In a development with potential repercussions for consumers of kosher meat worldwide, the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse greatly curtailed production this past week after a raid by federal agents led to the arrest of hundreds of undocumented workers. On May 12, The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement stormed the AgriProcessors meatpacking plant in Postville,…
In the past two weeks, three American Jewish donors have been brought in for questioning by Israeli authorities investigating Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s financial dealings. In addition to businessman Morris Talansky of Long Island, N.Y., who is a central actor in the probe, the police interrogated right-wing Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Slim…
An American author who has faced lawsuits for her writings about terrorism financing has sparked a burgeoning legal movement in the United States. In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of legislative activity taking aim at the growing number of libel lawsuits filed against American authors in foreign courts. Bills have been introduced in…
Haifa, Israel – In Israel’s answer to the Woodstock Festival, nearly half a million people will gather on a Galilee mountaintop on May 22, where they will pitch tents and engage in 24 hours of feasting, singing and ecstatic dancing. They will be taking part in the annual celebrations held on the yahrzeit of second-century…
Despite continued calls by some in his majority-black Memphis district to unite behind one of his African American rivals, Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen is heading toward his August primary with a substantial lead, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted on behalf of the Cohen campaign by Lake Research Partners and released this week,…
There is one place in the Middle East where Arabs and Jews seem to be getting along quite well. It’s the Israeli Web site Parpar1.com, where amateur pornography features Arabs and Jews at each other’s throats — but only for erotic purposes. Founded by two Tel Aviv computer professionals, the Web site has been serving…
Objects have power. In my last column I wrote about the power of Christian right-wing trinkets as symbols of identity and values. A Torah is another powerful object; when it’s no longer usable it has to be buried, like a dead body. Then there’s the power of loveys and blankies — they’re sources of security,…
Taglit-Birthright Israel seeks to provide every young Jewish adult with a first-time trip to Israel, and some organizers have taken it upon themselves recently to ensure that this mission extends to all populations. Several groups have sprung up that create trips around themes from political or religious association to hiking and economics. The programs are…
Alice Feiring is no stranger to controversy. Her debut memoir, “The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World From Parkerization” (Harcourt), hit Page Six three months before its release this month. The reason? Feiring’s taste for natural wine brought her up against the world’s leading critic, the bulldog-esque Robert M. Parker…
A controversy over the renaming of a Philadelphia-area day school is raising questions about the delicate relationship between the local Jewish newspaper and the federation that funds it. Alumni of the former Akiba Hebrew Academy, the country’s oldest community day school, have been up in arms over the school’s decision last year to accept $5…
Washington — Israel was placed by the United States on a watch list of countries in which intellectual property is not respected, despite the hearty protests of pro-Israel advocates. The list, published annually by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, chides Israel for not adopting strict legislation to protect patented drugs and to…
