Heeding Circadian Rhythms

Count myself among the many who wish their sleep patterns were better.  Short of a formal sleep study, a form of excessive medical care for me, I've engaged in a lot of interventions.  I am aware of sleep hygiene principles, which I commit myself to periodically.  My bottle of melatonin from the shelf at Walmart gets judicious use.  My card of diphenhydramine gel caps, obtained from the Dollar Store, allows me to get drowsy but at an unacceptable cost the next morning.  Unlikely that I will finish the remaining aqua capsules.  I've used Ambien samples, four of them conserved over several months.  That stuff works, and offered to me by my doctor, but not the direction I should be taking in my senior retirement years.  Sleep Hygiene is the way to go.

The principles are very easy.  Lights out at a predictable time.  Avoid zonking out early.  Put away the blue lights from the smartphones and tablets a couple hours in advance. Big Screen TV causes fewer disturbances.  Arise on time.  Avoid snooze button.  I've also had sleep trackers.  I found the free apps on my cell phone intrusive.  The Apps themselves periodically failed.  My smartwatch has a basic program that works consistently, if not all that accurately.  Often I have two half-nights sleep when trying to adhere to fixed sleep and wake times.  The most difficult advice for me has been how to deal with the middle of the night wakening that creates those two half-nights.  Professional sleep organization advice recommends getting up if not back to sleep by a certain interval.  My smartwatch has a timer that allows me to create that interval.  I am rarely back asleep.  However, the sleep app of the watch shows the wake time to be not that much longer than the recommended allowable in-bed wake time.  If I feel groggy I stay in bed.  If I feel wired, I head to My Space where I turn on the big screen TV to Modern Marvels or How the Earth was Made to maybe learn something.  By the end of the show, if not dozed in my recliner, I usually find myself loopy enough to return to bed for a successful second half of the night.

Wake times occasionally challenge me.  My smartwatch has an alarm set to my wake time with a snooze feature for ten minutes.  I am rarely jolted awake by the buzz.  My internal timer has me either awake or dozing lightly when it signals my left wrist.  By then I have already read the red numerals on the should be obsolete clock radio behind my bed.  I rarely arise with the buzz but nearly always am able to head to the bathroom for dental hygiene before the reminder buzzes ten minutes later.  Then to the kitchen to begin the day.  Make k-cup coffee, retrieve the newspaper from the end of the driveway for my wife, then bring that brew back to the laptop in My Space.

Recent weeks have changed my internal pattern.  The middle of night awakening still occurs at a predictable time, but my smartwatch indicates that light sleep resumes within a few minutes.  And if I am awake within a half hour of the alarm set, I just get up early to begin my day.  My internal rhythms seem a reasonable guide.  My energy has improved, as has my ability to stay awake past the designated lights out time most nights.  I rarely doze off before that, something I used to do most nights.  Time to falling asleep does not seem unduly long.

So the sleep hygiene protocols seem on target.  While they can sometimes be disruptive to follow, consistency seems to pay off.  While these recommendations make people subservient to the clock with its timers, biological signals remain recognizable.  It pays to follow them if not predictably destructive.  So now my wake times have become longer, my activities within those daylight times more productive.  That was the intent.  Sleep study not needed yet.

Offering Candor

 

You’re signed up for 2025 Delaware Democratic Platform Public Comment Meeting | Wilmington. Thursday, May 8, 2025 6:30pm - 8pm EDT Location TBA, Wilmington, DE, 19805 They haven't told me where to assemble, only what day.  I'm not sure they want what my analytical, evidence-based mind has to offer.  Like my synagogue and parts of my medical world, my Democratic party often regards challenges to Important People of Title as a threat to agenda, when it should be the creation of agenda.  At least my medical world thrives amid its limitations, though now being challenged externally.  While good and decent Democrats control our state government, a fair number of the party's endorsed banner carriers got voted down by party primary voters.  The capable prevailed over the ideologues.  I am mostly happy with the people who represent me in Washington and in Dover and the County offices. People are good.  Policies are more open to discussion.  If the national scene mirrored my state better, we might have fared better.  My FB feed and email get messages from our elected officials, though not from party officers.  They tell how they will make speeches in opposition to the unfavorable electoral outcome.  Somehow, the wisdom of Pogo, "we have met the enemy and he is us" remains in denial.  I attended my local committee meetings for a few years.  I left when a newcomer introduced a resolution supporting a scripted anti-Semite.  As I questioned these supporters by Zoom, they went to different colleges than me and had limited historical knowledge or analytical skills.  They did fine at crowdspeak.  We can expand that nationally.  My text messaging feed is basically useless, cluttered with pleas for money from the Democratic Party to resist what the voters expressed as their majority will.  I cannot use this smartphone asset for its intended purpose of connecting with friends and doctors, drowned out by multiple pleas daily for the generosity of my credit card.  At least ask what I think about what they intend to promote.  They haven't. So an invitation came for input.  From a senior whose first Presidential vote went to McGovern.  He lost.  The media publicity seems to get directed to his ideological descendants who I can predict will have a similar electoral result.  I have a lot of opinions, most very centrist.  I think people do best when they get university degrees or post high school training.  I missed out on the draft, and other forms of public service, though one job could be called a variant of public service.  Should it be mandatory?  I think America and the people who have to give some of their young adult time would be better off for doing that.  The Israeli's have already conducted that experiment.  DEI?  Been done right by the Endocrine Society. Been done with harmful results in a lot of places.  Middle East?  Protest in a dignified way like I saw the students at NYU do recently.  Vandalizing my car if I kee;p my tallis bag emblem side up on my car seat just needs zero tolerance as official party platform. Even personal stuff like staying married for a long time, being loyal to profession and employers, reserving a few evenings a week for the public good, supporting my preferred religious community, giving my kids music lessons and Hebrew School.  Those are timeless contributions that have atrophied in importance by much of the Democratic public faces. When I lived in St. Louis in the mid 1970s, it was a swing state.  My representatives were Democrats as was one Senator.  The democrats controlled the state house, with the Speaker living in a townhouse across the street from my apartment.  No more.  That majority has been piddled for a lot of reasons, never to return in my lifetime.  When voters flip for cause, they rarely return.  The flipped for cause.  Southerners to restore what never should have been.  Working people and farmers with legitimate resentment of their perception of disdain that college grads have for them, to say nothing of appeasement of groups that have accomplished less than they did.  Jews next, perhaps.  Like the others, for cause. While my party does not tap my mind for its wisdom when it can tap my wallet to continue piddling any chance they might have to acquire political power again, the invitation to express myself to them requires me to take advantage.  They know they need centrists, having chased away their share one electoral drip at a time.  If they tell me where this event takes place, I will do my best to attend.

Where I Choose to Shop

Target has taken a hit for dismantling their DEI program.  Traffic in their stores is reportedly down, including my local store.  But association is not causation.  Whenever I go to Costco it is mobbed, with a DEI program preserved despite governmental pressure.  But they are two very different consumer experiences.  Both stores seem to have people of similar ethnic distribution as employees visible to shoppers.  And the apparent diversity of the people shopping at each place does not seem much different, though Costco shoppers are drawn to items of larger price tag and larger quantities, while Target has more selection.  Costco employees are harder to find but always helpful once located.  Target employees are around but amateur kids from HS trying to meet car insurance premiums.  Mostly not helpful to me.  Has nothing to do with popular or unpopular sociopolitical stances and everything to do with the priorities that the executive who make key decisions place on their shoppers' experiences.

I have two staples where Target offers the best price nearly always.  Each supply lasts about two weeks, essentially forcing me to the store about ten times a year.  I go to the shelves, both in the pharmacy department, and carry the items to the self-scanner.  I rarely leave the pharmacy department.  There have been times when it seemed convenient to get other things.  I needed laundry soap.  My supermarket undercuts the price big time for the premium brand and significantly for the secondary brands and house brand.  I wanted to get some clothing for an upcoming trip.  Minimal shirt selection and shoddy stuff.  I needed a thermal mug.  They had them, not competitive in price with what I eventually bought.  One time I needed ammonia to clean some glass.  They had no ammonia, just chemical concoctions designed by mediocre chemistry majors labelled as glass cleaner.  When they have what I come for, I buy it.  Mostly what I find is less competitive than what I can find other places.  The people who work there do not make the corporation's wholesale purchasing, stocking, or pricing decisions.  DEI, which I agree has not been implemented in the optimal way, has no bearing on any of my experience.

I've largely deep-sixed other retailers, though with no malice.  Best Buy, Kohl's each too expensive.  Local Walmarts often unkempt.  What I've needed I find locked behind glass with no accessible employee with a key to show it to me.  Costco is fun to browse, but empty nesters really need very little in quantity.  Moreover, there is little need to stand in a long line behind full mega carts when I have one or two items costing less than $30.  

So what are my preferences and why?  Depends what I need.

The easiest for me has been my pharmacy.  I chose it years ago due to walking distance from my office. Now it's a short drive with convenient hours. Top-notch pharmacists.  Medicines always ready.  Fully cooperative with my Medicare Part D.  I almost never buy anything else at that supermarket.

Groceries are in transition.  Shop-Rite established a Kosher section in conjunction with my Rabbi.  It began as a personal friendship between the Rabbi and the Shop-Rite's chief.  Both retired.  The kosher service hangs on with a loyal volunteer, a person not treated especially well by the Dominant Individuals of my congregation.  Selection has deteriorated, especially in the beef section.  I rarely buy beef.  But for general groceries, I find things easy to find and discounted more than the competing stores seem to.  I now buy more at Trader Joe's.  My staples there are eggs, bread, seltzer, bananas, and Roma tomatoes, plus greeting cards as needed.  I always like being in that store.  More recently an Aldi opened nearby.  I like being there too, though it's price-dependent.  Kosher is not on their radar, though certified products are available.  I look at my outings there as a treasure hunt.

Clothing is more problematic.  I do not buy much now that I am retired.  For browsing, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, and Boscov's.  All have more than clothing.  Things for my kitchen other than food tend to come from Boscov's.  Gifts for others from the other two.

My state restricts alcohol purchases to licensed stores.  Total Wine is the way to go, except for beer where a smaller store has a better selection from smaller brewers.  

I depend on the Home Depot, Lowe's, and a local hardware store for various things, but almost always know what I want to get before I head to any of these.  I have found Home Depot online preferable to going to the store.

My shoes have a difficult to find size.  Shoe stores display by style.  I much prefer display by size.  Amazon sorts this very well.  I also buy electronics and smart watches from there.  If I need a replacement part for anything, I can usually order it there.

At one time I purchased more Judaica and books than I do now.  Those are transacted online, and not very often.

Themes to how I seek stuff out?  If I do not know what I want, the places whose displays influence me seem to be Shop-Rite, Boscov's, TJ Maxx, and Marshall's.  The supermarket just has an immense array of items for all purposes, from good values in healthy eating to patio furniture to soil enrichment for my garden.  I read the ad each Sunday, make a list of must-get and might-get.  Despite a list, I still go aisle by aisle.

The three department stores must have a different acquisition system than Macy's or Walmart.  One month TJ Maxx will have Phillies caps and sturdy backpacks, another month grooming products that I had never heard of and a clearance on slacks.  Boscov's clothing has predictability.  The housewares and linens may reflect special deals that their buyers find on overstocks.  The selection changes significantly from month to month, as I found out when I needed to replace a toaster and steam iron.  I could not predict what brands would appear on the shelves.

To some extent, I find the surprise of what I might find appealing.  Target certainly does not have that.  I rarely need a salesperson to help, and most of the places where I shop really no longer have employees knowledgeable about what they sell, other than the Kosher deli guy at Shop-Rite.  Except for expensive items like major electronics, I don't miss the expertise that salespeople once had.

What I don't seem to care about is the political stance that the executives take.  These are mostly large corporations with dozens to hundreds of locations.  They are all going to hire a broad group of people in the stores.  They implement what somebody who I do not see decides.  So availability matters.  Target must have the two items I seek from them, as that is my only reason to go there.  I need to be able to find what I am shopping for.  Displaying by designer like the snooty stores sometimes do makes no sense when I prefer all items of my size sorted on racks by size.  And I've never abandoned my fondness for surprise, the ability to purchase something whose display makes me want it.  Those are fundamental retail strategy decisions which appear as shoppers browse but are made by a few people far removed from those shelves.

Each shopper probably has some blend of uniqueness and commonality.  Judging that probably explains why Costco has a lot of shoppers every time I go there while Target has fewer than the stockholders might like.  I think the DEI explanations are advocates pitching their own social preferences, not professional retailers dedicated to attracting customers.

Wardrobe Update

Years have gone by since I bought dress clothing.  I've been retired going on eight years.  In late employment, I almost never had occasion to wear tailored clothing, and didn't buy any, other than perhaps dress slacks made of synthetics, which I still wear.  My good suit fit adequately for my son's wedding and reception the following year.  I may have gotten invited to one other wedding.  For the most part, I only wear one of my two suits on the Holy Days.  Sports coats come in handy on Shabbos, two for winter, two for summer, and two that bridge the seasons.  The jackets have gotten snug when I button them, though I have almost no reason to button them.  Men at synagogue often forgo their jackets or their ties, though usually not both.  I typically wear a tie, with or without a jacket, because it sets Shabbos as the only occasion where I wear dress clothing.  And I still like the challenge of tying a bow tie, something always accompanied by a sports coat.

In the next month, I will have an event to attend, one best described as casual chic.  Maybe it's time to follow the advice of Abe Lincoln, who stopped at Brooks Brothers in advance of his major public appearance at Cooper Union.  I could alter what I have.  But the price of cheap suits, particularly those made of synthetics, has declined.  I could get suit separates, have a professional tailor do the jacket, the man around the corner alter the trousers, and have some new options for synagogue.  I already bought a new shirt for the travel, a short sleeve blue print on white background that can be worn anywhere.  

Buying clothing of this type has become a challenge.  I fall between sizes, as I have in the past.  Long gone are the Halls of Robert where my parents would take me to get something of polyester.  A man wearing a suit better than the one I was purchasing would put chalk marks on jacket and pants.  Then I would get back into my own slacks and shirt.  A week later a parent would drive me back to try the finished suit on, then never needing any adjustment, I'd take it home.  I would wear it until I outgrew it.  Earning and income and tailored clothing more expected than it is now, I would continue to buy the important items from a men's store.  Less important items would come from Goodwill, then get taken to a very talented nearby tailor if more than sleeve alterations were needed.

Those in-house tailors, or even measurers and markers to send purchases to an independent tailor, have disappeared.  I went shopping recently.  The megamall has a place dedicated to suits.  Their display in no way resembled the wardrobe staples that John Molloy taught American professionals in Dress for Success, now fifty years past publication.  Loud plaid, no.  Muted plaid perhaps, stripe perhaps, solid probably not.  Wool blends have gotten harder to find, as are people who work at the stores.  My default option has always been Boscov's.  I've even had their salespeople measure me, send the work to a contracting tailor, and pick it up.  Service discontinued.  They still have a big selection at a favorable price, though now nearly all synthetics as the fabric. I tried some on.  My usual size too snug.  The size above, not right in the shoulders.  No attendant in the department to measure me or at least tell me to buy a size up or down.  I had the cashier page a person who works in that department.  None came.

Finding a tailor to correct whatever I select poses its own challenge.  In this era of internet and websites, custom tailoring remains a cottage industry.  There are some near me.  Few reviews.  The rational part of me affirms that for as often as I wear a jacket, my current supply more than gets me by.  Have plenty of suitable shirts, ties, and adequately fitting slacks.  I could take one of my current jackets to tailor, see how he does and for how much, then decide on new clothing.  Likely my best option.  Or just use what I have, leave the button open, and accept snug, another rational approach.  Or I could get something at Boscov's and let him alter it. I'd have something that fits.  Versatile, but not wool.  And few places to wear it.  Looking more put together when I really have nobody to impress does not make much sense.

Maybe before the event, I'll have my hair and fingernails done instead.

Cancelled Classes

Each Sunday morning I write my week's fixed appointments on a magnetized whiteboard, as does my wife.  A look at the refrigerator door enables us to coordinate our flexible time activities.  In the right margin, we write upcoming appointments to be transferred to the weekly list when the events arise.  Events are often repetitive.  Choral rehearsals for my wife.  Obligations at the synagogue, from monthly board meetings to tasks on the bimah for shabbos.  Doctors' appointments are few.  We each take full class schedules at the regional Osher Institute, three days each.  And I enrolled in a monthly session from the Rabbi at synagogue.  Few days have no entry on the weekly whiteboard.  Moreover, we have our routines that recur without an entry.  I exercise and stretch on a reasonably fixed schedule, was dishes at predictable times, prepare and eat dinner.  My wife lights shabbos candles and we recite kiddush with shabbos dinner in season or separately when Daylight Savings Time moves the onset of shabbos much past our usual suppertime.  I read my NEJM articles at set times and plan my next day in My Space after supper most nights.  No reason to coordinate these.  Cluttering the whiteboard with too many things reduces its value.

During the school year, our classes dominate the weekly list of places we have to be at specified times.  This week looked especially full.  My monthly expense review got delayed a day by yontif Pesach.  Classes with Osher and the Rabbi.  Interviews of scholarship candidates.  A yahrtzeit for my wife, where I am needed to help make the minyan that enables her to recite Kaddish.  A day trip on Thursday. So it came as a welcome surprise when the Rabbi and an Osher instructor cancelled classes for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning respectively.  Fixed obligations suddenly became flexible time.  Free time and flexible time differ in productivity expectations.  Opening Tuesday night and Wednesday morning creates an unexpected block of opportunity to insert what I ought to do, perhaps more important than scheduled activity.  

I had wanted to try out the new pizza place nearby.  My wife and I registered at the front register twice, leaving when the hostess informed us of an unacceptable one hour wait.  I had anticipated no free suppertimes this week, but cancellation of the class brought opportunity.  Not having supper plans, we headed there early, finding the half hour wait acceptable.  Parking lot still full, most tables already occupied by our 5:30PM check-in.  Eventually seated.  Served a unique pizza not available elsewhere.  I understood its pre-opening hype and large crowds despite its recent opening and early service glitches.

My Wednesday morning class at the OLLI site at 9AM followed by a second class would have forced me into my treadmill session a half hour before my customary time.  When I step on at 8:15AM I achieve a rhythm hard to duplicate at the earlier time.  Because I am likely to find some excuse to skip this exercise session, I have disciplined myself to do it before I leave home in the morning, even when inconvenient.  The cancelled class allows me on the treadmill at my optimal time.  It also enables some quiet time, just me and my keyboard that an early class would have pre-empted.  This newly captured block of time did not go to trivial social media or YouTube.

I might question, if not having the two classes creates opportunity, should I even enroll in those two classes?  While I found the free time an opportunity to do something else of value, the two cancelled classes also enrich me in their own way.  The Rabbi's format allows interaction with other learners.  The OLLI session does not, as the lecturer goes from starting time to closing time without pause, not even for questions.  But having to drive there, I get to wander the lobby for a few minutes, usually encountering an old friend or two.  This cannot be duplicated at my laptop.  So if suspension of the classes infrequently creates personal opportunity, it is only because that time was otherwise dedicated to activities that push me ahead.  It is better to regard the two classes as the places I most want to be at those time, and capitalize on their occasional cancellations.  This time the options of what could I be doing instead came easily.

Classes suspend for the summer, typically in May.  The lesson of cancellation creates new insights into into defining blocks of open time.  Try visiting a new place.  Push my exercise targets.  Match mind and keyboard.  Enroll in another fixed activity that meets during the school and synagogue intercessions.  While I did not expect this absence of classes, I used the new found flexible time in a very satisfying way.

Getting There

In a week, I promised a person most dear to me that we would get together in NY.  She flies across America to enjoy a few days there.  I only have one specified day, a day trip not done for several years.  My transportation options are numerous.  Drive to and park in Manhattan.  Drive to a suburb that accesses either PATH or NJ Transit, park at the station, then enter Manhattan by regional rail.  Amtrak connects my city with Manhattan, though for a steep fare.  Bus options also exist from my city.  I could take regional rail to Philadelphia, then a bus with frequent departure and return times from there to Manhattan.  Or with senior discounts, I could take regional rail all the way from my town to Manhattan at a steep discount but parallel steep inconvenience.

My master teacher's imprint emerges.  John, of blessed memory, taught his fellows to list all possibilities that will solve a challenge, even the unrealistic ones.  From these, the best option emerges.  Since having surgeon remove a thyroid solves most thyroid conditions, that needed to be on John's sort through list, even if not accepted medical practice for the particular thyroid problem.  I approach transit in a similar manner.  The goal: visit the young lady I most want to see, getting there and back on the same day.

Considerations:

• Cost/Value
• Personal Effort
• Time Flexibility
• Logistics
• Foreseen Annoyances

It has been my good fortune to reach my Golden Years financially independent.  Even the most expensive of the options, round trip Amtrak for my wife and me, will not materially affect my personal financial position.  Their Senior Discount exists only nominally, though.  Getting to the train station and back is straightforward.  They have a parking garage across the street.  Downside other than cost, would be the schedules.  They don't run that often.  The commuter train to NYC has business travelers with expense accounts.  The extra $25 per ride is the cost of doing business at peak times, a pittance to what the traveler would be paid for doing his or her work.  Off-peak fare is less, but it delays my time with my guest.  Getting home would pose the same considerations.  On the up side, once en route I can basically relax next to my wife in a comfortable seat, occupying myself in any number of ways with what I can carry in my cross chest travel pouch.

Driving offers flexibility.  My wife would function as the passive passenger, amusing herself with crosswords or radio or chatting with me.  I have to pay attention to the road.  GPS has immensely simplified road trips.  I can deal with the highway, but the optimal exit that gets me to the NJ commuter train is not obvious.  I also have to deal with local roads once nearing my destination, find an unfamiliar parking lot, probably pay electronically, and walk to the commuter rail station.  By now I have some experience paying for parking at kiosks.  Costs include the hidden one, my gas tank filled the day before, usually about $30.  Turnpike tolls about $30 round-trip. Bridge toll home $6.  Parking estimates seem to be about $25.  Commuter rail across the Hudson River is nominal.  I could drive into Manhattan.  For my trouble, I would incur city driving, more expensive and less available parking, and a bridge toll.  Between hassle and expense, leaving the car in NJ seems the better option.

There are buses from my town.  A single bus line does not serve round trip at the times I would need to travel.  As a result, I would have to park in the garage near the Greyhound station in the morning then walk about ten minutes through some seedy blocks to get to the Rockleigh bus on time.  The bus lets passengers off in a difficult part of Manhattan.  However, I have taken this bus a few times.  It provides a pleasant ride.  For the return trip, which may approach dark on arrival home, I would have to take Greyhound which stops near where I park my car.  Fare, about $35 per ride.

Two other options that I would consider if traveling alone, though not with my wife and not with the need to meet a special person in NYC.  I have a Senior Rail pass that lets me ride to and within Philadelphia for free.  I could take that to Philadelphia, paying a nominal $2 parking fee at the rail terminal.  Then take the city bus or subway to the bus terminal, which would get me to NYC.  These buses leave frequently at mostly convenient times.  They seem to charge about $17 per ride.  There are downsides to safety and convenience.  I would have to time the commuter rail schedule to the bus departure schedule, leaving me enough time to get from train to intercity bus by SEPTA city transit.  The bus stops are now in different places skirting Center City, mostly places where crime poses a significant concern, particularly if returning after dark.  And I would need to make sure I get back to the commuter rail stop in time for the final train that brings me to my home station.  A suitable adventure for me, not suitable for an important day trip.

And for roughly the same price, I could use my free pass to Philadelphia, transfer to a line to NJ Transit in Trenton, which would no longer be free but not expensive, and then use a Senior Discount on NJ Transit to NYC.  I would have to get home.  Schedules are limited, but on the return trip I could take a bus to Philadelphia, taking advantage of their frequent departures, and complete my trip home by SEPTA.  That I do myself when I want to convince myself that I can do this.

At my son's college graduation, Mayor Bloomberg told the class to seek four elements in their personal initiatives, words that I put on my whiteboard the next day, where they have remained in my line of sight for 17 years.

1. Independence
2. Honesty
3. Accountability
4. Innovation

My travel options offer an expression of all of these.  My ability to sort out options.  A sense of what is suitable for one circumstance but not for all circumstances.  Responsibilities that I have for my wife's comfort and to spend time with my West Coast Visitor.  Setting priorities of safety, convenience, and value.  John z"l would be pleased with the ability to reason that he insisted I acquire.  For this trip, time with the people who count the most takes priority.  For another trip, traveling alone, my ability to explore something novel that I've not done before might become the overriding purpose.  I've not yet chosen my preferred travel option for this trip but I seem willing to spend a little extra for somebody else to operate the vehicles while my wife and I have a minimal hassle and optimal time with our special visitor.

World Zionist Congress Elections

 

If you draw a Venn Diagram from my 7th grade curriculum using two circles, one for Zionists and one for Jews, most of the Jewish Circle will overlap within the larger Zionist circle.  To be sure, people who believe that Jews need sovereignty as a feature of nationhood extends far beyond my Jewish community.  It includes all but a few American elected officials.  But if you identify somebody as Jewish, it's a safe bet that their attachment to Israel coincides.  Many clumsily finesse that reality in the American political and religious landscape.  The anti-Zionists on campus can correctly assume that if they chase a Jewish student across the Quad as they shout at him with a bullhorn, they will have succeeded in harassing a Zionist.

Israel has developed over its 77 years of independence from a start-up to a nation with talented, industrious people creating an effective military, a diverse innovative economy, a place of stable institutions and infrastructure.  International alliances have been created, some high profile, others more surreptitious.  Making this happen amid their domestic and international fractures needs considerable funding, unconditional funding.  It also requires decisions on allocation.  

While sovereignty belongs to the citizens and other legal inhabitants, diaspora Jews like me get a seat at the table in the form of the World Zionist Congress.  Each year this umbrella organization elects delegates from outside Israel to sit in a forum where project allocations are decided from a variety of immense pools of money, all earmarked to benefit Israel in some way.

Eligibility to vote is pretty loose by franchise standards of most nation-states:

• Be 18
• Be Jewish
• Live legally in the USA
• Affirm support for Zionism
• Not vote for the Israeli Knesset even if eligible
• Pay $5

Voters select Slates.  The ballot offers 22 of them, each with dozens of candidates who are seated by their place in their organization's pecking order and the proportion of votes that the slate gets.

All 22 slates produce a statement of their purpose and their vision for Israel as a democratic and pluralistic entity.  Some are obvious.  In your face organizations that want to recover the Biblically prescribed borders, even displacing those already there if necessary.  The three American denominations are amply represented by offshoots of their American umbrella agencies.  And then there are niche advocates, eco Judaism, two-state solution advocates, organizations wanting their adherents to be treated in a more dignified way than they experience now amid Israel's political structure.

After reading most of the one or two-page platforms, I am not sure how to distinguish most of them, despite a high level of literacy and considerable experience with the Zionist mission and Israel's modern realities.

Will I vote?  The fee will not change my own financial position in any way.  I have a not very admirable view of the American mainstream entities.  The Conservative and Reform understandably want to have their rabbis recognized and compromises from Halacha accepted.  The ZOA and Shas don't share my priority for kindness.  As I read the platforms of each slate, a few remained as maybes.

Irrespective of what a nobody like myself thinks, the volume of people running for seats left a favorable impression. Nearly all obscure people.  Organizational Judaism, outside its most religiously observant core, has slouched considerably in the sixty years since my Bar Mitzvah.  Synagogues like mine have few members not yet on Medicare.  The American seminaries graduate people whose applications would not have passed an Admissions Committee in my early post-college era.  Despite this overt attrition and niche interests, the number of American Jews wanting to seek their place at the table affirms that Israel's advocates remain vibrant.  Many of the slates, when listing their individuals, tabulate how many are women and how many have not reached their 35th birthday.  Whoever gets the seats, usually a mixture of Orthodox variants, religious Zionists, and Islamophobics, the American Jewish community still has its critical mass of young people willing to put themselves in Judaism's arena.