Fresh, local green beans should be here any day, now – but when they aren’t available, I rely on the frozen ones from Trader Joe’s. I like that TJ’s haricots verts are less waterlogged than many other brands of frozen green bean, and I appreciate the way each bean seems to have been individually frozen…
FOLKSBIENE GALA — A DELIGHTFUL SHOW THAT ENDED ON TIME! With a high-kicking ensemble performing an excerpt from “The Golden Land”; NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams’s seasoning his video greetings with such Yiddishisms as nakhas, mentschlekhkeyt and spilkes (pins), and master of ceremonies Freddie Roman ladling Borsch Belt jokes, the June 8 National Yiddish…
Jewish schools are guilty of racial discrimination if they reject children on the grounds of their parentage, a British court has ruled. In a decision that has shocked the country’s 300,000-strong Jewish community, the Court of Appeal held that ongoing personal acts of faith, rather than birth or conversion, must define who is a Jew….
On a recent night in this ethnically divided city, an Israeli and two American Jews patrolled the streets, armed with a ladder, adhesive spray and a pile of handwritten placards. Every few minutes, they hopped out of the car, slapped a sticker onto a road sign and snapped a picture. Their operation, which has taken…
One of the largest and most influential Jewish groups has signed on for the first time in support of universal health care in the United States. United Jewish Communities, an umbrella group for local Jewish federations, pushed its members to lobby over the July 4 weekend for health care reform that would provide universal coverage….
At a town hall meeting in late June in suburban Maryland, Rep. Donna Edwards’s tight rope walk was on full display. Edwards had come to White Oak Middle School to speak with the gathered crowd about her recent trip to Israel and Gaza. She wanted to defend herself against criticism that she has been too…
It has long epitomized the Jewish state’s superiority complex toward Jews who live abroad. Tel Aviv’s Museum of the Jewish Diaspora was theoretically about the Jews living dispersed around the globe, but its narrative had them all ending up in Israel. Now, with a big jolt of funding, the museum has announced that it will…
When Jerry Silverman was being considered for the job of CEO and president of United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of the North American Jewish federation system, he sought advice from a key constituency: his family. “We had a family meeting a few weeks ago, in the backyard after going to services on Shabbat,” Silverman…
To add to what already has been a bad year for fraud at Jewish organizations, Harvard University’s Hillel announced that it had lost nearly $800,000, and a former accountant has been accused of diverting funds into his personal account. William O’Brien was indicted July 6 on 17 counts in connection with the five-year, $780,000 fraud….
The expulsion of an Israeli journalists’ union from the International Federation of Journalists is mired in a murky cocktail of politics and money. The Israeli group –— the National Federation of Israel Journalists — was ousted June 7 in a unanimous vote of the international union’s executive committee. The vote immediately raised the specter of…
Documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner sat comfortably in a Manhattan editing room, one sandaled foot extended to admire her pedicure. Her bright-red tunic, busy with flowers, matched her red toenails. “I don’t know why more women don’t have their toes done,” she said with a sigh. That was the extent of the girlish banter. Kempner is…
