I don’t know about you, but talk of bloodlines leaves me queasy. We Jews have had more than our share of grief from notions of blood purity. If you’re like me, you just don’t want to go there. Imagine my surprise, then, to find myself spending a Thursday evening in October at New York’s Museum…
Forward reader George Steinberg writes: “My supervisor, born and raised in Israel, had his young son visiting the office. When the boy noticed an insect crawling on the wall, he said to his father in Hebrew, ‘Abba [“Daddy”], jook!’ ‘Jook?’ I asked. My boss explained that that’s an Arabic word used in Hebrew for ‘bug.’…
As triumphant Democrats begin a season of post-election jockeying, congressional insiders are speculating that Rep. Tom Lantos could face a challenge for the chairmanship of the House International Relations Committee. Lantos, a prominent foreign policy hawk and initially an outspoken supporter of the war in Iraq, has long raised the ire of more liberal Democrats,…
The first case to go to trial in a string of high-profile government scandals here was thrown into an uproar last week when the prosecution admitted it withheld evidence that could damage its own case. Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon went on trial last week on charges of forcibly kissing a female soldier. Most observers…
The Voice of America recently beamed a story around the world about the Midwood section of Brooklyn, presenting the neighborhood as a model of ethnic harmony where Orthodox Jews rub shoulders with Pakistani Muslims. Until recently, one shining example of the inter-ethnic cooperation was the Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins under the elevated subway tracks at Avenue M…
Police in Israel’s capital were bracing this week for a weekend of intense violence as gay rights activists prepared to stage a gay pride parade through the city and ultra-Orthodox Jews vowed not to let them. Nearly two weeks of rioting have rocked the city’s Orthodox neighborhoods, several times spilling over into the city center,…
A French media report published last week is sparking claims that the United States was partially complicit in the 1995 destruction of three Bosnian Muslim enclaves, protected by the United Nations. The report, which appeared in the magazine Paris-Match, drew on an interview given by former American diplomat Richard Holbrooke to a Bosnian television station…
Three days before Nicaragua’s November 5 presidential election, a Jewish-affiliated group issued a statement blasting the front-runner and eventual victor, leftist Daniel Ortega, for being a child abuser. U.N. Watch, which is connected to the American Jewish Committee, expressed “concern that an individual credibly accused of incest and child abuse is a candidate in this…
The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West By Steve Sheinkin Jewish Lights Publishing, 144 pages, $16.99 Could it be that the Wild West — that vast frontier immortalized by the likes of Gary Cooper and John Wayne — bears a startling resemblance to the Mild…
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 35, Nechama Cohen was forced to rethink the traditional kosher kitchen she kept with her husband and their six children. Schmaltz was certainly out. So were refined sugar and high-gluten flour. In short, all the things that Jews have been led to believe are necessary to…
This Torah portion contains some of the best-known, and most moving, stories in Genesis. Toward its beginning, Vayera narrates the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it concludes with the akedah, the binding of Isaac, a very troubling episode. These accounts are often juxtaposed, as readers try to understand why Abraham bargained on behalf of…
