A group of Orthodox leaders returned from a company-sponsored tour of a kosher slaughterhouse that has been under fire for its working conditions. The rabbis reported that the plant was clean and the workers happy. On July 31, a group of 25 Orthodox rabbis and community leaders visited the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, at…
Haifa, Israel — Now that Ehud Olmert has put an end to the guessing game about his future, Israel has a new favorite topic of speculation: what, exactly, will happen in the coming months. Since Olmert’s July 30 announcement that he plans to step down as prime minister, public attention has shifted to the leadership…
ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND HONORS REMARKABLE, SPUNKY WOMEN “There are women in this room who are alive today because of the work being done by ICRF scientists,” declared Benjamin Brafman, a criminal lawyer who served as master of ceremonies at the Israel Cancer Research Fund’s June 17 Women of Action Luncheon. “We always try to…
As the world gears up for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Forward has taken note of a handful of remarkable Jewish men and women who will compete in Beijing. Our roundup reflects the diversity of Jews from around the world participating in the games from August 8 through August 24. David Zalcberg — Australia For…
In a year when polls suggest that Senator John McCain is positioned to garner more Jewish votes than any Republican candidate in the past two decades, his campaign is attempting to woo Jewish voters with a small, decentralized operation that critics are charging has no single address. In contrast to the corporate discipline of George…
Washington — Israeli, Palestinian and American negotiators meeting in Washington on July 30 saw what little momentum their peace talks had gathered dissipate with a surprise announcement by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he soon would resign. Olmert’s announcement that he would step down as soon as his party chooses a new leader is expected…
Haifa, Israel — In Avi Ben-Shimon’s home in the West Bank town of Emmanuel, a memorial candle will burn throughout the fast day of Tisha B’Av, which begins at sundown August 9. It will not, however, commemorate the main theme of the 25-hour fast, which is the destruction of the two ancient Jerusalem temples. Rather,…
Inside St. Bridget’s church, the conversations I heard moved between English and Spanish, and the prayers switched between Christian and Jewish. Outside, young girls from Guatemala and Mexico mingled with graying Jewish activists from Minnesota and Chicago. This was all part of a warm-up for a very unusual march. The crowds had come here for…
Beijing — The Chabad House here sits at the end of a quiet street in an upscale gated community just inside this city’s Fourth Ring road and down the block from the Israeli Embassy. A caged duck and a stroller guard the entrance, as does a small army of young Chinese men who patrol the…
June Walker, chairwoman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and former national president of Hadassah, died July 29 after a seven-year battle with cancer. She was 74. Walker, of Rockaway, N.J., led Hadassah, the national women’s Zionist organization, from 2003 to 2007. Last year, she became the second woman ever to…
Swimmer Sarah Poewe doesn’t have dual loyalties — if only life were that simple. Instead, the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist boasts connections numerous and varied, with passports from Germany and South Africa, and All-American academic and athletic honors from her time at the University of Georgia, where she swam for the 2005 championship team of…
