A surprise firing last week is threatening to tear apart the World Jewish Congress and appears to have shattered one of the most powerful partnerships in Jewish communal life. For decades, billionaire beverage mogul Edgar Bronfman and Rabbi Israel Singer were a dynamic duo, fighting global campaigns side by side while sharing a personal bond…
Washington – The simmering debate over American policy toward Israel and the role of the Jewish community in shaping it exploded with near-nuclear force this week. Several of the nation’s best-known international affairs commentators fired salvos at pro-Israel lobbyists and defenders of Israel fired back with unprecedented fury. In the space of three days, major…
On Sunday morning, March 18, Kings Highway in southern Brooklyn terminated in a thick blue line. At the intersection of Flatbush and Flatlands Avenues, in front of the modest I.J. Morris funeral home, more than 1,000 of New York’s finest gathered to remember and honor one of their own. The previous Wednesday, auxiliary police officer…
Lauderdale, Fla. – The Florida attorney general is investigating a condo association’s efforts to block one resident from affixing a mezuza to her front doorpost. At issue is the 5-inch mezuza that Laurie Richter, a 28-year-old lawyer, put up at the end of last year, when she began renting a unit in The Port, a…
Jerusalem – Just days after Palestinians formed a new unity government between the moderate Fatah and militant Hamas parties, Israel this week found itself struggling to defend an international boycott of the Palestinians that was rapidly crumbling. Last Sunday, March 18, one day after the new Palestinian government was sworn in, Israel’s Cabinet voted to…
Washington – The Bush administration has dealt Jerusalem and its allies a series of unexpected policy defeats regarding the formation of the new Palestinian unity government. Israel’s Cabinet decided earlier this week to boycott members of the Palestinian Authority governing coalition, and the pro-Israel lobby in the United States has called on the White House…
Yesterday we reported on Bill Clinton diss of Jimmy Carter’s book in a letter to the American Jewish Committee. It turns out Bubba took a shot at Carter several weeks ago, in a March 6 appearance at the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County… The Union-Tribune reports… Clinton criticized former President Carter’s controversial book…
Arthur Miller once said that “Jews are very impatient with doing the same thing over and over again. It’s gotta be different!” The Jewish playwright’s observation seems particularly apt when applied to Passover — for, on the night that is different from all other nights, Jews fulfilling the vehigadeta mitzvah can choose from nearly 3,500…
Created by a famed political cartoonist during the rise of Hitler, the Arthur Szyk Haggadah is being reproduced for the first time since 1940 in a limited edition. The colorful, intensely detailed drawings, done in the style of medieval manuscript illumination, will be accompanied by essays by scholars of Jewish art.
The Dubroff sisters know gefilte fish. For more than 40 years, the three octogenarian women — Peppy Barer, Rosie Groman and Sophie Patasnik — have been preparing a Passover Seder for 60 to 110 relatives and friends. Work begins six weeks in advance for the feast, which is held in Barer’s home in Newburgh, N.Y….
Neil Sedaka, Frank London, Debbie Friedman, Rob Kutner, Golem, Y-Love, DJ Hanlder and Metropolitan Klezmer are among the performers at New York City’s seventh annual Downtown Seder. The 400-person event includes appearances by some 25 comedians, musicians, politicians, artists, celebrities and writers who will offer interpretations of the story of Passover. A kosher dinner will…
