AN ECUMENICAL HAPPENING AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE My observant grandfather, Shmuel-Yankl Goldin, murdered by the Nazis in 1942, was a carpenter in Byten (now Belarus) who helped build synagogues and churches. My first school in Warsaw, Poland, was a Yiddish school on Krochmalne, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s favorite street. My first English…
It was on the third and fourth days of its retaliatory air offensive in Gaza that the fork in the road for Israel became clear: another cease-fire agreement, or regime change. On December 29, after days of circumspect public statements, the rhetoric of some of Israel’s most visible officials changed markedly. “The goal of the…
Even the naughtiest Jews know the commandments against breaking the law. But for those who just couldn’t help themselves, the road to redemption — for the next three weeks, anyway — leads straight through the Oval Office. The pardon season was kicked off with a high-profile Jewish story: President Bush’s pardon of a deceased non-Jewish…
Los Angeles — When Elliot Kukla, a Reform rabbi, came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, he never imagined how openly the Jewish community would be addressing transgender issues just three years later. This month, he is poised to address a West Coast regional conference of Reform rabbis on the subject,…
Unlike many of his more isolated countrymen, Moshe Yaish Nahari, a Yemeni Jew, spent years studying abroad, then returned to act as a leader of Yemen’s ancient but tiny Jewish community. Now, however, the recent murder of Nahari has thrown the fate of Yemen’s Jewish population into doubt. Nahari, a 35-year-old teacher and religious leader…
When grandmaster Haim Gidon, a top-ranking practitioner of the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga, entered a studio in New Jersey on a recent Monday, the 20-odd people in the room stopped pummeling each other and lined up like soldiers standing at attention. Gidon was visiting from Israel to give them advanced training, and the…
Los Angeles — In the wake of the ever-widening Madoff scandal, prominent Jewish fundraising experts are calling for a return to the days when Jewish charities engaged the entire community — not just an elite group of mega-donors. “The glass is both half empty and half full,” said David Mersky, a Boston-based fundraising consultant who…
Tel Aviv, Israel — Even as their surprise military campaign remained secret, Foreign Ministry officials scurried to put in place another dimension of modern warfare that they considered crucial to their success. In Sderot, a town pummelled by rockets that Hamas had launched from Gaza, a pressroom was set up to offer Israel’s perspective on…
Washington – Breaking ranks with most Jewish organizations, several dovish pro-Israel groups have come out against Israel’s military operation in Gaza and called on the United States to push for an immediate cease-fire. The calls for Israel to hold its fire were in striking contrast to the otherwise solid support in the Jewish community for…
Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, a prominent Chicago spiritual leader and rabbi emeritus of the Reform synagogue situated across the street from President-elect Barack Obama’s house, has died, apparently of a heart attack. He was 84. A longtime champion of peace and progressive politics, Wolf participated in civil rights marches in Selma, Ala., and protested the…
Haifa — YouTube has restored four videos posted by the Israeli army that were removed on December 31 following complaints filed by users of the video-sharing site. On December 29, the Israel Defense Forces began posting videos of its aerial strikes. The rationale was that it wanted to support the claim that it is not…
