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…
Prescription for Disaster: “While much of the nation has been following the deliberations in Congress over a Medicare drug benefit, a quiet revolution has been taking place in the way benefits are managed for the 200 million Americans who already have insurance for prescription drugs,” Cindy Parks Thomas announces in the December 4 issue of…
A night devoted to talking about peace took a violent turn, according to one man who says he was physically assaulted by The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Manhattan lawyer Harvey Schwartz says that Friedman hit and shoved him as the men were talking after the Israel Policy Forum’s annual dinner late in the…
Dreidels are widely acknowledged as a key element of a successful Chanukah. Still, most people can make do with one or two. Not Mickey Langsfeld though. He has accumulated a massive collection of dreidels made of everything from parchment to ivory. More than 100 of Langsfeld’s dreidels are currently on display at the Temple Judea…
Thanks to The Kabbalah Centre, various celebrities can be spotted donning red strings on their wrists that Jewish mystics say can ward off evil spirits. Apparently the threads, also known as bindles, do not work against the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent office has rejected an attempt by The Kabbalah Centre to…
several middle east countries are discussing ways to endorse the recent unofficial peace agreement known as the geneva understandings, according to an american scholar who played a key role in promoting a previous arab-backed peace initiative. Henry Siegman, a former head of the American Jewish Congress and longtime supporter of a two-state solution, told the…
There was more on display at the 1936 Berlin Olympics than just athleticism. For Adolf Hitler the Olympics provided a world stage to showcase Germany’s Nazi regime. The 1936 Games are the focus of the exhibit “The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936,” on display at the Holocaust Museum Houston. Using photographs, historical documents, propaganda posters and…
Minister Pushing Reform Israel’s interior minister, Avraham Poraz of the anti-clerical Shinui party, is planning to submit a sweeping reform of immigration and citizenship rules for Cabinet approval next week, according to a report in the daily Yediot Aharonot. The new rules would allow the granting of citizenship or permanent residency to tens of thousands…
One of the strange quirks of life in rural East Africa today is that while many communities lack electricity and running water, there are people with personal Web sites, e-mail and cellphones. And so it is that Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, an ethnomusicologist at Tufts University and the executive director of the university’s Hillel foundation, has…
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government is demanding a dramatically increased role in running the agency that administers Holocaust-era reparations and restitution payments, in what government leaders frankly acknowledged was an effort to direct a larger share of restitution funds toward Israel. In a blunt and sometimes confrontational meeting here last week between Israeli Cabinet ministers…
