The Rev. Pat Robertson is drawing criticism from rabbis of all denominational stripes for suggesting that citizens of Pennsylvania’s Dover area no longer merit God’s protection because they voted out critics of evolution. Robertson, who made his remarks during the November 10 broadcast of his daily show, “The 700 Club,” on the Christian Broadcasting Network,…
TORONTO — Before Eliezer Zalmanov came to Munster, Ind., no Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi had ever been the recipient of the local Jewish federation’s rabbinic award. There was a Chabad rabbi before Zalmanov. However, Zalmanov, 26, said that when he moved to Munster two years ago, the rest of the community still had suspicions about his ultra-Orthodox…
TORONTO — Local Jewish charitable federations have long seen themselves as the central address for Jewish giving, but their dominant status is in jeopardy, judging from the buzz in the halls and on the podiums at the annual General Assembly of United Jewish Communities. This past Sunday afternoon, participants in the annual event were set…
Support is mounting for a prominent pulpit rabbi from Los Angeles to become the next chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, after he delivered an enthusiastically received speech last week on the future of Conservative Judaism. Rabbi David Wolpe, the charismatic leader of one the country’s largest congregations, L.A.’s Sinai Temple, urged his audience at…
Omri Sharon Pleads Guilty Israeli Prime Minister Sharon’s son, Omri, pleaded guilty in a Likud Party funding scandal. The younger Sharon could face imprisonment as part of the plea bargain reached Tuesday. He accepted reduced felony charges of perjury and fraud in connection with allegedly illicit foreign financing for his father’s 1999 run for the…
TEL AVIV — Surging out of the gate after his upset win in last week’s Labor Party leadership primary, union firebrand Amir Peretz scored a rapid series of tactical victories this week and appeared poised to remake Israeli politics into a competitive sport for the first time in years. Peretz, 53, a political maverick who…
One day, to enhance his act, a peg-legged tightrope walker balanced a small iron cooking stove on his back. During one ill-fated performance, the high wire snapped and the performer fell to the ground, mortally wounded. A priest administered the last rites, then leaned down to catch the man’s dying words. The acrobat gasped, “But…
“We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow,” Chief Justice Robert Jackson warned at the opening session of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, on November 20, 1945. “To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to…
When you’re 12 going on 13, everything feels just so serious. Stacy Friedman, the protagonist of Fiona Rosenbloom’s young adult novel “You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” (Hyperion), has an accessory bag full of problems standing in the way of having an absolutely perfect life. Her parents’ marriage is on the fritz,…
Passion is the defining characteristic of effective philanthropists. It’s what separates people who “make donations” from people who make a substantial and lasting impact in the fields they choose to support. Passion isn’t limited to mega-donors. At all levels of giving, passionate philanthropists are energetic — they will roll up their sleeves and commit time…
Despite the negative spotlight that the oil-for-food scandal has cast on the United Nations, we must not forget that an effective U.N. is in America’s interest. We must not forget, for it is only with bold and persevering American leadership that the world body will be able to emerge from this latest turmoil and become…
