I could measure my halting, lurching progress toward adulthood through Seders. Three years ago, we were at my parents’ house in Providence, R.I. Tiny Josie dozed on my lap. My dad and my mom each ran one Seder — my dad’s traditional, my mom’s egalitarian — and jockeyed good-naturedly over whose was better. Two years…
Israeli President Moshe Katsav is taking the first concrete steps toward forming a new forum of Jewish leaders from across the globe to tackle what he calls the “crisis situation” facing the Jewish world. Katsav’s earlier proposal for a global Jewish parliament has been shelved, primarily because of the difficulty of holding worldwide elections. Instead,…
It was close to midnight on a Sunday night last April when Jose Meirelles ordered his servers at Manhattan’s Le Marais restaurant to put down their trays and start the evening’s real work: preparing the restaurant for Passover. A specially hired crew was slated to arrive any minute to help with a whirlwind, overnight cleaning…
TEL AVIV — With less than three months to go before Israel’s scheduled withdrawal from Gaza and no clear plans for the day after, the Cabinet this week authorized the purchase of hundreds of mobile homes to house the 8,000 Jewish settlers to be evacuated. The mobile-home decision was taken Tuesday during a stormy ministers’…
The preservation and continuity of Yiddish culture were the drumbeats at the April 5 benefit celebrating the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research’s 80 years of survival and growth and the concurrent opening of its exhibition “A Brief Encounter with Archives.” Among those helping to celebrate this Center for Jewish History fete were: YIVO executive director…
Few stories capture the dramatic flavor of the Exodus as well as that of the Ethiopian Jews. After millennia of being subject to the whims of an oppressive society, the bulk of Ethiopia’s Jews — some with a layover in the Sudanese desert — left the land of their birth for the Promised Land in…
for the first time in american history and possibly for the first time in world history, medical doctors are organizing their patients into a political bloc to do battle on a pivotal issue that would profoundly influence the nature of medical practice in the united states. the unusual development is a reaction to the bush…
American extremist groups are preparing to celebrate a series of notorious anniversaries next week, prompting concerns about increased efforts to recruit a new generation into the numerous white supremacist and anti-government organizations operating across the country. The planned celebrations center on two dates: April 19, the day in 1993 that federal agents stormed the Branch…
Report: Rift Over China Tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over Israel’s military links with China are rising again as reports about Beijing’s military buildup is causing increasing concerns in American defense circles. This week, the Boston Globe reported that a soon-to-be-released Pentagon report claims that soon China will have the capacity to block American forces…
FORWARD FORUM I met Pope John Paul II in 1985. We were introduced by his personal secretary, confidante and fellow Pole, Stanislaw Dziwisz. “Hello, my dear compatriot!” the pope greeted me in Polish. “Good morning, Holy Father,” I answered in Polish. “So we are both from Warsaw, aren’t we?” he said. “No,” I replied. “I…
A proposed congressional bill to extend daylight-saving time by months would make it nearly impossible for many religious Jews to hold daily prayer services before work. The measure, an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, caught Jewish communal leaders off guard. Under the amendment sponsored by Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed Markey and Michigan…
די „שלום־עליכם לעקציע“ וועט מען קענען הערן אויפֿן אָרט אָדער דורך דער אינטערנעץ.
