Representative-elect Steve Cohen of Memphis found himself happily ensconced in Washington, D.C. last week after handily winning his race against political scion (and opportunistic independent) Jake Ford. Campaign Confidential caught up with Cohen by phone late Friday afternoon, as he was riding in a cab and exhibiting a newbie’s typical befuddlement over fares and zones….
Unaffiliated Jews — or nearly half of the country’s Jewish population — were excluded from the recent election [poll][1] commissioned by the Republican Jewish Coalition. The telephone survey, by conducted by GOP pollster Arthur Finkelstein and based on Election Day interviews with 1,000 Jewish voters in New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania, bypassed Jews who never…
Unaffiliated Jews — or nearly half of the country’s Jewish population — were excluded from the recent election [poll][1] commissioned by the Republican Jewish Coalition. The telephone survey, by conducted by GOP pollster Arthur Finkelstein and based on Election Day interviews with 1,000 Jewish voters in New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania, bypassed Jews who never…
Often, words and expressions change meaning by happenstance, or because a secondary meaning gradually becomes a primary one. There’s no wider significance to it. Sometimes, though, the change is indicative of a real cultural shift. I had this thought the other day, as I was reading an article about the current trend in some American…
A new study has found that a significant majority of the children from intermarried couples in the Boston area are being raised Jewish — one reason for a surprising overall increase in the region’s Jewish population. The findings from Boston could fuel and shift the long-standing national debates over Jewish demographic trends, a seemingly obscure…
“Technical failure” in an electronic aiming system caused Israeli shells to smash into a Gaza neighborhood and kill a score of Palestinian civilians last week, an internal army inquiry concluded. As usual when equipment is assigned the blame, that answer has done little to quell recriminations. Instead, the tragedy in Beit Hanun has added fuel…
LOS ANGELES – The annual convention of American Jewish charitable federations, meeting here this week, spent most of its time examining the fate of Israel, pleasing the Israeli politicians in attendance but angering a broad swath of social service providers and federation leaders who decried the lack of attention to pressing domestic concerns confronting North…
While Israeli politicians showed up in record numbers this week at the annual assembly of North American Jewish charitable federations to laud the Jewish community for its fundraising efforts and to emphasize global Jewish unity, one top Israeli official took the occasion to insult Diaspora Jewry. On the eve of the 75th annual General Assembly…
Every summer since 2002, a fairly nonviolent battle has taken place between the ultra-Orthodox community and the gay and lesbian community in Jerusalem ahead of the annual gay pride parade held in the capital. Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, Jews take to the streets, voicing their opposition to what they see as a desecration of the holy…
Lego is all about connecting disparate elements, snapping together different pieces to form new constructions. But for Dan Sieradski, editor of the Web log Jewschool.com, one recent Lego-based project — using the toy to fashion a Holocaust-inspired model — went one click too far. On hearing that a New Jersey architect was going to lead…
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert raised eyebrows this week when he praised America’s war in Iraq as a “great operation” that brought stability to the Middle East. Olmert made his remarks Monday during a White House press conference with President Bush, before heading to Los Angeles to speak at a major gathering of thousands of…
