Washington — Heavy-equipment giant Caterpillar opened negotiations with Christian groups that were threatening to divest from the company because of its sales to Israel. The United Methodist Church has been contemplating a resolution to pull investments from Caterpillar because of the use of the company’s machinery in the West Bank. In a statement from Caterpillar…
UNPRECEDENTED EXHIBIT WOMAN OF LETTERS-IRÈNE NÉMIROVSKY AND SUITE FRANÇAISE COMING TO MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE On September 24, the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will launch a remarkable exhibit: Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française, a rare collection of artifacts including more than 100 unpublished family photographs, the manuscript…
Former president Jimmy Carter’s controversial peace mission to the Middle East this week, which included high-profile visits with top leaders of the Islamist militant group Hamas, is causing some liberal observers to worry that the elder statesman may create headaches for the party at its nominating convention in Denver. With the presidential campaign raising the…
Nazareth, Israel – Among the many tools used in the battle between Israel’s Arabs and Jews, you can add a new one: gentrification. The Arab Association for Human Rights alleges that Arab residents in a seaside neighborhood of Jaffa are being driven out so that the area can be developed for wealthy Jews. Three years…
As he does every year on the birthday of Oskar Schindler, Nahum Manor will make a pilgrimage to the famed factory owner’s grave on Mount Zion. Manor, 85, met his wife while working in Schindler’s factory. “My life changed very dramatically when I started working at Schindler’s factory,” he said. “We moved from hell to…
United Nations – Silence can speak volumes, as the secretary general of the United Nations apparently understands. Since his election to the post more than a year ago, Ban Ki-moon has not heard much noise from a notoriously talkative corner when it comes to the United Nations: Israel and its supporters. Unlike most of his…
Activists are hoping that as Jews sit down at their Seder tables this year, they will turn their thoughts not just to ancient Egypt but to Sudan, Tibet and even the polar ice caps. Jewish groups have sponsored a spate of new Haggadahs, additional readings, and supplemental rituals and symbols in an attempt to put…
In the United States, the uniform response to Jimmy Carter’s decision to meet with a Hamas leader in Syria suggested that this is not an issue up for debate. All the presidential candidates blasted Carter, as did pro-Israel advocates. In Israel, though, the talk of Carter’s meeting with Khaled Meshal has fed into a long-running…
The Streit’s Matzo factory, a landmark on Manhattan’s Lower East Side since it opened in 1925, is gearing up to leave for more affordable climes. To commemorate the factory’s place in the neighborhood, casting director Mikie Heilbrun, whose great-grandfather, Aron, founded Streit’s and whose cousins run it today, is making a documentary film incorporating the…
When Amy Miller, a California native who spent 16 summers at a Reform summer camp nestled in the Redwoods, heard that Bay Area Jews were angling to transform the defunct camp into a Jewish retreat center, she was elated. Then, last winter, the Reform movement killed her joy when it announced that it had plans…
A small Jewish community in Central New York suffered a near-fatal blow last week when the region’s only synagogue was vandalized. The Norwich Jewish Center still stands, but much of the building’s interior was destroyed. No one was harmed in the attack, which took place on Sunday, April 6, as the building stood empty. Three…
