United Nations – As the first anniversary of last summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah approaches, the United Nations’ recognition of Israel’s full withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 reportedly may be revoked, threatening to provide new ideological ammunition to the militant Shi’ite group. The U.N. cartographer in charge of delineating the Israeli-Lebanese border is scheduled…
He is a central figure in Yiddish literature and one of the most beloved — and prolific — Yiddish writers of all time. And now he is available in miniature form. The Sholem Aleichem Bobblehead Doll is a 7-inch, full-color, “fabulously packaged,” wobbly-headed replica of the man who wrote such masterpieces as “Motl, the Cantor’s…
Although former president Bill Clinton fooled around with, among other things, a tenor saxophone, politics and music are nonetheless strange bedfellows. But Danny Ross doesn’t care. The 23-year-old singer/songwriter, who just released his first album, “Introducing Danny Ross!” also works as a staffer for New York City Congressman Jerrold Nadler. “I run the office operations,”…
It’s doubtful that Calamity Jane loved Wild Bill Hickock as much as local lore alleges, but there’s no disputing that the tomboy gunslinger bought groceries from Jacob Goldberg on Main Street. The proof is neatly written in an 1895 ledger from “J. Goldberg, Dealer in Groceries, Provisions and Produce,” on display downtown at the Adams…
REMEMBERING BEVERLY SILLS: A BROOKLYN BORN DIVA WHO THRILLED THE WORLD When the Forward was preparing its 100th anniversary special edition in August 1997, Beverly Sills (who, at age 78, died July 2 of lung cancer) was one of several dozen New York personalities and politicians whom I invited to pose reading the English and/or…
Krakow, Poland – About 13,000 people crowded the main square in the cobblestone-paved former Jewish quarter of Krakow last week for the finale of this year’s Jewish Culture Festival. The event — which is funded by the Polish government, the city of Krakow, the Friends of the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival in New York and…
Washington – Pro-Israel lobbyists and legislators have become unexpected cheerleaders for the Palestinian leadership after the new Fatah-led Cabinet took action against Hamas. In a memo sent out to congressional offices this week, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee commended the new Palestinian government for “taking important steps needed for peace” and for breaking ties…
United Nations – It took three years for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, to make her first official visit to Washington. When she finally made her way to the capital last month, the cause she found herself advocating was none other than her own. The House and Senate have introduced…
A video from a kosher slaughterhouse in Nebraska is reigniting concern about the way the nation’s largest kosher meat company handles its animals. The three-and-a-half minute video shows bloody images of cows being killed at the Local Pride slaughterhouse in Gordon, Neb., which is owned by the Brooklyn-based Rubashkin family. The footage was filmed and…
As a Reform Jew who scarcely visited Israel in three decades and whose vision of retirement once tended more toward New England than Netanya, Robert Bernstein is not the likeliest candidate for making aliyah. But after raising three daughters who are passionate about Israel and planning to study there before college, Bernstein, 54, has decided…
Last week an American general in Baghdad announced that a veteran Hezbollah commander had been caught in Iraq and had admitted to training and directing anti-American Iraqi militias in coordination with Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard. The presence of Hezbollah in Iraq has been alleged by American officials before, but last week’s announcement marked the first…
