America’s central network of Jewish charities has become embroiled in the ideological debate over Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan after the Israeli prime minister asked United Jewish Communities’ biggest beneficiary, the Jewish Agency for Israel, to help relocate settlers evacuated from Gaza. With key backing from American delegates, the Jewish Agency’s board of governors voted last…
WASHINGTON — The Anti-Defamation League last week issued an unusual retraction and apology for suggesting that Islam’s declaration of faith, the Shahada, is an “expression of hate” that is “closely identified” with terrorism. The ADL did not apologize, however, for suggesting that Muslim students at the University of California, Irvine, who wore stoles carrying their…
The Orthodox Union is preparing to require New York City restaurants under its supervision to filter their tap water, and to recommend that observant Jews in the city do the same. The decision results from the recent discovery of minuscule (and nonkosher) crustaceans called copepods in New York’s tap water. Significant controversy regarding the copepods…
Survivors’ Funds Released Before the end of August, $174 million will be released to Holocaust survivors by a German foundation set up to compensate slave laborers from the Holocaust era. A similar amount also will be released to non-Jewish survivors. The money comes from interest earned on the $5.5 billion original compensation settlement with German…
A newly released report on the state of world Jewry has revealed dramatic demographic trends — and prompted a vicious shouting match in the Israeli Cabinet, with government ministers calling each other antisemitic and racist. The abstract is a summary of a larger, 600-page study due out in the fall. It was issued last week…
Kenny Kramer wasn’t allowed to be himself. In the late 1980s, the stand-up comedian was living next door to Larry David, co-creator of television’s “Seinfeld,” which was then in the development stage. David saw infinite comic possibilities in his neighbor, who spent his time golfing, scheming, chomping cigars, falling head-first into money and having sex…
The New York State Legislature has passed legislation to protect kosher consumers from food products falsely advertised as kosher. The new law is intended to replace New York’s previous kosher law, which was struck down in the courts last year after being declared unconstitutional. New York is home to the country’s largest Jewish population, as…
An article on the front-page of the June 3 New York Times was scary. It notes that the Bush campaign is reaching out to thousands of churches around the country to involve them in distributing campaign fliers and registering voters on behalf of the president’s November run. The move makes history. It seems that at…
PARIS — President Bush’s latest tour of Europe, aimed at fence mending, instead has touched off another round of Franco-American feuding, with Bush and French President Jacques Chirac trading barbs over everything from NATO’s role in Iraq to Yasser Arafat’s role in Ramallah. For many observers here, however, the most telling exchange was over the…
American Orthodox leaders say they are struggling to stay out of the debates tearing at Israel’s religious community over Prime Minister Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan. Modern Orthodox groups in America traditionally look to Israel’s so-called national religious camp, embodied in the National Religious Party and the chief rabbinate, as primary counterparts in Israel. Like Israeli…
In a sign of the growing personal and emotional dimensions of the Swiss bank settlement, the federal judge overseeing the case, Edward Korman, fired off an unexpected attack at a prominent lawyer who has had little to do with the case, and who, even the judge called a “latecomer to the proceedings.” Korman filed a…
