” At some point during Shabbat dinner, between the ridiculously decadent noodle kugel and Robert Kraft’s talk about combatting antisemitism...

Nov 12, 2025, 8:58 PM

Dear Harvard Ethicist

By Beyond My Ken - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77845671

Dear Harvard Ethicist, Should I let go of my friends? I am an alumna of Harvard Law School. I read with a mixture of fury and dismay. The Crimson’s Nov. 5, 2025 "Dear Ethicist" column responding to the question, “Should...

Oct 28, 2025, 12:19 AM

New York Must Not Fall

Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a mayoral debate, in New York City, October 16, 2025. (AP Photo/ Angelina Katsanis, Pool)

The Islamist playbook used in the UK is being employed in the New York City mayoral race, and it must be stopped. A crowd of 500+ pro-Palestine demonstrators marches through an elite university campus, screaming obscenities and throwing trash at...

Jun 3, 2025, 7:13 AM

Featured Post

I am not a ‘good Jew’

An Israeli flag stands in a bed of flowers as caution tape blocks off a deserted Pearl Street on the scene of an attack on demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Eli Imadali / AFP)

I will not pretend that everything is okay to please you in the hopes that such an approach will end better than it did for my forebears

Feb 20, 2025, 10:12 AM

Broken Sunset

Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas (courtesy photo)

Sunset brilliance Backlit by the blackest of hearts. Molten gold, Your smiles, your souls, your light Drown the Darkness With cheeky giggles And Batman wings. You live on in the sunset, Each fading ray Imbued with the essence Of your innocence, Your marmalade sweetness, Your incandescent light. Fire cannot easily be forgotten. Fire...

Nov 12, 2024, 3:52 AM

Redefining Privilege

In the past week, dejected Harris supporters have licked their wounds and commiserated over the purported dismal fate of the nation. Such is only natural when one is committed to a candidate and feels the sting of loss and...

Oct 8, 2024, 5:04 AM

The New Iron Wall

The only way to reach the point where “both peoples can live together in peace, like good neighbors,” is to create an impregnable iron wall - a strong power that can stand against the many regional enemies to Zionism....

Sep 18, 2024, 10:05 PM

We Are One Family

View from inside the Jewish Memorial at Dachau; Munich, Germany. Photo taken by Ellen G. Simon

Perspective. I had mine checked this week. We live in remarkably stressful times. I am sure Billy Joel would say that the fire was always burning since the world's been turning. But, suffice it to say, as a people, we Jews...

About Me

Ellen Ginsberg Simon is an attorney and compliance professional. She has an M.Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University and is also a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School.