Food Fight: Here’s a delicious piece of opposition research that crossed our desk: A campaign that does not want to be identified was hoping — tongue in cheek, of course — that it could get someone to slice into former Vermont governor Howard Dean for an old position he took on a Jewish hole-y matter….
Once again, Der Vinkl is pleased and proud to present another of Stanley Siegelman’s ever-entertaining and enchanting poems. This time, his work was inspired by the announcement that Han Sung-Joo, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, was named as South Korea’s ambassador to the United States. Homonym, Shmononym: A Joo-Ish Mayse A…
JERUSALEM — With 4,000 delegates from North America and another 2,000 from Israel, this week’s General Assembly of Jewish philanthropic federations was the largest in history. The numbers tell the tale: 14 hotels in Jerusalem were fully booked, totaling 40,000 hotel nights. Some $15 million was injected into the Israeli economy, including $3 million spent…
The majority of children’s books are vomitous. They involve wishy-washy pale illustrations, cloying moral lessons and excessive use of the word “bunny.” So thank the richly colored heavens for Maira Kalman, a children’s book author who’s always a funny and astringent antidote to too much pastel goo-goo sugariness. And you don’t have to be a…
JERUSALEM — It happens every year: Leaders of Jewish communal federations across North America gather in a different city to see old friends and meet new ones, to hear speakers on the hot topics facing Jews in their community and worldwide. Some issues are perennial and some problems persist, but this year, because the General…
Some 500 guests at the November 2 American Friends of Rabin Medical Center gala at the Waldorf-Astoria were treated to a Russian-accented “God Bless America” by diva Elena Bokorova; a sublime “Hatikvah” by Israeli-born opera star Hadar Halevy De Vito and a bravura “Star-Spangled Banner” by Metropolitan Opera great Sherill Milnes. They chuckled at master…
Laurence Tisch, the hotelier, corporate empire builder and champion of Jewish and general philanthropy, died of complications from cancer November 15 at the eponymous Tisch Hospital of the New York University Medical Center. He was 80. A self-made billionaire, Tisch built a sprawling business conglomerate with his brother Preston that included hotels, movie theaters, insurance,…
My fiance and I both are the products of divorce. Our mothers are each contributing to our wedding, but we are paying 75% of the cost on our own. We decided that the invitation should read “together with our families” we invite you to join us at our wedding. My future mother-in-law was outraged by…
This year, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 27. Or so they would have you believe. With life as complicated as it is, and everything from DVD players to the Internet being “wireless,” doesn’t it stand to reason that holidays can be portable too? Holidays, especially Thanksgiving, are usually happy, food-filled marks of a specific time…
Following are excerpts from a round-table discussion among four former directors of Israel’s Shin Bet General Security Service, published November 14 by Yediot Aharonot. The participants: Avraham Shalom (director 1980-1986), Yaakov Peri (1988-1995), Carmi Gillon (1995-96) and Ami Ayalon (1996-2000). All rose through the ranks, except Ayalon, a former Navy commander. The meeting was moderated…
HIRSCH: Setting the scenes. Growing up in postwar England as the son of German-Jewish refugees wasn’t always easy for Robin Hirsch. He remembers standing in line at the school cafeteria at the age of 6 with his fellow students, when his best friend — of all people — proclaimed, “Hirsch is a Nazi. I’ve been…
