The controversy surrounding calls by British unions to boycott Israel is threatening to spill over into a major international union’s next election. Leaders of some of America’s most powerful unions are said to be considering whether to pull support for a top British union official, Keith Sonnet, in his bid to lead a major international…
Chicago Tribune entertainment reporter Mark Caro describes himself as one whose sensibility generally veers toward the ironic, but after reading a July 18 post on the New York-based gossip site Gawker.com, he found himself playing an unfamiliar role: scold. The story begins — as most news accounts from last week did — with the release…
Toronto – What began as a grandiose plan for renewing a jewel of the synagogue world has ended up causing a communal identity crisis at one of Canada’s most storied Jewish congregations. The crisis came to a head last week when almost 2,500 members of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple — a 150-year old Reform movement…
As the GOP mounts its campaign to recapture seats in Congress in 2008, the unusually large class of first-term Jewish Democrats is showing fundraising mettle in swing districts likely to be top Republican targets. Rep. Ron Klein, a lawmaker from Florida’s 22nd congressional district, raised nearly $1.3 million in the first half of 2007, the…
Jerusalem – An agreement reached last week between Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi and the state’s justice minister has been hailed for opening the door to civil marriages in Israel, but secular and non-Orthodox groups who have long fought to change the country’s marriage laws say that the deal does little to alleviate the plight of…
America’s largest Jewish denomination is issuing calls for the Israeli Knesset to reverse course on a controversial piece of legislation declaring that Jewish National Fund lands can be leased only to Jews. The legislation, introduced by three Israeli Knesset members, passed last week in a vote of 64-16 in its first reading. In order for…
Last week, Syria and Israel acknowledged that they had held indirect peace negotiations. But a month after the Bush administration lifted its objections to Israeli overtures to Syria, Damascus is signaling a limit to its diplomacy unless the road to Jerusalem goes through Washington. In a July 17 address to the Syrian parliament, President Bashar…
Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, a writer, scholar and community leader who founded the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism, died Saturday. He was 79. Wine was killed in an automobile accident while on vacation in Essaouira, Morocco. He and his partner, Richard McMains, were traveling back to their hotel when a car hit their taxi. The…
Three’s a Charm How many Jews does it take to run for Senate in Minnesota? The answer is three, according to Democrat Jim Cohen, who recently launched a long-shot bid for the seat once held by liberal standard-bearer Paul Wellstone. Cohen, a public interest lawyer with deep roots in the consumer rights and environmental movements,…
Minnesota Senate hopeful Al Franken is the luckiest kid in the world because: A. He outraised Republican incumbent Norm Coleman during the second quarter of 2007. B. He’s got a ton of grassroots supporters sending him in small donations from around the country – donors he can go back to again and again. C. He’s…
Some Jewish kids secretly long for sparkling Christmas trees and candy-filled Easter baskets, but Carlen Altman was always drawn to another, more pious Christian symbol: the rosary. So the 23-year-old stand-up comedian took matters into her own hands and started making Jewish rosaries. “I wanted to create something funny and stylish,” said the New York…
