Doha, Qatar – Some participants at the third-annual forum of the Arab satellite network Al Jazeera were sorry they didn’t bring matzo with them — had they known how many fellow Jews were attending the media conference, they would have made a Passover Seder. “We could have used the hotel wine to fill our cups,”…
Colorado Springs, Colo. – Two controversial attorneys representing opposite ends of the church-state separation dispute faced off at the U.S. Air Force Academy here this week in an impassioned debate over the reach of evangelical Christianity in the ranks of the military. The debate pitted Mikey Weinstein, the New Mexico attorney who sued the Air…
They wander in a few minutes early — the rabbi, the baker, the doctors and many others — clasping hands and murmuring “Shalom aleichem” before preparing themselves for the evening’s proceedings. But this isn’t synagogue, and soon they’re helmeted, armed with sticks and running full tilt. This is the Oakland Kochavim street/ball hockey league in…
The words “spring” and “break,” innocuous when separate, become volatile when joined together. “Spring break” typically evokes the Bahamas and the debauchery of Girls Gone Wild. In the past few years, however, a new spring break movement has been gaining traction. Most noticeably since Hurricane Katrina, college students have organized alternative spring break trips that…
‘It’s not prudish, but it’s clean and smart. It’s definitely something that people who like to go to theater will appreciate — it’s not low rent. And it’s hilarious.” That is what comedian Cathy Ladman said about the new off-Broadway production “The J.A.P Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy,” in which she stars with a…
UJA FETES KAZAKHSTAN PHILANTHROPIST Kazakhstan-bashing comic Sacha Baron Cohen would have been persona non grata at UJA-Federation of New York Russian Division’s March 25 gala honoring industrialist and philanthropist Alexander Machkevitch. A principal shareholder in Kazakhstan-based Eurasian National Resources Corporation, president of the Euro-Asian Industrial Association and chairman of the board of directors of Euro-Asian…
This week’s double portion, Aharei Mot and Kedoshim, begins with a litany of seemingly unrelated laws. The proscriptions include sexual conduct (“Let no woman lend herself to a beast to mate with it”), agricultural practices (“You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed”) and scapegoating (“He who set the Azazel-goat free shall…
It was off the races last night, with the first televised debate between all 8 Democratic presidential candidates. (Mike Gravel, anybody?) When asked which countries are America’s most three important allies around the world, Obama mentioned two (the E.U. and Nato) and didn’t mention Israel: Senator Obama, what are America’s three most important allies around…
In a column two weeks ago titled “Dispatches From the Great Vodka War,” veteran New York Times journalist Serge Schmemann, a fancier of the drink, had a paragraph discussing some words for it. “Vodka,” he wrote there, “is a Russian word, a diminutive of ‘water’… The Poles may put ‘vodka’ on their bottles, but among…
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson raised some eyebrows on Wednesday when he mentioned former Secretary of State James Baker as a possible pick for Middle East Envoy if he were elected president. “I could see myself sending former Secretary of State James Baker if I were president,” Richardson told reporters, saying he would pursue bipartisanship….
Texas conservatives have won the latest round in the fight over a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. Yesterday, the Texas legislature gave final passage to a billl that bars the state from ordering the shots until at least 2011. In early February, when Texas Governor Rick Perry – a Republican who is generally a staunch…
