JERUSALEM — Malcolm Hoenlein is accustomed to being updated by Israeli officials about “the situation,” but he has never been as close to it as he was this week. Hoenlein, head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, personally witnessed his first suicide bombing up close, and was visibly shaken describing it…
On a cold night in early February, greater Philadelphia’s Akiba Hebrew Academy girls basketball team was struggling as it battled longtime rival Kimberton Waldorf School for first place of the Tri-County League. But then Miriam “Memmie” Lindemann got hot. A 5-foot-5 shooting guard, Lindemann stood with the ball at the top of the key, 20…
WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials remain confused and divided over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral disengagement plan, even after high-level talks with Israeli leaders last week. Three Bush advisers — White House aides Steven Hadley and Elliot Abrams, and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns — returned to Washington without a clear understanding of the…
In the book of Job, the title character asks, “Where can wisdom be found? Where is the source of understanding?” (Job 28:12). Not bad questions, all in all. Rabbi Tanhum ben Hanilai suggested that these questions refer to King Solomon, who spent so much of his life seeking wisdom. God rewards Solomon, explaining, “Since you…
WASHINGTON — A major initiative aimed at setting aside a string of conservative judicial decisions and restoring the protections in the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act is drawing strong support from national Jewish organizations. Seventeen Jewish groups — including the community’s leading women’s organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress…
When it comes to allies, the “sisterhood is the rabbi’s best friend,” or so the American Hebrew declared in 1928. The newspaper wasn’t kidding. For nearly a hundred years, voluntary organizations such as the sisterhood and the ladies auxiliary had kept the American Jewish community afloat; by the 1920s, such groups were poised to grow…
President Bush’s recess appointment last week of William Pryor to a federal judgeship is dividing Congress along partisan lines, but critics say that at least one Republican senator seems unwilling to take a firm stand on the issue. Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is refusing to voice support for…
hananya Weissman is sick of dating shtick. For the past year, the 25-year-old Yeshiva University rabbinical student has been gaining faithful adherents to End the Madness, his engine for changing the Modern Orthodox dating culture. When it comes to dating, Weissman and his supporters want it to become more acceptable for young singles to meet…
SAN FRANCISCO — Fresh off a historic meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, is gearing up for the final leg of his first primary challenge in more than a decade. In his quest for a 13th term, Lantos, a California Democrat, must defeat a pair of political…
Der Yiddish Vinkl received two of Stanley Siegelman’s inimitable witty poems written in reaction to current events. To prevent readers from misinterpreting the following poem as a snide Jewish poke at a Christian denomination, they are asked to read next week’s Vinkl as well, “Hooray, Hooray, der Rebbe iz Gey.” Oy Vey, Oy Vey, der…
BOSTON — Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz only showed up at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs plenum for about an hour-and-a-half, but during that time he managed to stir up about as much controversy as the other three days of the conference combined. Outside historic Faneuil Hall, where the JCPA convened to honor Dershowitz,…
