Ted Junker first startled the residents of his rural Wisconsin town this month with his plans to open a memorial to Adolf Hitler on his property. As the controversy grew in advance of the site’s proposed opening, the 87-year-old retired farmer made an announcement with more far-reaching implications: Junker claimed to local media that he…
The Texas Republican Party issued its platform earlier this month, declaring America a “Christian nation” and describing the concept of separation of church and state as a “myth.” The 31-page platform, adopted by the party’s state convention, carries over language used in the Texas GOP platforms in 2002 and 2004. As in past years, state…
Even as Israeli President Moshe Katsav kept up his public feud with the leader of Reform Judaism, he hosted a top leader of the Conservative synagogue movement in America. During his recent trip to Israel, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, refused to meet with Katsav at his official residence. Yoffie…
Intense long-term lobbying efforts produced two major victories for Jewish organizations in recent weeks, with Israel securing admission to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the Presbyterian Church voting to replace its 2004 divestment decision. In both cases, Jewish organizations played key public and behind-the-scenes roles in pressing for change. The Red…
During one particularly bruising round of negotiations over the future of The Jerusalem Post, Israeli businessman Eli Azur paid a 3 a.m. visit to the hotel room of Canadian newspaper magnate Leonard Asper. According to just-released court papers, that night in January 2005 Azur was hoping to rescue his joint bid for the Post with…
Yeshiva University President Richard Joel is slamming the Israeli education ministry for refusing to recognize bachelor’s degrees from the school more than a year after a government vow to reverse the policy. “Last year I expressed patience. This year I’m expressing outrage,” said Joel, who voiced his objections at a crowded June 26 meeting of…
Sophie Maslow, a choreographer who created several works with Jewish themes, died Sunday in New York at age 95. Her 1950 work “The Village I Knew” was a set of character sketches based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem, The New York Times reported. She also choreographed the annual Hanukkah festivals at New York’s Madison…
Evelyn “Evy” Dubrow, a respected and widely known champion of workers’ rights, died June 20 at the age of 95. Dubrow rose to prominence in Washington political circles as a lobbyist for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union — a position from which she pushed for a higher minimum wage, fair trade laws, family and…
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is the only major international organization from which the United States is excluded. The organization rebuffed an American attempt last year to gain observer status, while granting such status to Mongolia, Pakistan, India and, perhaps most irritatingly to Washington, Iran. The alliance’s summit last year, held in the Kazakh capital of…
Culture Group Taps Chief The National Foundation for Jewish Culture named a new executive director. Elise Bernhardt, a curator, producer and adviser on arts programming and development, will take over the New York-based foundation from Richard Siegel, who resigned after 27 years. Senate Passes Hamas Bill The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation that would end…
WASHINGTON — Israel is pointing a menacing finger at a Damascus-based Hamas leader and Syrian officials who continue to grant him sanctuary, claiming that they are responsible for the recent kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and for the escalating crisis in Gaza. Israeli officials insist that from his base of operations in Syria, the Hamas…
