A conservative activist is coming under fire for claiming that a Jewish senator is blocking an Arab American judicial nominee because of his ethnicity. Victoria Toensing, a Washington attorney who sometimes speaks on behalf of the conservative judicial advocacy group Committee for Justice, reportedly accused Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, of “executing a vendetta”…
BASKETBALL Herb Brown Herb Brown exemplifies a long and distinguished basketball tradition: the Jewish coach. Joining the ranks of such legends as Arnold “Red” Auerbach, longtime coach of the Boston Celtics, and William “Red” Holzman, onetime coach of the New York Knicks, Brown has kept the tradition alive by teaching the X’s and O’s of…
WASHINGTON — The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is expected to intensify the Jewish community’s plans to weigh in on the high court’s future. Many Jewish organizations already had been mobilizing for an anticipated vacancy on the court, but had expected to be discussing a successor to Chief Justice William Rehnquist and…
When I picture my father, my abba, renowned biblical scholar and translator Nahum Sarna, I inevitably picture him studying. His favorite room, by far, was his book-lined study: There he sat, morning, noon and long past nightfall, reading, writing and teaching. My father, who died June 23 at the age of 82, defined Torah very…
George Galloway, a leftist British politician who recently launched his own party, never has been much of a supporter of Israel, but in the last two months his political star has risen after a series of confrontations with Jewish politicians. First, in early May, Galloway won a seat in parliament by unseating Oona King, a…
Before I became a medical student, I thought I spoke Spanish pretty well. I spent six months after college researching minority languages in Spain and, after moving to New York, I’ve had many a friendly conversation with miscellaneous Spanish speakers I’ve accosted: random passersby from Puerto Rico, law students from Colombia, grocery packers from the…
The Air Force has named a Conservative rabbi to a newly created advisory position to help it deal with what it has acknowledged as problems of religious coercion and intolerance at the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo. Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, former national director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and a…
Alongside the Jewish groups waving their banners at the country’s many Gay Pride parades last month was a group of relative newcomers who —though technically on vacation this time of year — have become a major force in gay Jewish activism nationwide: college students. Nathan Weiner, a recent graduate of George Washington University, is the…
As leaders of Conservative Judaism face looming decisions about the future, the movement is facing new internal challenges to its restrictions on gays and lesbians and on interfaith couples. In recent days, more than 90 Conservative rabbis have signed their names to the Web site of a new group that pledges to fight against “all…
I am my own bad middle-of-the-road radio station. I keep finding myself singing, “Hot town! Summer in the city/Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.” No offense to The Lovin’ Spoonful, but at this point, belting out that old chestnut in public is like warbling “Yerushalayim shel Zahav” at the cool kids’ table at…
Due to an editor’s error, an article by Ofer Shelah in last week’s Forward Forum (“How To Become a Darling of the Settler Movement,” June 24) included a partial and misleading quote from a television appearance by Shelah in which he discussed his new book on Ariel Sharon. Shelah did not state a personal belief…
