This year, on Armenian Remembrance Day — when the mass killing of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire is commemorated — Armenian-American activists had high hopes that a president who ran on a message of change would indeed change the pattern of previous administrations. That is, they hoped President Obama would use…
In the past, when Israel blocked United Nations inquiries into its actions, it could sometimes point to the pro-Palestinian sympathies of those doing the probing. That’s more difficult to do with Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist chosen by the U.N. Human Rights Council to lead its investigation into Israel’s recent conflict with Hamas in…
As the current economic downturn becomes the longest since the Great Depression, a series of painful cuts at America’s flagship institutions of Judaic scholarship have produced a new and uncomfortable reality: Jewish higher education is shrinking. The most dramatic example of this came April 14, when the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion,…
Hailing from the land of Tango in Buenos Aires, Simja Dujov writes music that resembles almost anything other than that classic genre. Known as “the Jewish Manu Chao,” he has a sound that is ironic and humorous rather than wistful and melancholy, rhythmic and driving as opposed to nonpercussive. Dujov’s music is uniquely of its…
Mother’s Day is bittersweet. During my childhood, I would get insanely excited about finding just the right gift and buying the most gushing card. As an angst-ridden adult, I dreaded the day and balked at sending a card to my estranged mother. It seemed too hypocritical to send one of those loving messages to someone…
Like many Jewish travelers, I have a tendency to seek out the Jewish connections in any city I visit. Stumbling across a generations-old deli, say, or a stone building etched with a Star of David from its former life as a synagogue, helps me feel at home when I am abroad. For Jews spending time…
Sen. Arlen Specter, one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, has converted — to the Democratic Party. The longtime Pennsylvania senator’s surprise move will give Democrats 60 votes in the Senate, assuming that Al Franken wins his ongoing court case in Minnesota and is seated, which would give Senate Democrats the power to stop filibusters….
Almost no one noticed or cared when Ahmad Tanveer, a 43-year-old Pakistani New Yorker, died of an apparent heart attack while being held in jail, awaiting deportation. Tanveer’s name did not appear on any list of immigration detainees who had died in custody. He never came up in testimony that the Department of Homeland Security…
This is a traditional Soviet party dish, so put on your party hat, cause it’s gonna be GRATE! (Sorry, I just can’t help myself. Bad puns are like a disease.) You’ll need: A can of your favorite fish. I used сайра (sorry; I don’t know how to say it in English!), which looks a lot…
The Undercover Vegetarian hummed softly to herself as she snipped and set aside the kohlrabi greens. They were to be roasted like kale and served up still crispy and warm. Humble Husband, skittish around root vegetables, eyed the proceedings warily. “Are those onions? Those look like onions. You know how I feel about those.” Shifting…
The Reform movement’s seminary is looking into closing two of its three U.S. campuses as part of an effort to close looming budget gaps caused by the recent economic downturn. Rabbi David Ellenson, the president of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, said that school officials were considering several plans for restructuring the institution —…
