Washington — An upstart Jewish group looking to make its mark on Washington is launching a campaign to distance the Jewish community from controversial evangelical Pastor John Hagee. Following revelations that Hagee made comments perceived to be describing the Holocaust as an act of divine retribution, much of the Jewish communal establishment has stuck by…
Tel Aviv — As details of the allegations against Ehud Olmert have taken shape this week, the response from the political establishment and the public has ranged from condemnation to disgust, but there has been one notably missing reaction: surprise. Olmert’s fall from grace sped up this past week with the testimony of American businessman…
While a recent raid on the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse has been big news in the Jewish community, in the town where the raid took place, the most visible effect has been on the local Catholic Church, St. Bridget’s. St. Bridget’s church has long been a hub of the Hispanic community in Postville, Iowa, where…
When his hold on power was teetering a few years ago, Cote d’Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo reached out to an unlikely ally: Israel. Once West Africa’s wealthiest country and the world’s leading producer of cocoa, Cote d’Ivoire plunged into a bitter civil war in late 2002 when insurgents, backed by the former colonial power, France,…
Los Angeles – In the wake of the California Supreme Court’s historic May 15 decision granting gay men and lesbians the legal right to marry, scores of gay Jewish couples are marking dates for their long-awaited opportunity to stand under the wedding canopy and break a glass. “Wedding fever has struck,” said Rabbi Denise Eger…
The American branch of ORT, the massive international vocational-training organization, is being accused by its employees of union busting and of negotiating in bad faith. Union members said that their main complaint is a so-called “management rights” provision that would allow ORT America to fire union employees without a grievance procedure and to replace them…
The Conservative movement’s policy body on Jewish law has passed a legal opinion arguing that Jewish employers should pay their workers a living wage and strive to hire union workers. The opinion, written by Jill Jacobs, a rabbi in residence at Jewish Funds for Justice, was passed by the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law…
Toronto — York University, Canada’s third-largest college campus, used to be known fondly as Jew U because of the relatively high proportion of Jews among its students, faculty and donors. Lately, however, the suburban campus has lost some of its haimish atmosphere because of a series of incidents in which Israel has been harshly criticized….
Washington — This past week, an unusual letter was sent out to the 7,000 delegates expected to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s upcoming annual conference. Reflecting the heightened political tension surrounding the gathering in this campaign year, organizers from Aipac effectively told those planning to attend on June 2 to behave themselves better…
The news that Syria was opening talks with Israel via Turkey has been followed by a feverish week of ups and downs between Syria and its closest ally, Iran. Soon after the surprise announcement of the Israel-Syria talks, reports emerged that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was miffed and concerned that one of his country’s key…
A prosecutor in Argentina is seeking the arrest of the country’s former president and several of his aides on suspicions that they were involved in a cover-up after the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina. Alberto Nisman, a longtime prosecutor on the case, claims in a petition filed last week that the…
