WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of ecstatic Palestinians looked to the Jenin sky, some with tears of joy, to follow the two Russian-made helicopters, donated by Egypt to Yasser Arafat, as they whirled the dust of the West Bank town and landed in an empty lot. It was November 2, 1995, exactly nine years before…
Aaron Lansky After spending a quarter-century rescuing Yiddish books from Dumpsters, clueless grandchildren and collapsing buildings, Aaron Lansky produced a book of his own this fall, titled “Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Books.” In it Lansky, 49, recounts the dramatic rise of his National Yiddish Book Center from…
Israel and the Vatican are nearing a comprehensive agreement on a range of issues after a decade of arduous negotiations, according to Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See. Oded Ben Hur told reporters on Monday that he was expecting both sides to conclude their talks toward the end of the year or in the first…
LYNN SCHUSTERMAN AND MICHAEL STEINHARDT These two philanthropic giants, Jewish charity’s premier practitioners of so-called venture philanthropy, have joined forces in a slew of initiatives in Jewish education and synagogue renewal in recent years. Yet they’re different enough to merit their own entries. Steinhardt, 64, who made his fortune managing his own hedge fund, is…
Admitting that its relationship with Israel has grown estranged and must be re-configured, the Reconstructionist movement in America plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its national synagogue body this week with the expected approval of an ambitious plan to become a greater political and religious force inside the Jewish State, the Forward has learned….
An e-mail correspondent who signs as “Will” has the following query: In Samuel Beckett’s novel “Molloy,” there is a character known as Youdi who has godlike features, much like Godot in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” What do you make of this? Will addresses this question to a Jewish language columnist, one assumes, because of the…
JERUSALEM — An angry e-mail message sent by a leading Conservative rabbi to his movement, in which he slammed it for refusing entry to a worshiper during Rosh Hashanah services in Jerusalem, has now generated a repentant retraction. Rabbi Daniel Gordis, the director of the prestigious Mandel Jerusalem Fellows program, who wrote the letter, recently…
Yiddish songs and poetry cover the gamut of human emotions, from moaning and groaning to dancing and prancing, and all that falls between a sad tomorrow and days without sorrow. What follows is a poem by Soviet Jewish poet Yousef Kotlier (1908-1962) as it appears in transliterated form in “Songs of Generations” compiled by Eleanor…
Conservative Christian groups are stepping up their calls against Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Jewish Republican lawmaker in Washington, whom they are trying to prevent from assuming the chairmanship of the influential Senate Judiciary Committee. Specter, a moderate who recently won a fifth term, was instrumental in torpedoing the 1980s Supreme Court nomination…
PARIS — Americans were busy electing the leader of the free world this week, but French Jews had a different foreign dignitary on their minds: Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian leader arrived in France last week, after President Jacques Chirac eagerly accepted Arafat’s request for access to medical treatment. Chirac proudly framed the decision as an…
WASHINGTON — Tuesday’s Republican blitz triggered a wave of deep disappointment among Jewish organizational officials, who are openly worrying about the fate of their liberal domestic agenda now that the GOP has strengthened its control over the White House and Congress. In particular, several Jewish communal leaders bemoaned the defeat of Senate Minority Leader Tom…
