Last month, my cousin Roee Ziv began studying behavioral science and human resources management at the College of Management in Rishon LeZion, a city south of Tel Aviv. It’s a perfectly natural step for a 23-year-old to take, but this past summer, the classroom was the farthest thing from Roee’s mind. At about 2 p.m….
At a variety show held earlier this month at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, an audience composed entirely of ladies sat in rapt attention as female performer after female performer sang, danced and acted her heart out. Many of the women onstage had not performed in a long time. The talent sang about God…
Tuv Ha’Aretz member, Arleen Stern, offered this addendum to my list of “stand up sides” for Thanksgiving: Cranberry and Pear Chutney. With its unorthodox mix of sweet, tart, and spicy flavors, Arleen says chutney beats out regular old cranberry sauce any day. Even after Thanksgiving, I can easily envision this tangy chutney livening up a…
NYC DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INTELLIGENCE DAVID COHEN HONORED WITH ADL’S FIRST PALATUCCI LEADERSHIP AWARD “He disregarded Mussolini’s orders to gather Jews for concentration camps, forged visas and documents, destroyed files… and sent Jews to neighboring towns to live among the Italians as brothers,” said Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, about Giovanni Palatucci, the…
It’s almost Thanksgiving again – that time of year when families get together around the table and vegetarians (like myself) politely decline the turkey, insisting that there’s plenty on the table they can eat. Somehow – despite the mound of mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, braised greens, salad, green bean casserole, and roasted root veggies on…
Nashville, Tenn. — The Bush administration is making a last-ditch effort to push the mainstream Jewish community into action in advance of the upcoming peace summit. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the pitch Tuesday in a high-profile speech in front of United Jewish Communities, the roof body of North America’s local federations of Jewish…
The annual meeting of one of the country’s leading Muslim American organizations is still several weeks away, but the list of probable no-shows currently includes a half-dozen presidential front-runners. The meeting, to be held December 15 in Los Angeles by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, falls little more than two weeks before the candidates will…
Nablus, West Bank — Tawfiq Kalboni fidgets with some wayward bills. A moneylender in this central West Bank city, Kalboni, 42, owed another moneylender about $150,000. When he failed to pay, he said, the creditor collected on the debt, Nablus style. Five weeks ago, masked gunmen kidnapped his 14-year-old son from the doorstep of his…
The Norman Mailer who died in New York last Saturday at the age of 84, and whom I met in November 2006, was not the brash showman — arm-wrestling with Muhammad Ali, boxing with Jose Torres, hobnobbing with Jackie Onassis at a New York society dinner. This Mailer looked more like my beloved rabbinic grandfather:…
Berlin – In most Jewish communities, communal elections are a quiet affair. But Berlin is no run-of-the-mill Jewish community. The former capital of the Nazis is today home to some 12,000 registered Jews, many of them Russian immigrants who have arrived since the fall of the Soviet Union. The past year has seen the dedication…
Lev Leviev, the Israeli diamond billionaire, had a busy schedule during his visit to New York this week. On Sunday, he flew to New York to appear in front of 4,300 black-hatted Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis. The Uzbekistan-born Leviev, who made his fortune cracking the De Beers diamond cartel, is the most powerful lay leader of the…
