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,…
President Ronald Reagan, who presided in the White House from 1981 to 1989, pursued an economic course that, in his time, was tagged “Reaganomics.” It was not an original invention of this Hollywood star, who used his theatrical talents to win the hearts of Americans. It was the eternal theme of conservatism not only in…
Hebrew National became the unchallenged king of the kosher meat industry by marketing its product to non-Jews with the help of several catchy advertising slogans, including the famous, “We answer to a higher authority.” But its success masked a bizarre twist: Most kosher consumers won’t eat the company‘s products. But with the departure of Hebrew…
Few Washington insiders seemed prepared last week to accept the claim that George Tenet was resigning from his post as CIA director for “personal reasons.” Tenet and his agency have been under fire in recent months from critics who say the CIA supplied false intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify last year’s invasion…
WASHINGTON — Though skeptical about the reliability of the political process in Jerusalem, the Bush administration and its international partners are pushing hard for implementation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan after it was approved Sunday by his Cabinet. The Bush administration reacted with guarded relief this week to the passage of Sharon’s plan…
The prison abuse scandal in Iraq could affect Supreme Court rulings in key pending terrorism-related cases, according to human rights advocates and lawyers involved with those cases. The cases pending before the Supreme Court include one filed on behalf of a dozen foreign detainees in the U.S. military facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, and two involving…
TEL AVIV — After weeks of struggle, Prime Minister Sharon finally and decisively launched his government this week toward his goal of disengaging from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. After considering the price paid and still to be paid — Sharon’s coalition in tatters, his Knesset majority gone, parties in turmoil, the plan…
PARIS — A teenage Jewish yeshiva student was stabbed and seriously wounded last Friday in a Paris suburb by a knife-wielding assailant shouting “Allahu akhbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” The teenager, Yisrael Yifrah, 17, was stabbed in the chest at approximately 4:00 p.m. on June 4 as he left a Jewish school, the Mekor…
It would be a travesty of justice and the truth to assume that the governments of the Middle East are blind or deaf to the needs of their own peoples, or that they are unaware of the need to pursue a long-term plan for sustained reform that would enrich and improve the quality of life…
WASHINGTON — After months of inaction, Jewish organizations are stepping up their efforts to call attention to the rising threat of a government-backed genocide in Sudan and to raise money for the country’s massive population of non-Arab Muslim refugees. The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, an umbrella organization of 40 Jewish associations that meets on…
If it weren’t for Mel Gibson, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich might have remained an obscure figure, unknown to everyone but select Catholic scholars and a cult of the devoted. But Gibson’s inclusion of some of the 18th-century nun’s antisemitic visions in his controversial blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” has placed her in a spotlight…
