Esther Leah Ritz, the first female president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and a prominent figure in Jewish philanthropic and liberal causes for decades, died in a Milwaukee hospital last Friday at age 85. The cause of death was pneumonia. At various times Ritz was president of the Jewish Community Centers Association, chair of Friends…
BELGRADE, Serbia — A firestorm of commentary has broken out in the Serbian media, stoked by a former president of the Bosnian Jewish community who is raising an alarm over the desecration of a historic Jewish cemetery in the city of Nis. Ivan Ceresnjes, who served as president of the Jewish community in Sarajevo during…
Saddam Hussein’s capture is cause for rejoicing. Finally the specter of this brutal dictator has been lifted from the Iraqi people, their neighbors and the world. Few men have more blood on their hands or are more deserving of trial and punishment. By carefully presenting and condemning his atrocities in a court of law, we…
Candidate Contribution: The most recently declared presidential candidate — President Bush — surprised a New York area Jewish charity last week with a hefty contribution. Bush’s check was discovered in the mail Friday by the executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, William Rapfogel, who was opening envelopes with contributions for the group’s…
Israel’s president is calling on Israeli citizens to find ways of donating to Iranian relief indirectly through international humanitarian organizations, despite Iran’s rejection of aid from the Jewish state. “I am sorry about the decision of the rulers of Iran to reject the humanitarian good will of the citizens of Israel,” said the Iranian-born Moshe…
Bye-bye, bounce. Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, riding a wave of press attention after Al Gore’s endorsement of Howard Dean brought sympathy and the capture of Saddam Hussein bolstered his pro-war stance, has been positioning himself as the “anti-Dean,” the “clear choice” for those dissatisfied with the front-runner. But polls show that Lieberman, far from gaining…
Herbert Hoover, the Republican president of the United States during the beginning of the Great Depression, seems to have set a style of coping with economic disaster that is now being copied by our modern “Hoovers.” As the worst depression ever experienced in the United States deepened, Hoover decided that what was needed was to…
WASHINGTON — Encouraged by Libya’s surprise decision to abandon its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration has instructed its Middle East experts to seek ways of pressing for similar changes in Syria and Iran. Staffers at the State and Defense departments have been told to step up efforts to elicit change in…
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — A fierce religious turf battle exploded in South Florida last month, as a Christian missionary blitz drew fierce opposition from Jewish groups. As part of its “Behold Your God” campaign, several dozen Jews for Jesus activists spent two weeks in mid-December attempting to win over members of the 225,000-person Jewish community in…
American Jewish communal leaders are calling for an investigation into the activities of the World Zionist Organization, a Jerusalem-based confederation of Diaspora Zionist groups, following an Israeli news report alleging that the body was funneling money to illegal settlement outposts. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported on December 26 that Israeli government ministries were using the…
In the final pages of Orly Castel-Bloom’s novel “Human Parts,” a disabled and unemployed cab driver named Boaz Beit-Halahmi drives from his home in a Ramle slum to a medical clinic in Jerusalem. After months of ennui and privation, he has decided to seek a cure that might let him start supporting his household again….
