TORONTO — Canadian Jewish leaders are seeking federal and provincial government support to help offset dramatically rising security expenses burdening the Jewish community. The demand comes amid what is arguably the worst spate of antisemitic vandalism ever seen in Canada. A firebombing destroyed the library at United Talmud Torah school in Montreal on the eve…
SYDNEY, Australia — A job title like “Treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Israel” may sound prestigious in New York, but in remote New Zealand it seems to conjure up a shadier image — moneyman, perhaps for a covert organization. Small wonder, then, that Shai Hermesh, whose official Israeli passport carries just that title, recently…
The man holding the antisemitic sign at this month’s May Day rally in front of the Kremlin could not have been more than 25 years old. The placard depicted a hook-nosed Jew riding a donkey tattooed with the word “goy,” holding two carrots labeled “capitalism” and “democracy” in front of the donkey’s face. The sign…
The stem-cell debate has started again in earnest. Last month, more than 200 congressmen sent a letter to President Bush demanding more federal funding for more embryonic stem-cell lines. Last week, Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, responded by explaining the great scientific progress we have made under the current policy, while…
A leading Israeli politician expressed confidence that relations between India and Israel would remain on a sound footing despite the change of government in Delhi. “I very much hope that the strong contacts we have with India will not be harmed [as a result of the change in government in India] because they are based…
In one of the most expensive House races in the country, the lone Jew in Texas’s congressional delegation is lashing out at his opponent by linking him to an anti-immigration group producing racially charged ads, and to conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who has compared the estate tax to the Holocaust. The goal for Rep….
I had to go to the dictionary the other day when I received a book with the title of “These Are the Names: Studies in Jewish Onomastics.” “Onomastics,” it turns out (from Greek onoma, “name”), is “the study of the origin of names.” Published by Bar-Ilan University Press in Israel, “These Are the Names” is…
WASHINGTON – With 5,000 cheering Jewish citizen-lobbyists serving as both an audience and a potential prize, President Bush and Israel’s Prime Minister Sharon engaged in a dramatic round of diplomatic shadow-boxing this week, each seeking to dictate to the other the pace of upcoming Middle East peace moves. The arena for the sparring was the…
Over centuries, Passover has had many meanings for many different people. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, proposed that the seal of the United States should be a design depicting the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. One of the most famous Negro spirituals calls upon Moses to “go down to Egypt land and tell old Pharaoh to…
TEL AVIV — Prior to Wednesday’s strike against Palestinian demonstrators, senior Israeli military officers were expressing confidence that they would have the freedom to finish their mission in Gaza without intervention from Washington, D.C. As pressure and outrage mounted from European and Arab governments, American officials and even from Israeli opposition leaders, that confidence appeared…
SKOKIE, Ill. — Sitting in this northern suburb of Chicago, the Lieberman Geriatric Centre is part of a long Jewish tradition of caring for the neediest elderly members of the community. A total of 135 of the institution’s 240 coveted nursing home beds are filled by patients on Medicaid, the government health insurance for low-income…
