In response to the death of a New York baby boy from herpes, the top union of Modern Orthodox rabbis is urging Jews to abandon the ancient ritual practice of suctioning the blood by mouth directly from the baby’s penis during circumcision. The Rabbinical Council of America, representing more than 1,000 rabbis, issued a policy…
WASHINGTON — “Paper Clips,” a new documentary film chronicling Tennessee schoolchildren’s efforts to memorialize the Holocaust, has secured a thumbs-up from two high-profile viewers: President Bush and his wife, Laura. The film was screened at the White House on February 19, just hours before Bush left for his trip to Europe. It chronicles the story…
Kate’s Brooklyn Bundle: Rep. Katherine Harris, a Florida Republican, is refusing to return $20,000 in contributions she received from five individuals associated with the Postville, Iowa, Agriprocessors plant, according to a report in The Tampa Tribune. The Postville plant, one of the largest kosher slaughterhouses in America, was the subject of an exposé last year…
Lords of the Land: The Settlers and the State of Israel, 1967-2004 By Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan Dvir Publishing House. * * *| Many studies exist detailing one aspect or another of the story of Israel’s settlement of its occupied territories. None, however, in Hebrew or in any other language, has tried…
WASHINGTON — In her final speech as executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Hannah Rosenthal called on the organization’s members to voice “a lot more outrage” in the face of the Bush administration’s significant cuts to social-service programs. “This is a time that begs that we speak out on injustices,” said Rosenthal,…
WASHINGTON — Congress is being urged by a top Jewish public-policy organization to approve the Bush administration’s request for $350 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, even as prominent Jewish lawmakers fight the proposal. A resolution calling on Congress to “to fund” the aid proposal “in its entirety” was passed unanimously Monday at…
A vocal critic of Israel’s Gaza disengagement plan has been tapped by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia to spearhead a new program aimed at selling Jerusalem’s side of the story to foreign journalists in the region. The Philadelphia federation gave $100,000 to launch the new Jerusalem office of The Israel Project — an organization…
The attachment of American Jews to Israel has weakened measurably in the last two years, a recent survey demonstrates, continuing a long-term trend visible during the past decade and a half. The weakening is apparent in almost every measure of Jewish connection to Israel except for interest in travel to Israel, which showed a slight…
A perennially debated issue in linguistics in recent decades has been the question of just what aspects of language are “hard-wired” into our brains and what aspects are contingent on chance developments affecting specific languages or groups of languages. Take the basic word order of the simplest sentences that we utter. If you wish to…
The fallout from a rowdy conservative conference last month is exposing the fault lines in the Republican Party between Christian conservatives and small-government libertarians — including many Jewish activists. At the Conservative Political Action Conference, held February 17-19 in Washington, attendees loudly booed a speaker who spoke in defense of President Bush’s proposed immigration reforms….
UTRECHT, Netherlands— Near the bustling heart of this Dutch university town, at Springweg 162, there stands an imposing brick building with gold Hebrew letters engraved above the doorway. But the building exterior belies what occurs inside. On Saturdays, no prayers are read from the Star-of-David-adorned altar. The Holy Ark, which used to house three Torahs,…
