**Elliott Abrams ** This year, following the departures of Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith from the Pentagon, and that of Scooter Libby from the White House, Elliott Abrams became the senior neoconservative policy voice in the Bush administration. And, in his new role as deputy national security adviser, Abrams, 58, has achieved the impossible: bridging…
Jill Jacobs As the Conservative movement picks its way through a host of hot-button debates — from ordaining gay and lesbian rabbis to accepting interfaith families — Rabbi Jill Jacobs has almost single-handedly forced the movement to refocus on one of the oldest issues on the social agenda: workers’ rights. Three years ago, Jacobs, fresh…
Sharon Brous In the burgeoning world of unconventional young congregations, Sharon Brous, 32, has taken on an unusual role, doubling as a youthful firecracker, storming the barricades, and a grand dame, dispensing wisdom. Brous began her own Los Angeles religious community, IKAR, only three years ago, but it has swiftly become one of the largest…
Wayne Firestone Among the welter of competing religious and ideological options that young Jews are presented with at college, Wayne Firestone has developed a rare ability to calm the noise and create an open space for discussion. Firestone, a former international lawyer, first showed his gift with students as the head of the Israel on…
Sacha Baron Cohen In the movie that’s sweeping America this week, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” the oafish Kazakh reporter created by British comic Sacha Baron Cohen travels to Los Angeles to meet his dream girl, Canadian beauty Pamela Anderson, but he’s rejected and returns home. In reality,…
Jordan Farmar Jordan Farmar revived and updated the tradition of the Jewish point guard this year as he led the UCLA Bruins into the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball?hampionship game in April. The product of an interfaith family, Farmar was bar mitzvahed at Temple Judea in the Tarzana section of Los Angeles. Seven years…
Charles Bronfman and Roger Bennett Charles Bronfman, 75, has for decades championed innovative Jewish giving. From his backing of the Middle East peace process and support for Jewish-Arab coexistence programs to his support of Birthright Israel, which takes young Jews on free trips to Israel, the Seagrams heir has always put his money where his…
Jack Abramoff After pleading guilty to three felony counts of mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy, disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, 48, walked out of federal court in January wearing a black fedora from a Brooklyn-based haberdasher that caters largely to Orthodox Jews. Some pundits suggested a resemblance to the Godfather, but those with a…
Home cooks who are kosher have relied on margarine, or “Marge,” as she’s often called, as a kitchen staple for years. She’s helped us make pareve cakes to enjoy after a roast chicken on the Sabbath, and has provided us with countless cookies and kugels on the holidays. But butter’s twin has let us down….
Five different Jewish organizations commissioned demographic studies in the past year to explore the mind of the under-35 set, and they all found the same thing: Young Jews tend to be open, at times passionate, about their Jewish identity and heritage, but they couldn’t care less about Jewish organizations. They’re looking for meaning, mission, social…
George Allen The 20th century was a cataclysmic era for Jews — a time of cosmic tragedy, transcendent rebirth, mass migration and millions of individual journeys of every sort. Nobody knows that better this month than Senator George Allen of Virginia, a conservative Christian whose Jewish origins, hidden for a lifetime, popped out to ambush…
