With the death toll in Southeast Asia surpassing 70,000, Israeli aid workers and Jewish organizations are racing to support the international relief effort following this week’s tsunami disaster. Israeli psychologists, forensics experts, and rescue and recovery officials were set to fly to the region to help relatives locate and identify their loved ones, according to…
A group of early childhood educators at the Cherry Hill, N.J., Katz JCC voted on December 17 to ratify a union-organized contract, making them the first employees of a Jewish preschool in the state to secure a labor agreement through collective bargaining. The product of nearly two years of negotiation, the newly formed shop, the…
OAKLAND, Calif. — A holiday-season labor strike at San Francisco’s Jewish Home was canceled at the last minute, but the strife is far from over — and the well-being of 430 elderly residents hangs in the balance. About 380 workers, including vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, dietary aides, housekeepers, porters and drivers at the nonprofit…
Food Fight: A fund raising letter signed by Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center, the Washington-based policy arm of Reform Judaism, is raising the hackles of some Orthodox officials. “Thanks in large part to the aggressive tactics and ‘take no prisoners’ approach of the reactionary right, reasoned political debate in America has…
‘American Jews,” wrote the late novelist Ilona Karmel, “have scars, but no wounds.” The year just past, 2004, was a year to prove that point. We experienced some pain and anxiety, but as usual, we were surprised at year’s end to find ourselves as safe as ever. Indeed, it might best be called a “year…
Catastrophe strikes each of us differently. The wise among us withhold judgment on our fellows’ first responses, knowing there is no right pathway through grief. (Those who lack such insight tend to end up in politics or the clergy.) And how do the grieving respond? Some lash out angrily. Some babble foolishly. Some sink into…
William Lasser writes from the political science department of Clemson University to ask where the expression “Oy, gevalt!” comes from. This is a reasonable question, because the literal meaning of the Yiddish word gevalt (or gevald, as it is sometimes spelled) does not explain the expression. “Oy, gevalt!” (or just plain “Gevalt!”) has the sense…
WASHINGTON — As the Department of Justice intensifies its investigation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Jewish communal leaders fear that the goal of the probe is to compel the powerful lobbying organization to register as a “foreign agent” representing the government of another country. Widely regarded as one of the most influential organizations…
Like Chinese food and pickles, seltzer –– an effervescent spirit that has inspired dreams of cures for such diverse ailments as scurvy and indigestion –– is often associated with Jews. An ad for an at-home seltzer maker touts its product as part of the history of Jewish ingenuity: “Matzo, circa 1440 B.C. — Chicken Soup,…
In a story bringing together dissidents of all stripes — rabbinic, refusenik and sybaritic — a spirited band of synagogue-goers finds itself out of favor, following a recent visit by Natan Sharansky. A onetime Soviet dissident and the current Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Sharansky spent the Sabbath beginning December 3 at the Hebrew Institute…
Here is how the Talmud describes the life span of a man: At five years the age is reached for the study of Bible, at ten for the study of Mishnah, at thirteen for the fulfillment of the commandments, at fifteen for the study of Talmud, at eighteen for marriage, at twenty for seeking a…
