This year during the High Holy Days, in addition to praying for the health of their families and the welfare of the State of Israel, the members of Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel in Boise, Idaho, prayed for the physical well-being of their synagogue. And with good reason: It is being uprooted, literally. The synagogue —…
EFRAT, West Bank — Meat cleaver in hand, Simcha Levy stands behind his counter in the Ish Efrat supermarket, preparing fresh chicken schnitzels for sale. He takes a piece and lays it on the counter, carefully trimming off the outer fat before cutting it in two and laying the two pieces side by side. Placing…
At 3 a.m. on a hot June morning, Rachel Zelon set off from Amman, Jordan, on a 14-hour drive to Baghdad. Refugees, reporters and commercial trucks were lined up at the border, waiting to enter Iraq — after months in which all traffic had streamed in the opposite direction. Once inside the border, the convoy…
In the Israeli writer Amos Oz’s autobiographical account of childhood and adolescence “A Tale Of Love And Darkness,” to be published in English translation this spring, Oz’s father, a Hebrew University librarian with a love for words and their etymologies, says at one point to his son, “And as for your [Hebrew word] gazoz,, it…
President Bush did not attend a fundraiser for Republican Philadelphia mayoral candidate Sam Katz, as reported in the October 10 article “War for Jewish Vote Seen in Philly Mayoral Race.” Rather, Bush praised Katz at the president’s own Pennsylvania fundraiser.
The phone rings in Maurice Sendak’s rural Connecticut home. “Listen to this,” says his friend Tony Kushner in a perfectly deadpan voice. “J.K. Rowling Admits the Right is Right. She says she is happy because ‘Harry is teaching children to leave Christianity and worship Satan’s sexual member.’” After a pause, the credulous Sendak replies, “Really?…
Strait Talk I: The Muslim world is fighting back against the West, one Mecca Cola at time. The French-produced, ethnically conscious soft drink was the beverage of choice at last week’s Organization of the Islamic Conference, the gathering of world Muslim leaders at which Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad charged Jews with ruling the world….
I know I’m supposed to make fun of Disneyland. I am an edgy, postmodern, anti-consumerist person of bohemia. It’s what we do. I know that Disney is a giant ultra-clean behemoth, controlling vast swaths of American culture through its television networks, sports teams, real estate holdings, shopping centers and cruise ships. I know its offerings…
Senator Backs Sephardim The chairman of the powerful Senate Republican Conference, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, is spearheading congressional efforts to seek redress for Jews displaced from Arab countries. The senator has joined other high-profile political figures signing up to back Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, a coalition of Jewish groups and diplomats charged…
This week is the beginning of the annual cycle of readings from the Torah. How are we to turn this material around in our minds, and assimilate it, in a manner that does not compromise either our respect for tradition or our contemporary sense of reason and morality? One traditional method of understanding the relevance…
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — A year ago Cynthia McKinney’s political stock hit rock bottom. The five-term Democratic congresswoman from Georgia suffered an embarrassing primary loss — never having recovered from her suggestion that the Bush administration had ignored warnings about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But since McKinney’s August 2002 defeat — which some…
