A coalition of Jewish activists is working to inject the presidential race with “values voters” — from the left. Dubbed the “Righteous Indignation Project,” the newly launched campaign has Jewish social justice groups in 10 cities trying to mobilize liberal Jews to participate in broader voter education and registration drives in 2008. Organizers say they’re…
It seems, at first glance, like an obvious idea for the Jewish National Fund: Take the organization’s signature program — tree-planting in Israel — and repackage it for a new generation and a new historical moment, as a way to combat global warming. (Trees absorb the primary greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and transform it into…
Foundation’s Plans Foiled by Success The Avi Chai Foundation has the sort of problem most people dream about: It’s making too much money. Founded and endowed by a successful financier, Avi Chai has made it a policy objective to spend itself out of existence by 2020. But despite its best efforts, the foundation keeps growing….
When Josie was 2, I wrote a column about my bafflement at her girly-girlness. How could I, a person unburdened by mascara or a blowdryer, have spawned someone who so loved nail polish, frills and Hello Kitty hair accessories? At the time, I expressed shock. Today, older, wiser, and most importantly, the mother of two…
The New Republic’s James Kirchik reads the political newsletters that Ron Paul was busy putting out in the decades before he became a national political figure. In the future presidential candidate’s newsletters Kirchik finds crazy conspiracy theories, hostility to blacks in general (and Martin Luther King Jr. in particular), anti-gay remarks and some unkind words…
Barack Obama has a surly nebbish stumping in the Dartmouth College dorms for him — “Seinfeld” co-creator and star of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David. “Haven’t we had enough with Bushes and Clintons and Bushes,” David told students. “The country needs a shower, a good, long, hot shower. That’s what Obama is, a hot…
The National Jewish Democratic Council doesn’t approve of the choice of Republican caucus-goers. In a statement, the NJDC dubbed the former Arkansas governor an “extremist”; called his record on church-state issues is “frightening”; rapped him over his opposition to dual citizenship, pointing to Americans who vote in Israeli elections; and said that he “has not…
MEMORY AND HOPE AT YAD VASHEM DINNER “Remember! Remember! Remember! Do not repeat past mistakes! Believe those who threaten us…. What we teach our children [about the Holocaust] defines their lives,” stressed the World Jewish Congress’s Matthew Bronfman, recipient of the Yad Vashem Young Leadership Award. Bronfman received the award at the November 18 American…
Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – This idyllic town near the Adirondack Mountains is better known for horse racing than for holiness; visitors flock here to bathe in mineral springs rather than in mikvehs. But for Rabbi Linda Motzkin, Saratoga Springs has proved to be ideal for something more unexpected: the sacred work of writing a Torah….
Washington – Following a softening of the Bush administration’s opposition to Israeli-Syrian contacts, the Israeli government is actively exploring the possibility of reopening negotiations with Syria, according to Israeli sources and a senior Republican lawmaker who visited Damascus last week. The Republican lawmaker, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, spoke after meeting last Sunday, December 30,…
Belmonte, Portugal – While most of the towns in central Portugal are suffering through difficult economic times, this small village northeast of Lisbon is enjoying a revival: The past decade has seen the construction of a luxury hotel and a museum, and tourism is booming. The cause? Jews. Conversos, to be exact. Belmonte, a town…
