As one of the country’s largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish organizations, Agudath Israel of America is hardly known as a liberal trailblazer. But in an effort to help an Orthodox teenager at loggerheads with his less observant father, the organization has forged an unusual alliance with progressive legal groups seeking to expand the scope of children’s First…
United Nations – More than a decade after the end of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s vicious civil war, ethnic and religious divisions in the country remain stark. The Balkan nation effectively exists as two autonomous mini-states, one for Christian Orthodox Serbs and one for Muslim Bosniaks and Roman Catholic Croats. The hybrid form of government has…
Washington — Jerusalem, the perennially divided city, is again becoming a central point of contention as Israelis and Palestinians prepare for the first serious peace discussions in years. Last Monday, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s closest allies, Haim Ramon, brought the issue into the open when he suggested in an interview that Israel would…
Last week, while on his way to visit a friend in Watertown, Mass. — the Boston suburb that served as ground zero in last summer’s showdown between Armenian groups and the Anti-Defamation League over recognition of the Armenian Genocide — James Russell, a professor of Armenian studies at Harvard University, stopped at Arax, a popular…
Washington – Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has built a reputation for strictly adhering to the pro-Israel line, but she now appears, for the first time, to be supporting legislation that is opposed by pro-Israel lobbyists. Clinton announced last week that she would co-sponsor an amendment, proposed by Virginia Democrat Jim Webb, that would require the…
As the House Foreign Affairs Committee sat down this week to consider House Resolution 106, a bill that would formally recognize the Armenian genocide, a range of Turkish officials warned that the bill’s passage could severely damage Ankara’s ties to both the United States and Israel. In an October 9 letter to President Bush, Turkish…
A Republican presidential candidate is backing a controversial right-wing campaign to oppose the current peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Kansas Senator Sam Brownback announced on Wednesday that he was supporting “The Israeli Initiative: The Right Road to Peace,” a plan proposed Rabbi Binyamin Elon, chairman of Israel’s right-wing National Union Party. “The combination of…
Casablanca, Morocco – On a recent mild Sunday evening, a few dozen middle-aged, crisply dressed guests convened at the Jewish community center in this bustling metropolis, where half of the country’s Jews live. They had come to honor Georges Berdugo, an elderly Jewish lawyer who was being given a royal lifetime achievement award. Standing on…
Mogilev-Podolsky, Ukraine – On a sweltering summer day, researchers fan out in this city’s historical center, its walls lined with photos of local Jews who went through the Holocaust. The visiting scholars from St. Petersburg, however, aren’t here to dwell on Jewish demise. They have come to document Jewish life in what expedition leader Valery…
The Anti-Defamation League is urging the president of a Minnesota university to invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak just days after it was revealed that he had been disinvited because of fears that he might offend Jews. Tutu had been slated to visit the University of St. Thomas next spring as part of a program…
Israel Kugler, a leader of teachers’ and Jewish labor organizations, died October 1 in Chevy Chase, Md. He was 90. Kugler was president of the United Federation of College Teachers during the turbulent 1960s, and he won a reputation as an outspoken advocate for teachers’ rights. In 1965, the teachers’ union, under Kugler’s leadership, supported…
