A former secretary of state noted for his strained relations with Israel and American Jewry is back in the thick of Middle East affairs — just in time to throw a wrench into the 2004 election. Last week, President Bush tapped James Baker III, a Texas oil man, longtime family friend and political fixer who…
Ten years ago, when his native Bosnia was wracked by bloody ethnic warfare, Muhamed Sacirbey was able to fly from New York to Sarajevo and back without a moment’s fear. Today the war is over, yet Sacirbey, a former Bosnian foreign minister, is scared to go home. Once the Balkan nation’s most visible spokesman, Sacirbey…
A “Salute to Musical Theatre,” performed at the Rainbow Room by Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald, Ann Reinking, Roy Scheider, Michael Smith and the superb Boys Choir of Harlem enhanced the celebrity-studded November 17 “Stella by Starlight” gala to benefit the Stella Adler School of Acting. Ellen Adler announced that her mother’s Stella Adler/Clurman Archives are…
Yeshiva University, defending itself against a lawsuit by an Israeli religious academy with which it severed ties, is countersuing the Israeli school, alleging that it “utterly refused to protect” Y.U.’s exchange students from a rabbi affiliated with the academy. The Israeli school, Derech Etz Chaim yeshiva in Jerusalem, accused the university in a federal suit…
JERUSALEM — The Reform and Conservative movements appeared to win a small victory against Israel’s Orthodox religious establishment this week when a representative of the Israel Prison Service said a Conservative rabbi would be granted permission to meet with two lesbian inmates. While attorneys working on behalf of the Conservative rabbi said they had not…
My oldest friend has chosen to be a stay-at-home mom. I respect the choice she has made. What I cannot tolerate is that her children now seem to be her only topic of conversation. I dread talking to her. Is there a nice way to say, “You’ve turned into a colossal bore”? — Talking points…
WASHINGTON — Distrust and anger in the Bush administration is growing over the refusal of Prime Minister Sharon to dismantle illegal outposts in the West Bank. Administration officials recently told pro-Israel activists in Washington that Sharon’s failure to dismantle these mini-settlements — some of them uninhabited and all of them erected without Israeli government approval…
JERUSALEM — A film alleging Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian town of Jenin has sparked an emotional legal debate over the limits of free speech and government censorship. The Israeli Supreme Court has already issued two rulings — first permitting screenings of the 50-minute film “Jenin, Jenin,” then putting that decision on hold. The court…
Most traditional Yiddish lullabies are intended to do much more than rock a child to sleep. As often as not, they are commentaries on the state of the world in which the child will someday find himself or herself. One such lullaby appears in Yosl and Chana Mlotek’s compilation, “Songs of Generations.” It is a…
The American ambassador in Beirut urged Jessica Stern not to proceed with her mission, but that did not deter her. She made a phone call to her husband in Boston, telling him that if she did not call later that day, he should consider alerting the embassy about her disappearance. Then, she set off to…
The Israeli Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the son of Prime Minister Sharon must surrender documents linked to a fundraising scandal that some observers have said could eventually bring down the Israeli leader. Justices Theodor Or, Eliyahu Mazza, Michael Cheshin, Dorit Beinisch and Edmond Levy ruled that Gilad Sharon must hand the documents over to…
