For a change, the United Nations felt like home last week. Holocaust survivors, their families and friends took the seats of pinstriped diplomats in the U.N.’s massive General Assembly hall. Emotional speeches replaced impersonal debates about war and poverty. And bitter exchanges over Israel and Palestine gave way to a dignified ceremony of remembrance of…
Maxine, now 15 months old, has worked through her irrational fear of the stuffed Eeyore, the little wooden incense holder and “Harvey Nagila,” the battery-operated, clap-activated, dancing Hasid. (I, however, am still afraid of Harvey.) But Josie, age 4, is going through an anxious time. Music in a minor key, such as “Peter and the…
Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” is not a bad action film. It tells an intense and haunting story of a man whose willingness to kill for his country engenders a personal dilemma regarding the efficacy of violence, even justified violence, as a response to terrorism. But it also badly distorts the circumstances under which Israeli intelligence operatives…
“Songs of Generations: New Pearls of Yiddish Songs” is one of several compendia of Yiddish songs edited by Eleanor and Joseph Mlotek. What follows is a folk song titled “Ikh Bin Shoyn a Meydl in Di Yorn.” Among the obstacles to getting married are two roadblocks — a dowry and yikhes. What follows are the…
AMONA — In the dark, the houses look like nine small, identical boxes — flat topped, faced in stone, windows shuttered — that have been dropped on the rocky, unpaved lots cut at the end of the ridge. Jerusalem, to the south, is a carpet of lights spread along the horizon. Behind the houses, the…
“My commitment to Meretz and the peace movement has always been intricately and indissolubly connected to my belief in an Israel that is not only secure in life and limb but anchored in moral rectitude,” stated a white-bearded, prophetic-looking Theodore Bikel, honoree at Meretz USA’s festive dinner January 9 at New York’s B.B. King Blues…
Jolted by the tepid response to the genocide in Darfur, Jewish communal organizations are mobilizing at an unprecedented level for an issue that might appear tangential to Jewish concerns. National and local Jewish organizations are gearing up for a rally to be held April 30 in Washington under the aegis of the Save Darfur Coalition,…
For decades, English-speaking rabbis have been employing innovative academic, literary and theological approaches to produce fresh commentaries on the Bible that would resonate with their modern-day congregants. But as the yearly Torah cycle reached the book of Exodus this month, Rabbi Michael Holzman tried out what qualifies these days as a more radical approach: He…
WASHINGTON — The sentencing last week of former Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, who admitted to giving classified information to two pro-Israel lobbyists, may have begun to lift the veil of mystery that has shrouded the explosive investigation since it first surfaced a year-and-a-half ago. Sentencing remarks by the judge, as well as recent actions by…
Jack Abramoff, an ally of several prominent Republicans, and Steve Rosen, a driving force behind the pro-Israel lobby, were two of the most influential Jewish lobbyists in Washington before legal scandals effectively ended their careers and sent them scrambling to stay out of prison. Their cases are very different: Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud,…
The World Jewish Congress, beset by critics and currently under New York State investigation over its finances, made a big push toward reforming itself this week — but the effort stumbled on its first steps out of the gates. The WJC’s steering committee approved a series of organizational reforms at a January 19 meeting. Among…
אין פֿאַרגלײַך מיט די פֿיזישע פּאַוויליאָנען געשאַפֿן פֿון אָפֿיציעלע לענדער איז דער ייִדישלאַנד־פּאַוויליאָן געבויט אויף אידעעס
