Former Pentagon Iran analyst Larry Franklin recently quit his job cleaning the restrooms at his local church in West Virginia. He still keeps his weekend job, mopping the floors at a nearby Roy Rogers restaurant. In recent years, Franklin also has gained experience in parking cars, digging trenches and cleaning cesspools. In between, he has…
So A-Rod finally breaks his slump with a long drive into the seats, the fans leap to their feet — and wet tuna plops into your lap. Even if there weren’t the usual spat over who makes and packs the snacks for a game, a tuna sandwich or PB&J just doesn’t cut it. At ballparks,…
A tough room, lousy sound and half a band. Given the poor hand she was dealt, it’s a testament to Alicia Jo Rabins’s onstage appeal that she came across as well as she did at a showcase for emerging Jewish performers presented June 17 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to…
I had my sweet “eureka!” moment in the health food store yesterday, more specifically in the canned goods aisle. With a glance at a can of coconut milk, all my non-dairy dessert dissatisfaction just fell away. My devotion to dessert is almost religious. I believe that no good meal is complete without a sweet ending,…
JERRY SEINFELD, JOE NAMATH, DR. ERIC KANDEL, GLORIA AND EMILIO ESTEFAN HONORED WITH ELLIS ISLAND FAMILY HERITAGE AWARDS “Imagine what it must have been like to come here as an immigrant.” said Candice Bergen, host of the 2009 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards ceremony, held May 19 and honoring Joe Namath, Jerry Seinfeld, Dr. Eric…
NEWS ITEM: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for a week, explaining he would be hiking in the mountains on vacation. Actually, he engaged in a secret tryst in Argentina with his inamorata. Should we forbid a governor From dallying with sweet amour? His job is hard beyond belief, So why deny him some relief?…
Givat Ha’eytam, a lonely hill in the Israeli occupied West Bank, seems like anything but a natural part of the bustling 8,000-person Jewish settlement of Efrat. Indeed, the stony outcrop, with its view of Efrat’s buildings in the distance, soon will be cut off from that settlement by the separation barrier Israel is building across…
The age-old Jewish antipathy toward the murderous, antisemitic monarchs of pre-communist Russia was never captured better than in the old joke, retold in “Fiddler on the Roof,” in which a rabbi asks if there is a special prayer for the czar. Yes, the rabbi replies: “May the Lord bless and keep the czar — far…
In what may be the final opportunity for many Holocaust survivors, the international community is launching a new effort to reach understandings on restitution of property that belonged to Jews in Europe before the Nazi occupation. The Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, scheduled to open in Prague June 26, will put a new focus on…
Iran’s descent into instability has confronted Israel and its American supporters with a dilemma in choosing between two competing approaches: one based on human rights, and the other on realpolitik. Israeli officials might personally be rooting for the fall of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom they view as a tyrant. But at the same time,…
Sexual-abuse survivors who traveled to Albany, N.Y., with high hopes this past spring got a tough lesson in political reality. The state Assembly’s regular session ended on June 22 without any action on a bill that would make it easier for sex-abuse victims to sue their molesters and the institutions that employed them. “People are…
