FBI Investigates L.A. Plot FBI counterterrorism agents are investigating whether two American Muslim converts planned to attack the Israeli consulate, two synagogues and other targets in Los Angeles. Yariv Ovadia, the Israeli consul for communications and public affairs in Los Angeles, confirmed July 15 that federal agents had warned the consulate of possible threats. “We…
The refrain that freedom and democracy are on the march in the Middle East may seem premature, but recent events — like last month’s conference in Qatar on interreligious dialogue — reflect positive and noteworthy changes. The two previous conferences — held in Doha in 2003 and 2004, originally at the initiative of the archbishop…
Buried in the middle of a short July 14 news story about Turkey’s request that Iraq extradite two Islamists held at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, The New York Times made a stunning allegation: Israeli intelligence officials are operating in Iraq. The story, written by the Times correspondent in Istanbul, Sebnem Arsu, mentions in its…
LIMA, Peru — Two Jewish media moguls imprisoned for their role in a 2000 election scandal were released last week under a controversial new law. Their release has caused a wave of protests and prompted anxious discussion within the Jewish community over some members’ high-profile links to the former Fujimori regime. The two men, brothers…
Sherry Leffert of Cambridge, Mass., writes: “My friends and I were watching the Yiddish film ‘Amerikaner Shadkhen,’ in which the expression ‘Moishe Pupik’ occurs. We all had heard of him but wondered how the name and expression originated. Can you enlighten us?” I can hazard an educated guess. For the benefit of those readers who…
LOS ANGELES — Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel, has been hailed by Jewish anti-sweatshop activists as a pioneer in the fair treatment of garment workers in an industry plagued by allegations of substandard working conditions. But now his reputation is taking a hit with allegations of sexual harassment. American Apparel, which set…
When a young real estate developer acquired some property on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, he figured he’d gotten a deal. But it took some time before recognizing the magnitude of his find. In 1982, Manhattan’s Lower East Side was not yet the gentrifying wonderland it is today. Judah Klausner was, nevertheless, drawn to the neighborhood’s…
If you’ve read Amos Oz’s powerful new memoir, “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” in English, you missed something. I’m not referring to the “something” that is “lost in translation,” those poetic nuances that will not migrate from Hebrew to English. I mean, you missed an entire chapter. You wouldn’t know this, because the English…
We’ve all pretty much come to recognize that, professionally speaking, Jews today can be just about anything. The old immigrant stereotypes (tailor, peddler) faded away long ago, much as more recent aspirational visions (lawyer, doctor), too, seem shopworn and limiting. But still, there occasionally comes a job that seems, well, too goyish for a Jew….
A quasi-governmental Israeli body has acknowledged formally that the 1994 bombing of a Jewish communal center in Argentina, in which 85 people were killed, may have been an unanticipated consequence of Israeli military actions in South Lebanon. The acknowledgement came in the second annual report of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think…
Matchmakers are known for being a talkative sort, but when Sam and Rachelle Landau practice their art, it’s all in the hands. The Landaus, the world’s only deaf Jewish matchmakers, ply their trade via fax machine, teletypewriter telephone and computer at their Elizabeth, N.J., home. Being cut off from the primary tool of modern romance…
