Washington – Leaders of the country’s largest synagogue denomination are considering a plan to sharpen their anti-war position and call on the rest of the Jewish community to play an active role in pressing for America’s withdrawal from Iraq. The process of updating the Reform movement’s platform is expected to culminate in March, when the…
The anti-war group behind the recent demonstration that brought tens of thousands to Washington to protest the Iraq War already has plans for another mass rally in the nation’s capital. This time, though, the target of the protesters’ ire will be Israel. United for Peace and Justice, the convener of the January 27 march, is…
The imbroglio surrounding a pro-Israel campus coalition and one of its member organizations, a left-wing student group accused of bringing Israel bashers to campuses, continued to deepen this past week with a dizzying series of retractions and reversals from all sides. The Israel on Campus Coalition, an alliance of 31 organizations working to promote Israel’s…
Pro-Albanian advocates are ratcheting up efforts to rally congressional and Jewish support to force the Bush administration to throw its support behind full independence for Kosovo. Last week, international mediators presented their plan for the province, which is formally part of Serbia but has a population that ethnically is 90% Albanian, proposing Kosovo’s permanent secession…
“It is vital to learn how to stand before God,” said Abraham Joshua Heschel, explaining his participation in the famed 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. “Even without words, our march was worship.” The late rabbi’s spirit was very much in evidence during a recent 10-day rabbinical student mission to the river…
Human rights advocate Irena Kirkland died January 24 at her home in Washington. She was 81. An outspoken advocate for democracy in the Soviet bloc during the 1980s, Kirkland and her husband, Lane Kirkland, AFL-CIO president from 1979 to 1995, were renowned for their dinner parties, where such democracy-activist luminaries as Alexander Solzhenitsyn regularly shared…
now supports McCain.
Jennifer Siegel has an article up about Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech to Aipac activists in New York last night. She threw out some red meat about the dangers posed by Iran, but also argued that the Bush administration was wrong not to engage Iran. She’ll have more next week about the speech and the reaction…
In a speech before a packed pro-Israel crowd in New York, Senator Hillary Clinton made a forceful, if measured, case for the need to engage with Iran and Syria, while reaffirming her commitment to denying Tehran nuclear weapons. “If we are having to pursue potential action against Iran, then I want to know more about…
The Las Vegas Jewish community, which has been touting itself in recent years as the fastest-growing community in America, is a good deal further down the list than generally supposed, according to a new demographic study. The study, commissioned by the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, found that 200 Jews are moving to the desert…
Herbert L. Foster of Edgartown, Mass., wants to know whether there is a linguistic connection between the kittel, the white robe worn by some observant Jews on the High Holy Days and other solemn occasions, and the English kirtle, defined by his dictionary as either “a woman’s loose gown, worn in the middle ages,” or…
