Marc Caplan teaches comparative literature at Indiana University Bloomington. Plutsemdiker Regn (Sudden Rain) By Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath Israel Book Publishing House, 128 pages, $15. * * *| The chasidic master Reb Borekh of Mezbizh once offered the parable of two strangers who, because neither of them knew the people around them, came to love one another….
Edwards Opportunity?: The surprising late surge of North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday makes the March 2 New York primary more interesting, but probably does not give Edwards the momentum he needs to take the Empire State, some local analysts said. Surveying the local landscape for where Edwards could harvest votes…
During her tenure as the director of the Yiddish language summer program at Columbia University, Adrienne Cooper was surprised to discover her students’ motivations for attending. “Some people were looking for a way of connecting themselves to Jewish history through the language,” she said. “They wanted to connect themselves to Eastern European working-class activism. They…
Former Israeli chief rabbi Avraham Shapira warned Tuesday night that any politicians who even considered “evacuating a flourishing part of the land and expelling Jews from their homes [would] lose their seat and power.” Shapira made his statement as several hundred rabbis convened in Jerusalem to denounce Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposal to remove settlements…
Shmerke Kaczerginski was a Jewish poet who died 50 years ago. To commemorate the anniversary, the Yiddish Forward devoted one of its columns last month, “Pearls of Yiddish Poetry” to his life and his works. What follows are fragments of his work cited in the Yiddish Forward. The transliteration is by Goldie Gold. The English…
Rabbi Samuel Lerer, who some say converted more people to Judaism than anyone in the past two centuries, died February 5 at age 89. Lerer, who had retired to San Antonio, Texas, lived in Mexico City from 1968 to 1999 while leading English-language Beth Israel Community Center in the capital. During that time, the Conservative…
My wife and I have been married for 28 years, and we have three teenagers. We are both in our late 40s. My wife could make herself look much more attractive and 10 years younger if she would color and style her gray hair and start wearing makeup and nail polish — like she did…
WASHINGTON — Faced with a deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian peace process and international pressure to demonstrate a commitment to resolving the conflict, the Bush administration is hoping to generate momentum — or at least the appearance of progress — with Israel’s unilateral separation initiative. “Instead of [the unilateral initiative] being a damage-producing process, the administration is trying…
Most of the congregants who trickled in for Saturday services on a recent morning in Evanston, Ill., were wearing spandex. Warming up from the sub-freezing weather outside, they rolled out their blue plastic mats in preparation for the first prayer. When Rabbi Andrea London began the morning blessing, everyone assumed the lotus position, with backs…
If Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suggested, no governmental vacuum would be formed, Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s national security advisor, said Tuesday in an unusual briefing with Israeli reporters. “We have a plan to handle the territory,” Rajoub said during the press conference, held…
Before agreeing to perform at next Monday’s “Up We Stand” benefit for the Israeli charity Atzum, the chasidic reggae artist Matisyahu hesitated. He usually asks his rabbi for permission before performances. For those pious people who may be wondering: Is it okay to laugh it up for Israel? Don’t worry about it. It’s for a…
