Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota stood by his man – President Bush – as the keynote speaker at the Orthodox Union’s annual dinner in New York last night. Having warmed up the crowd with the story of how he grew up in a “liberal Jewish Democratic family from Brooklyn and wound up as a Republican…
Did George Tenet threaten to resign as CIA director if Jonathan Pollard were to be released as part of the 1998 Wye River interim peace agreement with Israel? According to news reports at the time, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had insisted on Pollard’s release, and President Clinton was prepared to go along with it…
Holaich VeChazaik (Growing Ever Stronger) follow the lines down pages flowing back through ages commentary to makor pasuk, word, letter even to the Pintele Yid echo an ancient shofar blast growing while blowing announcing a Decalogue introducing a dialogue that will never leave mouths debating, deliberating in the din of batei medrush attempting to divine…
Petra, Jordan — Some of Israel’s strongest supporters chastised the country’s leadership this week for failing to take up opportunities to solve the long-standing conflict with neighboring Arab countries. The criticisms were aired Tuesday at the third annual Petra Conference in Jordan, a meeting of Nobel laureates and distinguished figures who brainstorm together to improve…
Owners of the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse have been facing an organized revolt from workers who are unhappy with conditions at the factory — first in the form of a class-action lawsuit against the company, and more recently in a mass walkout by employees during regular working hours. The lawsuit and the walkouts are hitting…
The resignation of World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman has left the influential organization in a state of chaos, with conflicting plans and statements emerging from different corners of the now headless body. Bronfman’s departure leaves the WJC without an obvious top decision-maker at the very moment when some of the biggest questions about the…
A few mornings a week, Tal Bar-Zemer dons a black floor-length skirt, white blouse, pinafore and lace-up leather boots in preparation for her job as a costumed interpreter at Manhattan’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum. On any given afternoon, she spends six to eight hours sitting in an overheated, cramped apartment, talking — in character…
Far away from the eyes of the Jewish mainstream, in modern-day Turkey there live hundreds, if not thousands, of crypto-Jews — and today, one of their most sacred shrines is in danger. This is the hidden, fascinating tale of the doenmeh, descendants of the faithful followers of the 17th-century false messiah Sabbetai Tzvi, who converted…
This week, the anti-war group VoteVets.org took to the airwaves with a television advertising campaign aimed at several vulnerable Republican incumbents. The ads feature John Batiste and Paul Eaton, two U.S. Army veterans who served as major generals in Iraq, criticizing President Bush’s handling of the war. Off-camera, the man behind the half-million dollar ad…
Washington — America’s fight for the hearts and minds of Arab television viewers throughout the Middle East is raising hackles on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of nine members of the House of Representatives is calling for the dismissal of Larry Register, the vice president of news at the American-funded Alhurra television network. The lawmakers,…
Washington — With momentum building for the Arab League’s Middle East plan, the Bush administration appears to be siding with Israel over how to proceed. The initiative — which was first presented by the Saudis, later adopted by the Arab League in 2002 in Beirut and then reaffirmed in Riyadh two months ago — calls…
