Daily Podcasts Video Research

Mahmoud Khalil, Elon Musk and the upside-down world of Purim 2025

JL;DR SUMMARY As Purim 2025 unfolds, the holiday's theme of mixing good with evil is mirrored in the lives of Mahmoud Khalil and Elon Musk, two figures whose complex narratives reflect a topsy-turvy world. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Elon MuskTrump AdministrationImmigrationPurimFree SpeechActivismPro Palestinian ProtestsColumbia UniversityEthicsMahmoud Khalil

Places mentioned

Syria
"Both men grew up abroad: Khalil in Syria, to a Palestinian family that fled a village near Tiberias in 1948;"
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
"Musk in apartheid South Africa, where he attended a Jewish kindergarten and graduated from Pretoria Boys High School."
New York, United States
"bound for Columbias prestigious School of International and Public Affairs, where he received a masters degree a few months ago;"
Louisiana, United States
"Now Khalil, who led anti-Israel protests at Columbia, is in a Louisiana immigration detention center, facing deportation because the Trump administration has determined that his presence or activities would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
South Africa
"Musk, on something called an exchange visitor visa (J-1) in 1992, to go to the University of Pennsylvania, where five years later he picked up twin bachelors degrees in economics and physics."
Tiberias, Northern District, Israel
"to a Palestinian family that fled a village near Tiberias in 1948;"
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
"Musk, on something called an exchange visitor visa (J-1) in 1992, to go to the University of Pennsylvania, where five years later he picked up twin bachelors degrees in economics and physics."
Gaza, Palestinian Territories
"told international students they should not publish articles or post anything on social media regarding Khalils case, Gaza, Israel or Ukraine."
Ukraine
"told international students they should not publish articles or post anything on social media regarding Khalils case, Gaza, Israel or Ukraine."
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
"The most formative part of my own experience at Yale University was not my history major; it was reporting, writing, editing and leading at the Yale Daily News."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 46683
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-03-15 05:31:09 UTC
Curated 2025-03-15 08:31:21 UTC