In response to news of a looming cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, advisers for Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have said that the United States should maintain its current diplomatic freeze on dealings with Hamas, the militant Islamic group that seized control of the coastal enclave last year. Staffers for both…
A prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi is at the center of a case being taken to secular court on the grounds that his organization ignored the ruling of a rabbinical court in a contract dispute. A former employee of Ohr Torah Stone, which was founded by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, has filed suit against the organization in…
Did you hear about the kids at Camp Tel Yehudah in upstate New York who wrote and performed a stage version of Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir “Dawn” — set to the music of Billy Joel? How about the ones at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, who teamed up for basketball every Tisha b’Av — kids…
Author Stephanie Klein spent five of her teenage summers at what she bluntly calls “Fat Camp.” In her new memoir, “Moose” (HarperCollins), a childhood nickname, Klein compresses those summers into a single, lightly fictionalized one. Though she changed a few identifying details, she assures the reader early on that she’s no James Frey. “Sadly enough,”…
A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME GATHERING OF COMIC BOOK CREATORS IN NEW YORK Michael Uslan, executive producer of the Batman movies, hailed the nine panelists at the “The Legends Behind the Comic Books” forum, for which he served as moderator. Uslan called the forum, which was held at the Jacob Javits Center as part of the recent New…
A group that directs evangelical Christian donations to Jewish causes has cut off funding to the Jewish Agency for Israel, imperiling a controversial partnership agreement that was signed only months ago. At the beginning of this month, as the JTA first reported, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews withheld a scheduled $1.5 million contribution…
Los Angeles — If a local activist group has its way, Seattle could soon become the first major American city to divest from companies that provide material support to Israel. Seattle Divest From War and Occupation, a citizens group, is angling to get an initiative on the ballot that would mandate city pension funds to…
Washington — Entering a new field of advocacy, Jewish groups played a leading role in ensuring the passage of the Farm Bill, which could increase federal funding for nutrition programs as well as for farming subsidies. Congress gave the bill its final approval May 15, and although President Bush has made clear that he will…
Jane Eisner has been named the Forward’s new editor-in-chief. Over the last three decades Eisner held numerous executive editorial and news positions at the Philadelphia Inquirer, including stints as editorial page editor, syndicated columnist, City Hall bureau chief and foreign correspondent. In 2006 she joined the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where she currently serves…
Laura Bialis’s documentary, “Refusenik,” released this month, is the first retrospective film chronicle of the 30-year international struggle to free Soviet Jewry. Based on extensive interviews with principals on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and bursting with rare and revealing archival footage of Soviet Jewish life, the film shows how a crusade that began…
KISSINGER LAUDS THE BRITISH AT ENGLISH BALL OF THE ROSES IN NEW YORK “In 1946 I vas a sniper viz ze Haganah and shooting at you British, but now it’s okay,” said sexpert Ruth Westheimer to a medal-adorned guest during the reception at the April 25 St. George’s Society of New York’s English Ball of…
