As gay rights activists and liberal interest groups gear up for a fight against a broad-based religious alliance over a bill to expand rights in the workplace, Jewish organizations are struggling to determine which side to line up on. At issue is a proposed bill, the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, aimed at strengthening a federal…
Jerusalem – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to meet every other week for talks that could include discussions about the formation of a Palestinian state, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here this week. Rice’s statement came at the end of three days of shuttle diplomacy between the…
The escalating controversy over the Bush administration’s dismissal of eight federal prosecutors has ensnared the high-ranking Justice Department official who brought charges against two pro-Israel advocates for allegedly leaking classified information. In recent weeks, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has faced intense scrutiny for his role in the firing eight U.S. attorneys last year. Among…
Washington – Two congressional letters strongly supported by the pro-Israel lobby have attracted a great deal of support in recent days. Seventy-nine senators signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging the Bush administration to maintain its policy of denying financial aid and refusing to meet with the Palestinian government until it recognizes…
Three gentlemen have gathered on the terrace of an outdoor café. Two enjoy thimble-size cups of thick, sweet coffee. The third, a wild-eyed, raggedy-bearded fellow, stalks around among the tables, barely limiting his exhortations to his companions, which may explain why the café across the boulevard is having a particularly busy afternoon. Nachmanides: Please, my…
I have a confession. I really, really love leading the Seder. I was initially resistant to taking on the role. It meant that Zayde was gone; it meant that I was a grownup, an authority figure, instead of a metaphorical kid throwing spitballs from the back row. It meant, to me, that I was usurping…
Everyone knows that food is a serious part of the Passover Seder. But very few people take Seder food seriously. Though everyone who attends a Seder is aware that certain foods are central to the Seder ritual, and most — at least by the end of the Seder — will be aware of the conventional…
Preparations are under way at Paris’s Congregation Juive Libèrale for a Seder with special significance. This week, 300 members and friends will gather for the first Passover feast in the new spiritual home that the Reform congregation dedicated last May. “The Seder brings together all that is important about the Jewish faith and traditions, reminding…
Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own By Marge Piercy Schocken, 304 pages, $22.95. It’s well known that Passover is the most widely observed of Jewish holidays, and there’s no shortage of explanations as to why. Its themes are universally relevant — freedom is much easier to relate to than,…
I was always vaguely aware that Passover was in some way an agricultural festival, but never realized that celebrating food could include consuming meat that came from animals I had known face to face. That was until last spring, when I spent Passover in Alamosa, Colo., a town situated in a high-altitude desert and populated…
Gil Kulick of New York City writes: “A question that has intrigued and puzzled me for a long time has to do with the use of the world ‘learn’’ in Jewish parlance as a synonym of the word ‘study,’ or, more precisely, the lack of distinction between the two. “In standard English the two terms…
