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Obama To Offer Broader Regional Thaw for Israeli Nod to Statehood
President Obama will seek to revive the moribund Middle East peace process in his first official meeting with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, offering a new regional initiative that aims to bridge increasing differences between the new governments in Washington and Jerusalem. The new approach takes the 2002 Arab peace initiative another step forward by making…
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Orthodox Group Stirs Pot With New Kosher Ethics Seal
A new label just went up alongside the other colorful stickers and pamphlets adorning the window of Your Heights Café in northern Manhattan. It’s a seal with an image of clasped hands, and it was given out by a new organization looking to improve working conditions in New York’s kosher restaurants. This month, the Orthodox…
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Painful Rituals: Program Treats Eating Disorders in Observant Women
Just before sundown on a Friday evening, Rachel Nathanson turned on a lamp in her living room and recited the prayer traditionally said upon kindling Sabbath candles. Then she said the blessing over the wine, allowing herself a single sip of grape juice. She purposely skipped the blessing over the challah — “I don’t trust…
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Wesleyan Shooter’s ‘Columbine’ Plan Spotlights Jewish Identity on Campus — Or Not
When the alleged murderer of Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich shattered the idyllic calm of this leafy Connecticut campus, it was just the beginning of his plans, police say. In his journal and other writings, they say, alleged killer Stephen Morgan wrote, “I think it’s okay to kill Jews, and go on a killing spree…
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‘Shalom’ and ‘Salaam’: Day Schools Embrace Arabic
Outside their classroom window a beautiful spring afternoon is blooming, but a few students at Ramaz, a Modern Orthodox academy in Manhattan, have stayed after school for a foreign-language club. After teacher Orit Nawrocki drills them on their siblings’ ages and on various vegetables, all in an unfamiliar language, she bids them farewell. “See you…
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Pope’s Shoah Words: Did He Fall Short?
Former Israeli Ashkenazic chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau was among those who were critical of Pope Benedict XVI’s address at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial. Lau, a survivor of Buchenwald who serves as the chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, lamented that while Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, offered a moving personal expression of…
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As German-born Pontiff Visits Jewish State, Sharp Reactions
The outcry started even before he arrived. One week prior to Pope Benedict XVI’s four-day visit to the Holy Land, Israeli Knesset Member Michael Ben Ari of the right-wing National Union party called on Israeli officials to boycott the visit. “The pope, who was active in antisemitic youth movements, recently restored to the church a…
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Obama’s Jewish Backers May Be in the Middle as U.S.-Israel Tensions Rise
As tension builds between the new Obama administration in Washington and the new Netanyahu government in Jerusalem, two of President Obama’s closest Jewish allies may find themselves increasingly in the middle. Lee Rosenberg, who campaigned on behalf of Obama, was confirmed as president-elect of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at its recent national conference….
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Very Superstitious
Stevie Wonder advises that “superstition ain’t the way,” but few heed his words. On a recent Saturday morning I found myself loitering in the musty bowels of the Bialystoker Synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Several long tables were set with bottles of mediocre scotch and plates of substandard herring and potato kugel, awaiting the…
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Balancing Act
A few hours past sundown on a recent Saturday evening, Rivka Nahari, 31, took to the stage. Her slight frame draped in all black, and her wig swept back with a clip, she sang an aria from “Romeo and Juliet” while accompanying herself on the piano. The audience, which consisted of 50 Orthodox women and…
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Yad Vashem Chairman: Pope’s Address Was Lacking
The chairman of Israel’s Yad Vashem Council said the pope’s address at the Holocaust memorial museum did not go far enough. “A few points were missing in the pope’s address,” Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a former chief rabbi of Israel, told Israel’s Channel 1 Monday shortly after Pope Benedict XVI visited the Hall of Remembrance….
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