Moderate Arab countries are growing increasingly concerned that the Palestinian Authority may collapse, according to diplomats and observers. Countries such as Egypt and Jordan openly worry that the demise of the P.A., coupled with the perceived American disengagement in an election year and the Israeli government preparing to take unilateral steps in the territories, could…
I began my pilgrimage in Prague, the city in which I now live, evoked by Paul Celan in his poem “In Prague”: bone-Hebrew ground into sperm ran through the hourglass through which we swam, two dreams now, chiming against time, in the squares. In this poem I find an extended metaphor for Jewish survival —…
Mired in controversy over Iraq contracts, the giant oil services company Halliburton is being scrutinized over its business dealings in Iran and is now reportedly the subject of a French corruption investigation that could lead to charges against its former CEO, Vice President Dick Cheney. An investigative judge in France, Renaud van Ruymbeke, is looking…
Jews for Joe!: Confounding the fears of many, including the candidate, Jewish voters in the states that voted February 3 did support Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman in greater percentages than did non-Jews. In the end, however, that did not provide much help for Lieberman, who ended his centrist bid for the presidency Tuesday. According to…
Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? By William G. Dever Eerdmans, 280 pages, $25. —– Both Jews and Christians, brought up in their respective religious traditions, might be surprised by the title of this new book by William Dever, a veteran Near Eastern archeologist. They read the Hebrew Bible, which…
TEL AVIV — Israel’s political establishment began preparing itself this week for a major political shake-up in the wake of Prime Minister Sharon’s detailing of his “disengagement plan” for Gaza and the West Bank. The plan, first disclosed Monday in an interview in the daily Ha’aretz, was far more detailed than any withdrawal plan Sharon…
Both the depth and distribution of Jewish poverty in New York City has increased during the past decade, according to a new study. The study found that nearly 60% of Jews living in Brooklyn’s heavily ultra-Orthodox Williamsburg neighborhood live in poverty. More surprising to some observers is the finding that the number of poor has…
Today’s health care system is no laughing matter. Greg LaGana and Barry Levy are two singing doctors concerned about managed care, reduced insurance coverage, hospital mergers and an almost complete disregard for prevention. The two doctors are so concerned, in fact, that they wrote “Damaged Care: The Musical Comedy About Health Care in America,” a…
It reads like a warped novel of murder and betrayal: A Jewish man in a French jail awaiting extradition to the United States. A wife held on $1 million bail. Parents committing double-suicide over a family disgrace. But for the Goldman, Sapiro and Zonis families, the story is all too real. Paul Goldman, a 39-year-old…
ARIZONA “Stories Untold: Jewish Pioneer Women, 1850-1910”: TREX: the Traveling Exhibitions Program of the Museum of New Mexico is circulating this exhibition, which is composed of nine large works telling the stories of Jewish pioneer women as they made their way across the Great Plains and settled in the West. Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum of…
With state after state releasing dismal budget projections for the coming fiscal year, Jewish social service providers are bracing for cutbacks and further economic hardships. State governments provide anywhere from 10% to 60% of the funding to Jewish agencies nationwide that care for the most vulnerable segments of the population, including nursing homes, employment services,…
