Diplomatic efforts to fight antisemitism in Europe appeared to suffer a setback this week, as a region-wide conference drafted a declaration lumping the age-old prejudice with Islamophobia and racism. Insiders said the draft declaration to be issued at the end of the meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in Cordoba, Spain…
The British Museum wants to return a set of drawings stolen from a Jewish family by the Nazis — but in this case, doing the “moral” thing is against the law. At stake are four old master drawings that were taken in 1939 from the Feldmanns, a Czech family, and sold to the British Museum…
Vatican Mulls AIDS Effort The World Jewish Congress and the Vatican are discussing a joint initiative to combat AIDS in Africa. The details of the initiative were being ironed out this week in Rome during meetings between top Jewish and Vatican officials, including the new pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI. The WJC and the Vatican, who…
It rained every day in Los Angeles when I visited recently, putting a damper on my plans to cruise the region while looking at new architecture. Somehow it’s easier to look at buildings in the rain in Syracuse, N.Y. (where I live), or in Central Europe, where I often work, than in Southern California, of…
If you’re a fiction writer, a dreamer like Joseph or just a liar, and you want to get a man out of a burning house you just say, or write, “The man got out of the burning house.” You can gift the man with wings, introduce a providential angel or a magical butterfly out of…
Allan Mallenbaum of Plainview, N.Y., writes: “I’ve seen no word that can be used for the phenomenon of suicidal terrorists who target Jews exclusively. It’s unfortunate, outrageous, that we need such a term, but reality dictates the needs of expression. “Judicide, parallel to suicide, would seem a good choice, but could be misinterpreted to mean…
At first glance, Isabel Rose, the author of a new novel dedicated to skewering the Jewish American Princess, strikes you as exactly what she professes to mock: Tiny, well dressed, 10 minutes late and drinking from my glass of pinot grigio, she seems a perfect (albeit red-haired) JAP stereotype. I’ve been sitting at the crowded…
A recent opinion essay in Forward Forum (“From ‘Balance’ to Censorship: Bush’s Cynical Plan for NPR,” May 27) was construed by some readers to imply incorrectly that Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, had called for readers of the Los Angeles Times to cancel their subscriptions. In fact, Camera never…
Modernity, it was once thought, wreaked havoc with religious tradition, rendering centuries-old rituals obsolete. We now know better. Modernity has not only made room for tradition, it has even given birth to a number of new rituals of its own, among which the rite of confirmation, often celebrated on Shavuot, may well take pride of…
There is a drama performed in hospitals that is as essential and unchanging as davening, or eating breakfast. It’s the doctors’ twice-daily bedside perambulation, known to everyone as “rounds.” Whenever a medical student walks into a patient’s room, it’s an act for both concerned. Perhaps the metaphor is inexact. Each actually wants to tell the…
a power struggle between two of the country’s most influential jewish politicians appears to have torpedoed new york city’s bid to build a new football stadium and bring the 2012 olympics to the big apple. The push for a new stadium had been spearheaded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose dream it was to…
