Washington — The effort of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to reach out to Arab and Muslim Americans is facing difficulties, as the first and only coordinator for outreach to these communities resigned after just 10 days on the job. Mazen Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer who was tapped July 26 to serve as Obama’s Arab…
Haifa, Israel — In what should be the final push of preparations before its departure to Beijing, Israel’s Paralympics delegation has been forced to halt training for some sports because it has run out of money. Given that it took Israel 52 years of competing in the Olympics before it struck gold at the 2004…
As Paramount Pictures gears up its ad campaign for a new movie about a band of Jewish partisans who fought the Nazis, some in Poland are suggesting that the partisans in question may also have been murderers. In anticipation of the December release of “Defiance,” — starring Daniel Craig, the actor best-known as the latest…
As kosher meat prices climb in the wake of the mid-May raid on the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse, at least one purveyor, the online supermarket Kosher.com, is trying to make the best of tough times by getting creative: The store now offers high-end specialty meats in addition to more traditional fare. If consumers balk at higher prices…
In his first visit to a synagogue since becoming governor of New York, David A. Paterson told congregants that he supported their proposal to construct an eruv around their community in the Hamptons, urging more tolerance from residents who have opposed the plan. At Sabbath services in early August at The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton…
Washington — A concerted effort by Jewish groups to weigh in with Republican and Democratic officials involved in formulating their respective party’s platforms appears to signal a sizable shift in communal priorities since the last presidential election, four years ago. In official submissions to each party’s platform committee, and in unofficial proposals made in closed-door…
Los Angeles — As Barack Obama and John McCain prepare for their first joint appearance at a Southern California mega-church August 16, both candidates will make a joint appearance of a different kind before the Jews of Southern California. Obama and McCain are both contributing to “Jewels of Elul,” a collection of 29 short essays…
In the searing heat of a recent Saturday afternoon in July, three young men were disassembling a tent, cleaning out their cooler and packing up their car. After two days at Camp Bisco, a music-and-camping festival organized and headlined by the Disco Biscuits (“Bisco,” for short), the trio were hoping to beat the traffic out…
My friend Margaret, who has been known to wear tiny velvet minidresses, bustiers, fishnets and 14-hole Doc Martens, is a little embarrassed of her current fashion predilections. “I’m getting kind of obsessed with the dresses worn by the FLDS [Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints] women and girls,” she told me. “I’m…
The Iowa labor commissioner’s office is accusing the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse of 57 separate cases of child labor violations, including allegations that teenagers working at the plant used dangerous tools and chemicals. Officials in the labor commissioner’s office said that a months-long investigation of Agriprocessors had resulted in cases involving 57 individuals, aged 14…
Los Angeles — Wilshire Boulevard Temple is no penny-ante shul. L.A.’s oldest Reform congregation, the synagogue has long served as a spiritual home to Tinseltown’s titans and loomed large on Southern California’s Jewish landscape. Today, it boasts 2,500 member families, and three separate campuses spread across the metropolitan area — including a 200-acre summer camp…
