Greensboro, N.C. – On a recent Friday evening at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, N.C., Jewish teenagers and their teachers were attending not one but two separate Sabbath eve services. At a student-led Orthodox minyan held in a dormitory common room, plastic chairs were arranged in neat rows and divided into sections for men…
Every few steps along the narrow, winding Al-Amin Street in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Damascus’s old city, a young Yasser Arafat smiles at the rare pedestrian walking by. The posters of the late Palestinian leader, plastered on the grayish street walls, serve as a pointed reminder that Jewish life in Damascus is…
Jerusalem – No matter who wins the upcoming runoff between Ehud Barak and Ami Ayalon, this much is clear: Defense Minister Amir Peretz is out as Labor Party chairman — and the leader of Israel’s venerable social democratic movement will once again be an Ashkenazic general. Peretz finished third Monday in the first round of…
Toronto – As Tehran and Jerusalem exchange threats on a regular basis, a former Iranian journalist who is credited with having popularized Internet “blogging” in the Islamic republic is waging a campaign to defuse the tensions. Hossein Derakhshan, a 32-year-old Iranian expatriate living in Toronto, files daily blog posts in his native Farsi and in…
Britain’s largest teachers union voted this week to press forward with a proposal to boycott Israeli academic institutions, setting the stage for a bitter struggle to reverse the decision. The University and College Union, representing more than 120,000 college-level educators, voted May 30 to pass a motion imploring its branches to circulate and discuss a…
Washington – With backing of pro-Israel activists on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are pushing to pass a resolution hailing Israel’s control over all of Jerusalem. The resolution, which makes no mention of East Jerusalem being a possible capital of a future Palestinian state, drew criticism from dovish Jewish activists who argued that it does not reflect…
As Democratic lawmakers struggle in Congress over how to end America’s military involvement in Iraq, Democratic strategists have waged a behind-the-scenes battle over the best way to position the party on national security for the 2008 election. While there appears to be broad agreement that America ought to quit the war, a few Democratic strategists…
With the future of the World Jewish Congress up for grabs in an election next month, a group of young leaders is making an unexpected bid for control by putting forward one of their own for president. The fresh candidate for the post of WJC president is Einat Wilf, a 36-year-old Harvard University graduate who…
ARTIST KOONS AND ARCHITECT COHEN WERE A DRAW AT TEL AVIV MUSEUM GALA To the strains of “Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome” from the musical “Cabaret,” Countess Vanessa von Bismarck (great-great granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck); Prince Stefan von Ratibor; Sotheby’s vice chairman, Jamie Niven (son of film star David Niven), Israel’s ambassador, Dan Gillerman, and gala…
‘My lord Moses, restrain them!” So shouts Joshua as he and Moses observe that two men, Eldad and Medad, are behaving as prophets within the Israelite encampment (Numbers 11:28). Prophecy, after all, is Moses’ claim to authority. Should it be discovered that Moses has no monopoly on prophetic powers, perhaps his authority would be eroded,…
The former Georgia Democratic representative considers a switch to the Green Party …
אין קלאַס זענען די סטודענטן אָפֿט געווען אױף פֿאַרשידענע ניװאָען אָבער זי האָט זיך אָפּגעגעבן מיט יעדן באַזונדער.
