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Jerusalem’s Damascus Conundrum Raises Wartime Memories of Yom Kippur Past
Bashar Assad says he wants peace — but failing that, he’ll take war. The Syrian president has made a point of intoning that message repeatedly of late. In Israel, the question of how to respond — indeed, whether to respond at all — has created a ragged political division that cuts across the usual lines…
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Scholars Debate ‘Israel Lobby’ Article
John Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor who co-authored a controversial article last winter about the power of the “The Israel Lobby,” met his critics head-on last week for a debate before a rowdy audience on the stage of New York’s historic Cooper Union. It was a vigorous exchange, replete with accusations of antisemitism, conspiracy-mongering,…
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Bronfman ‘Kvells,’ Debuts New Holiday Services
If you’re going to atone for your sins, you might as well do it in comfort. And if you’re Edgar Bronfman, why not do it from the comfort of your own home? As New Yorkers packed into synagogues on the evening of Kol Nidre to reflect on their transgressions of the past year, some 100…
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Federations Secure Funding Pledge for Senior Programs
The Jewish community has scored a legislative victory in its effort to develop programs that allow the elderly to live at home while receiving vital services. Congress passed legislation last week to create a new federal grant program for development of Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, the brainchild of United Jewish Communities that provides an alternative…
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Letter from Ukraine: Facing God at Babi Yar
Babi Yar, who has heard about it? It is here, in the suburbs of Kiev, near the old Jewish cemetery, on September 29, 1941 —Yom Kippur day — that the Einsatzkommando headed by Paul Blobel, an SS colonel, with the help of the Ukrainian police, used machine guns to exterminate the Jewish inhabitants of this…
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Cleveland-based Philanthropist Ruby Bass, 91
Ruby Bass, renowned philanthropist for State of Israel Bonds and the women’s division of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, died September 28 at the age of 91. “She was ageless and elegant,” said Barbara Goldfarb, development director of Cleveland Heights’s Park Synagogue. Bass was a “lifelong” member for the synagogue for more than 50…
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Gimme Temporary Shelter
Last year, we held Josie’s birthday party in our sukkah. As a kid, I had loved making construction-paper chains to drape gaily around the s’chach. So at my behest, Jonathan bought a forest-stripping ton of construction paper at Costco and I painstakingly cut it into strips and stocked up on glue sticks at the dollar…
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Family Affair
You polished the silver. You rolled 129 matzo balls. You made gefilte fish from scratch. And you entertained your mother-in-law. Feeling fatigued from the High Holy Days? Celebrate Sukkot this year amid the tranquil apple orchards of the National Yiddish Book Center, and forget about the kitchen. The Sweet Harvest Festival, a daylong event for…
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Mass Production: Sukkahs-A-Plenty
In the days leading up to Sukkot, Sukkah Depot, a superstore that’s been compared to Wal-Mart (except that it only sells Sukkot-related items and there are no guns of any kind on the premises), was busy selling off as much of its inventory as it could. From sukkahs to wall decorations to the leafy s’chach,…
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Are Secular Israelis Jewish?
My education and experiences as a secular Israeli made me consider “Israeli” to be a different identity from that of “Jew.” Under this perception, American Jews are those who exchanged the Eastern European oppressive shtetl for a new, more prosperous Diaspora existence. I was surprised, if not embarrassed, when, during trips abroad, I was sometimes…
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Not Quite in Time for Yom Kippur, Sen. George Allen Apologizes
For seeking a correction in 2003 when a reporter wrote that Allen’s mother was raised as a Jew.
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