The Conservative synagogue movement is moving ahead with its plans to create a new ethically based certification system for kosher food in response to concerns about working conditions at the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse. At the annual meeting of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, early this month, the gathering voted to endorse the five-person committee…
Certain scholars believe that the Redactor added a single sentence to this week’s Torah portion. What are they doing, Uncle? It’s another census, chickpea. Why? You ask a lot of questions, Phinehas. Will you give a half-shekel, too? Will they count you, too, this time? Has someone been teasing you again? No. Yes. No, Uncle….
Referring to my column of two weeks ago on the expression am ha’aretz, Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, writes that “too much attention to the word am-ha’aretz seems to have badly affected your grammatical sense. As you surely know, the Hebrew plural of am-ha’aretz…
“YOUR PLACE IN JEWISH HISTORY IS SECURE,” WIESEL TELLS GEORGE SHULTZ , HONOREE AT AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY DINNER “Israel owes you. The Jewish people owe you,” said Elie Wiesel as he presented the Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award to George Shultz — secretary of state under President Reagan — at the American Jewish…
Shavuot, the holiday that marks God’s giving of the Torah to the Jewish people, is punctuated at many synagogues by studying religious texts throughout the night and by the reading of the Book of Ruth on the second day of the holiday. The standard view is that these practices serve to recall and re-enact the…
I believe I last wrote about poop back in July. So it’s high time to talk about it again. (Just be thankful my children are aging out of the Effluvium Years. Honestly, I have no idea what I’ll write about anymore.) When we last discussed toilet training, 21-month-old Maxine was quaking in terror of a…
In the main building of the Liberty University campus in Lynchburg, Va., there is a Jerry Falwell museum. The first exhibit you see when you walk through the door is devoted to Falwell’s father. Carey Falwell was a nonbeliever, a successful entrepreneur, a hoodlum, bootlegger and gunman who shot his own brother dead two years…
Senator Barack Obama has introduced The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2007, a measure that would, according to this report, “authorize state and local governments and private fund-managers to divest assets for companies that invest over $20 million in Iran’s energy sector, which the U.S. government would publish in a list every six months.” The…
Senator Joseph Lieberman spoke today to leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “Now,” Lieberman said, “I know there are some who are probably wondering — what is a nice Independent Democrat from Connecticut doing at a Republican event like this?” Exactly who was wondering? The only person more upset than the RJC over Lieberman’s defeat…
A few weeks ago Jennifer Siegel filed this story on the troubles of Paul McNulty, the prosecutor who was promoted to deputy attorney general after securing the indictments of the two AIPAC officials accused of passing classified documents. Well, now McNulty has resigned, making him the highest Justice Department official to resign since the start…
Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was recently in Israel to provide a special training session to the entire staff of the Israeli military’s international media division. The program was organized by The Israel Project, an American organization dedicated to improving Israel’s image in the media. According to a press release issued by TIP: “For…
