JERUSALEM — The sudden resignation of Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna, just six months into his tenure, has opened up possibilities for the formation of a new Likud-Labor national unity government that could advance the Middle East peace process.Coming amid a flurry of post-Iraq diplomatic activity, including the introductionRead More
TORONTO — In a revolutionary attempt to ritualize the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Conservative movement has produced the first-ever formal liturgy for the holiday.Dubbed “Megillat Hashoah” — “The Scroll of the Holocaust” — the document was recited publicly for the first time in North America during an AprilRead More
Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes is considered the early favorite for the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed his state’s Republican senator, Peter Fitzgerald, who decided last month not to run for re-election. The son of another popular politician, Hynes, 34, can count on the support of Cook County’sRead More
Kathi Diamant didn’t really like Franz Kafka when she first read him.Even today — more than 30 years after she first read “The Metamorphosis” — she doesn’t express the kind of veneration one would expect from the director of the Kafka Project at San Diego State University. “I prefer Kafka’s personal writing to hisRead More
French Gentleman’s Agreement: In May 2001, David De Rothschild, scion of the French branch of the family banking dynasty, told an Israeli newspaper that despite reports to the contrary, he did not feel that France was drowning in a wave of antisemitic acts.“Within hours of its publication, his comment would rocket through e-mailsRead More
Two of New York’s most prominent Muslim clerics have publicly spoken out against antisemitic content in Islamic textbooks used in local Muslim schools, after the issue was brought to their attention by a group of Jewish community leaders.The textbooks, used in Muslim parochial schools in Brooklyn and Queens, contain claims thatRead More
TEL AVIV — Israel’s Supreme Court has been asked to block the installation of the nation’s newly elected Ashkenazic chief rabbi, because of allegations that include incompetence, extorting money from marrying couples, forging signatures on marriage contracts and sexual abuse of women and boys.The rabbi, Yona Metzger, currently a neighborhoodRead More
WASHINGTON — For the past decade, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has focused on the Nazi campaign to persecute and murder Europe’s Jews. But this week, the museum marked its 10th anniversary by opening an exhibition on a topic that is not explicitly and specifically Jewish: Hitler’s war on free thought and free speech.“I was aRead More
About 700,000 public-sector workers, including more than 200,000 teachers, launched a nationwide strike this week effectively shutting down almost all government services offered by the state. The strike, which began Wednesday, was called to protest the government’s introduction of legislation that would cut $2.35 billion from Israel’s $56Read More
LETTER FROM VIRGINIAEvery Passover, Jews begin telling the story of the exodus from Egypt by reciting the Four Questions, starting with, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” This year, one Seder I attended was different not simply because of the matzo and the maror, but because of the people seated around the table.There wereRead More
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