Once upon a time, a café in a trendy Chicago neighborhood posted a sign at child’s-eye level: “Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven.” Offended local parents (apparently) boycotted. Other grown-ups (certainly) verbally spanked mothers who failed to control their precious little scone-hurling…
During the mid-1990s, Marwan Barghouti and his close friend Qaddoura Fares initiated a number of meetings with representatives of the Israeli peace camp. They presented themselves as people committed to turning the Oslo process into a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine by May 1999, the date that had been determined in bilateral negotiations. Barghouti…
‘I believe every Palestinian in Europe or America is either a millionaire or a college professor,” Bill Clinton told the more than 700 attendees at the November 10 State of Israel Bonds’ Real Estate and Construction Division lunch at The Pierre. The former president, who was speaking in reference to the Palestinian diaspora’s apparent tightfistedness,…
DICTATORIAL DEVOTION: A woman holds up a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a demonstration last week in Damascus. Assad is facing trouble internationally as the United Nations investigates the role of his government in the assassination of a popular former Lebanese prime minister and businessman, Rafik Hariri.
On the 60th yahrzeit of his death, Kazriel Broydo was featured in the columns of the Forverts devoted to Pearls of Yiddish Poetry. Broydo was the embodiment of the spirit of Vilna. He assembled and performed every song in the ghetto. His compositions spread from Vilna to virtually all the other ghettos in Eastern Europe….
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and the Israeli government are preparing for a belligerent Syrian reaction to the findings of a United Nations report that is expected to accuse Damascus of masterminding the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Israeli officials are anticipating an escalation in attacks by the Syrian- and…
In a sign that church-state separation debates could turn stormy next year, the controversy over religious coercion by evangelical Christian officers at the U.S. Air Force Academy is emerging as a 2006 campaign issue — for both sides. Nick Reid, a Republican congressional challenger in Wisconsin, is criticizing 36-year Democratic incumbent Rep. David Obey over…
After a massive campaign launched by American Jewish organizations and at least three foreign governments, the Russian government appears to be relenting in its effort to block a leading rabbi from returning to the country. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, who has been the chief rabbi of Moscow’s main synagogue for 15 years, was turned back at…
TEL AVIV — The recent conviction of Prime Minister Sharon’s most trusted political confidant — his son Omri — is dragging the long-festering issue of government corruption into the Israeli election campaign. Just minutes before the prime minister officially registered his new Kadima party last week, he directed aides to strike his son’s name and…
A bitter power struggle at one of the country’s toniest synagogues is coming to a head, as supporters of the rabbi are hoping to vote out the current board of trustees and elect a new slate of officers at a meeting this weekend. Backers of Rabbi David Gelfand — the embattled leader of the Jewish…
BANGKOK — When Israeli officials showed up in Thailand last week to participate for the first time in the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace, they received a hostile welcome from several Muslim nations. But in a sharp turnaround from other international parleys, Israel found itself being defended by representatives of…
