Haifa, Israel – As visitors flocked last week to an East Jerusalem mourning tent honoring the late Ala Abu Dheim, much of Israel was seized with an uneasy sense that its capital city has an enemy within. Abu Dheim, the deceased, was identified as the shooter in the deadly March 6 attack on the Mercaz…
In the last statewide public opinion poll taken before news broke of Eliot Spitzer’s involvement in a high-priced prostitution ring, the New York governor’s approval rating was below 50% for every major demographic group, except one: his fellow Jews. For much of his career, Spitzer was a source of great pride to Jews, with some…
Los Angeles – As Hollywood executives roll out the red carpet for television shows imported from overseas, Israel is emerging as an unlikely new starlet. In the wake of this season’s new HBO drama, “In Treatment” — the Israeli television hit remade for an American audience — a spate of fresh shows from the Jewish…
In 1999, Atlanta’s Marcus Jewish Community Center left its old building downtown and built a lavish expansion on its 50-acre campus in the suburbs, equipped with indoor and outdoor pools, a professional theater, a summer camp and horse stables. Just a few years later, the new campus is packed every night of the week, and…
Washington – On March 7, members of the Jewish War Veterans gathered for an exhibit commemorating one of the group’s greatest moments, a 1933 march protesting the Nazi rise to power in Germany. But while the former servicemen came together to honor their past, the present state of their movement was visibly on display. Dozens…
Ruth Greenspan Bell’s brother kept sending Bell e-mails that suggested Barack Obama was a nefarious foe of the Jewish people, and Bell kept sending ripostes right back. Finally, in late February, she decided she had had enough. “Some of the things he’d gotten on the Internet were so stupid, like this claim that Louis Farrakhan…
Erica Jesselson, a longtime Jewish philanthropist who helped establish the Yeshiva University Museum, died March 12 at her home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. She was 86 years old. Jesselson was a devoted patron of the arts and a major funder in the area of Jewish education. She and her husband, Ludwig Jesselson,…
Former Ohio senator Howard Metzenbaum has died at the age of 90. Metzenbaum was Ohio’s first Jewish senator, after being appointed by Ohio governor John Gilligan to fill an unexpired term in late 1973. He won a seat in 1976 and served three full terms, retiring in 1995. Metzenbaum died March 12 at his home…
Washington – Bush administration efforts to provide financial aid to the Palestinian Authority were nearly derailed by Congress last week, as lawmakers tried to block an assistance package aimed at bolstering the leadership of P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas. Skepticism on Capitol Hill about the Palestinian leadership’s commitment to peace has grown in recent weeks, in…
Haifa, Israel – Every year, in a modern take on a biblical commandment, thousands of Americans mail mishloach manot, festive food parcels, to their nearest and dearest in Israel. But while this used to be the best way of helping Israelis toward a happy holiday, we can now reveal a better way: Open up the…
For a few months, the former head of the World Jewish Congress, Israel Singer, quietly served as an adviser to the American Jewish Congress. But when one of Singer’s old enemies found out about it, he made sure the work would not last. Stephen Herbits, a former WJC secretary general who fiercely defended Singer for…
