WASHINGTON — In response to negative reactions from the Bush administration, Israel is putting off attempts to sell the Arrow missile-defense systems to India. Pro-Israel lobbyists have recently raised the issue with senior officials at the State and Defense departments and congressional staffers, according to Jewish activists in Washington, as well as congressional and diplomatic…
Getting Ready for The High Holy Days Let the Song Be Your Guide: Cantor Janet Leuchter of Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue, leads a class titled “What Am I Doing in This Service: Music and Spirit During the Days of Awe.” Participants explore how music and words can serve as a guide on the…
When you spot your beau in the cafeteria, is he: A) Bullying the class nerd into “sharing” his dessert? B) Starting a food fight? C) Laughing at his table with friends? Or D) Sitting with the lonely new kid? If you answered “D,” you have “a godly guy”— at least in the opinion of Revolve,…
NEW DELHI — With Prime Minister Sharon this week becoming the first Israeli leader to visit India, a mantra has been chanted back and forth in Jerusalem and New Delhi: “India and Israel — two countries that share challenges and values, the only two democracies in their regions. Both countries face dictatorships that sponsor terror.”…
• Miriam Hoffman writes about her trip to Vilna via Helsinki. • Elisheva Cohen-Tsedek writes about her impressions of the latest mood in Israel. • Mikhail Krutikov reviews a new collection of essays by Arno Lustiger, a historian and writer living in Germany. • Chaim Beider greets Yekhiel Shraibman, a Bessarabian Yiddish writer, on his…
How do you say “home run” in Yiddish? Just ask the dozens of generation X- and Y-ers who were on the field for a hilke-pilke (softball) game during the annual Yidish-Vokh (Yiddish Week), from August 20 to August 26. Max Kellerman, 30, the boxing analyst and host of ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” took several days…
Happy 750th birthday, Vilnius, many happy returns of the day, and thanks for letting everyone share it all with you. Thanks for that memorable summer fest, that near-infinite parade glutting your newly refurbished main drag, Gedimino Prospekt (with a nice McDonald’s, complete with walk-through window); thanks for those three-plus hours of good-natured nationalistic/peasant nonsense, the…
God and Candidate I: It was hard not to miss the military symbolism in Senator John Kerry’s formal announcement of his candidacy for the presidency in front of the USS Yorktown at Mount Pleasant, S.C., Tuesday: kind of like being hit over the head with an aircraft carrier. What struck us about the event, though,…
“Technically, Alice, according to the Torah, it’s not adultery.” Alice yanks her elbow from his hand, walks down the synagogue steps, crosses the street to a park bench, sits. Bob follows, but as he sits beside her, Alice angles her body away. “Alice,” he says, touching her shoulder. She jerks free. “Carol’s Jewish,” he says,…
The U.S. Open tennis tournament now has a kosher food cart. Hot dogs, pretzels and knishes are among the items available at the cart run by Jeffrey Striks of Strictly Kosher, who also operates kosher food carts at New York Yankees and Mets baseball games, and at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Every evening during…
The bombing of the United Nations’ headquarters in Iraq opens up a new chapter in the strained relationship between the United States and the U.N. It began with the charge of the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein was violating a provision under a U.N. agreement that forbade his (Hussein’s) building weapons of mass destruction. The…
