The most fervent believers from nearly all faith groups are still far more likely than their less observant counterparts to lean Republican, but Americans with varying degrees of religious observance show broad agreement on a range of social issues, including the environment and support for the poor, according to a new study. The survey, released…
Washington – Jewish Democrats are ratcheting up criticism against Republican candidate John McCain by attempting to focus attention on a 2005 vote in which McCain opposed toughening restrictions on business ties with Iran. In a June 26 press conference on Capitol Hill, organized by the National Jewish Democratic Council, Democratic lawmakers praised the Democratic nominee,…
Two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee employees facing charges of revealing classified information won a procedural victory June 20, when a federal appeals court ruled against the prosecution’s request to lower the burden of proof in their upcoming trial and against attempts to hold the trial behind closed doors. The ruling was applauded by…
Speaking before the organization that has historically linked Diaspora Jews and Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called in late-June for a massive rethinking of the relationship between the two groups that could reshape everything from funding patterns to the very notion of Jewish peoplehood. In a speech he made before the board of the Jewish…
The operator of the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse appears to be gearing up for a major public relations blitz after being battered by criticism of its labor practices and calls for a boycott of its products. Agriprocessors, which has come under renewed fire in the wake of a federal raid on its Postville, Iowa, plant,…
Israeli scholar Gannit Ankori has been an advocate of Palestinian art and culture, but it has not protected her from criticism by advocates for the Palestinian cause. During the past year, Ankori, chair of the art history department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been the subject of critical reviews in two prominent art…
A Buffalo, N.Y., rabbi with a history of alleged sexual misconduct has been kicked out of the international union of Conservative rabbis. The Rabbinical Assembly expelled Rabbi Arthur Charles Shalman on June 4, four and a half months after he resigned from his position at Temple Shaarey Zedek outside Buffalo, amid allegations of an inappropriate…
Gilles Bernheim, the rabbi of Paris’s largest synagogue, defeated incumbent Joseph Sitruk to become France’s new chief rabbi in a hotly contested election decided June 22. Bernheim, a 56-year-old philosopher and proponent of a more modern Orthodoxy, will take over from Sitruk, 63, a popular figure who held the position since 1987. Bernheim garnered a…
NEWS ITEM: After the toilet on the orbiting space station broke down, the space shuttle Discovery delivered an unusual payload to the stressed astronauts: a pump to fix the faulty potty. The astronauts, with great distaste, By hand were pumping liquid waste Because their toilet pump was broke — In outer space, this is no…
Ramat Gan, Israel — You could tell that filming in the studio of Israel’s newest reality show was about to begin: The keyboard player who provides the background music started shuckling, piously swaying back and forth. The program being recorded in a small Ramat Gan studio last month followed the format of such reality shows…
Los Angeles — A brewing land-use dispute that involves a Southern California Chabad-Lubavitch branch, a powerful Los Angeles art museum and a host of outraged neighbors is stoking tensions between the Hasidic Orthodox sect and residents of one of this city’s wealthiest enclaves. The fracas began when a Chabad group in Pacific Palisades — a…
