Threatening to shake the fragile structure of the American Jewish federations’ umbrella organization, one of the key partners for overseas funding has turned down a proposed agreement on distribution of funds, putting the system in a state of disarray. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced that it has rejected a decades-old understanding that gave…
In his lively introduction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the recent General Assembly in Washington, Leonid Nevzlin reminded the audience just how unexpected and unusual a role this was for him. “There was a time not so long ago when I couldn’t even imagine standing here in this place, in this country, only blocks…
Evelyn Moses’s family has owned the unincorporated plot of land on which she lives, an hour drive north of New York City, for decades. When she inherited it in 1994, it was surrounded on all sides by trees, with a small dirt road running alongside it. “Nice country living,” she said. Then, about a decade…
Sholom Rubashkin, a former executive at the Agriprocessors kosher meat company, was found guilty of 86 counts of bank fraud committed while managing the company’s finances — a verdict that could land him in prison for life. The guilty verdict from the 12-person jury came November 12, after a four-week trial in federal court in…
It looked like a scene straight out of the Bible. The men at the front wore outfits based on those of the Priests of the Ancient Temple of Jerusalem, and sent out over the hills a wail that could be heard several miles away. And indeed, it was an emulation of a biblical scene. A…
ABOARD THE INTREPID: RABIN MEDICAL CENTER GALA REMEMBERS ITS NAMESAKE, YITZHAK RABIN The American Friends of Rabin Medical Center’s November 2 “Broadway on the Hudson” gala aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum celebrated one of Israel’s premier hospitals and honored Teva North America, a division of a global pharmaceutical enterprise with roots in…
NEWS ITEM: Mameloshn abounds with dirty sayings — a fact made evident in a newly re-published book, “Yiddish Sayings Mama Never Taught You.” Some believe the volume will encourage young students of the language. Why shouldn’t Jews, like other folks, Enjoy their share of dirty jokes? In ev’ry culture, ev’ry clime, One finds that humor…
When Argentine artist Mirta Kupferminc escorts her mother, a Holocaust survivor who fled her homeland of Hungary in the wake of World War II, to view exhibits of her work, she sometimes worries that her mother will find the material too disturbing, too reminiscent of her experiences during the war. After all, Kupferminc bases much…
A white-pillared converted stone church beside a coppice of pine trees and over a sloping meadow from the grave of poet Robert Frost, might seem like a strange location for a sukkah, but this fall the Bennington Museum hosted two of them to mark the centennial of organized Judaism in the Vermont town. Members of…
Sy Syms, the founder of the discount retail clothing chain Syms and the founding board member of the Sy Syms School of Business at New York’s Yeshiva University, died November 17. He was 83, and the cause of death was heart failure. Syms, born Seymour Merinsky, served in the U.S. Army and worked as a…
When the international advocacy and fundraising organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure called two Israeli advocates to invite them to a breast cancer conference in Egypt, “we were very excited about it,” one of the women said. “This is a level we never dreamed of, breaking political barriers. This collaborative effort with Middle East…
