A Treasury Department investigation into the activities of oil giant Halliburton in Iran is looking at potentially suspicious business contacts between Iran’s oil company and Halliburton at the time it was headed by Vice President Richard Cheney. According to documents dating from 1997 and 1998, a Dubai-based Halliburton subsidiary received at least a dozen tender…
WASHINGTON — As Israel prepares to withdraw from Gaza, the Bush administration is laying down a stiff series of expectations that could set the stage for a rocky few months between Washington and Jerusalem, pro-Israel activists say. President Bush expects Israel to start taking steps to rehabilitate Gaza’s shattered economy by setting up mechanisms to…
During the last decade, Swiss, German, Austrian and French companies and their governments paid some $8 billion to Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Third Reich, disgorged thousands of dormant bank accounts, finally honored prewar insurance policies and returned confiscated property and artwork. The Europeans paid reparations for their conduct during World War II, and…
This is the first in a series about the progress of the Lubavitch movement since the death of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the charismatic head of the Lubavitch chasidic movement, died 10 years ago this week, leaving both followers and observers wondering about the future of the highly successful religious organization….
WASHINGTON — Opposition from a growing coalition of national civil rights organizations, as well as a tight legislative schedule in Congress, appear to be damaging the chances for approval of a religious freedom bill that is a top priority for Jewish groups, congressional aides and Jewish activists say. The bill, the Workers Religious Freedom Act,…
Stefan Schlueter’s effort to heal Germany’s wounded past extends even to the linguistic level. When speaking about Germans today, he carefully uses the phrases “non-Jewish Germans” and “Jewish Germans” to emphasize that both are a part of the German community. “It would give Hitler a small victory to think of Jews and Germans as separate…
Rabbi Settles Case The senior rabbi of the Temple of Aaron in St. Paul, Minn., settled a lawsuit alleging that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a woman he was counseling. However, he has retracted his decision to resign from the Conservative synagogue. “Right now he’s reweighing his options, but is frankly overwhelmed by favorable…
WASHINGTON — Vowing to break the religious right’s monopoly in harnessing religion to politics, hundreds of liberal activists — Christians, Jews, Muslims and others — convened in Washington last week for what they hope will be the kickoff of a new movement rooted in an historic tradition of religion-inspired American liberalism. “We are not here…
The Social Security system upon which millions of retired Americans depend for their daily bread is in danger. And it is not due to any inherent faults within the system itself. Indeed, the Social Security system is, by far, the most successful profit-making operation that Uncle Sam ever has run. Created in 1935, the system…
TEL AVIV — For months, the Israeli public and the political system waited anxiously for the announcement of Attorney General Menachem Mazouz on whether he was going to press bribery charges against Prime Minister Sharon. Sharon’s security plans, the composition of his coalition and his own political future hung in the balance. When Mazouz finally…
Ordinarily the Hebrew vowel signs are not headline material, but they made the front page of the newspaper Ha’aretz on June 4. The subject was a proposed spelling reform put forth by Dr. Mordecai Mishor, a member of the Language Committee of the Hebrew Language Academy — and although Dr. Mishor’s proposal will not lead…
