NEWS ITEM: The porn industry, hit by the economic downturn, needs a $5 billion bailout from the federal government — so says Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. Pornography in film and print Has made a mint for Larry Flynt. He’s weathered unrelenting scorn For making bucks from pithy porn. Now suddenly, his fortune made, He’s seeking…
LAURIE TISCH AND THE TISCH FAMILY LAUDED AT ALICE TULLY HALL GALA “Philanthropy for the Tisch family is what singing is to the [von] Trapp family,” said Frank Bennack Jr., Lincoln Center’s board chairman, at the February 23 “Leading Ladies of New York Celebrate Alice Tully” gala celebrating the opening of the renovated Alice Tully…
Israel’s choice for its new top diplomat — controversial politician Avigdor Lieberman — can expect a businesslike welcome from America’s foreign-policy community. Lieberman signed a coalition agreement with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on March 16, promising him the foreign minister’s portfolio. He was elected to the Knesset on a platform that would require a loyalty…
Elyahkeem Ben Yehuda could have become another statistic, growing up poor, black and fatherless on the west side of Chicago during the 1950s. But he never had a run-in with the law, nor did he see the inside of a jail cell, until he moved to Israel to join the African Hebrew Israelite community. “I…
The fight is over. Chas Freeman, the outspoken Israel critic appointed to chair the National Intelligence Council, is out. And now, both sides in the explosive firefight that broke out over his appointment are battling to frame the narrative over what it all meant. For some of Freeman’s critics, the bottom line is what counts….
The plunging stock market and the Bernard Madoff scandal have ensured that ‘Help Wanted’ signs are a rarity in the Jewish communal world these days. In the past few weeks, some of the largest charities have slashed their staffs – most recently, it was the Union for Reform Judaism and the UJA-Federation of New York….
As the cultural divide over gay marriage deepens, two public intellectuals on opposite sides of the debate are floating a new proposal that could bridge the gap between religious conservatives — including Orthodox Jewish groups — and advocates for same-sex marriage. The compromise, proposed by Jonathan Rauch and David Blankenhorn, would grant federal civil union…
William Davidson, a businessman and Jewish philanthropist for whom the Jewish Theological Seminary’s graduate school of education is named, died Friday, March 13. Davidson, 86, was the owner of three professional sports teams, including the Detroit Pistons, a National Basketball Association franchise. According to a statement released by the Pistons, Davidson died at his Bloomfield…
Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: A modern-day Moses, standing atop Mount Sinai, has just received the Ten Commandments. Looking down, he sees the Israelites, impatient to hear the word of God. He pulls his iPhone out from the creases of his robe and starts tapping on it furiously. The Israelites, Moses knows, all…
If the Jews ever spend another 40 years wandering the desert, running out of reading material shouldn’t be a problem. They can pass the time just looking through old Haggadot. The Haggadah “as we have it today was a text that took hundreds of years to coalesce,” Joshua Menachem Kulp reports in the introduction to…
CORRECTION APPENDED My childhood Sedarim involved a slight disconnect. Perhaps yours did, too. Here we were, a big tableful of upper middle class white folks, reclining on pillows around a beautifully set dining room table, discussing our history as slaves… while Mrs. Dyer, our cleaning lady, bustled about in the kitchen, ladling out the matzoh…
דעבאָראַ בראָדי, אַ לערערין פֿון קינדער מיט ספּעציעלע באַדערפֿענישן, האָט זיי געלאָזט אָנטאַפּן די זאַכן.
