Writing in a recent column in The New Republic on the supposed linkage between the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Martin Peretz, remarks that “these issues have literally nothing to do with each other.” Although he is entitled to his judgment, the widespread use of the word “literally” in contemporary…
Reza Pahlavi does not see any contradiction between being the son of a king and a leading voice for democracy. On the contrary, said Pahlavi, the 42-year-old exiled son of the late shah of Iran, his name recognition can help fuel the growing tide of opposition to the mullahs who overthrew his father in 1979….
At the outset, the trinity of groups coordinating a new exhibit seems unique to our multiethnic, globalized society; the embassy of Spain, in cooperation with the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, is presenting an exhibit on Sephardic Jewish culture at the Washington National Cathedral. And yet such cooperation is indicative of medieval Spain’s unique…
Arabs To Visit Auschwitz Some 300 Israeli Arabs and Jews toured the former Jewish district of Krakow on Monday, beginning a visit that aims to help Muslims understand what Jews suffered in the Holocaust. The group of 150 Israeli-Arab intellectuals, athletes and businessmen, joined by as many Jews, were to spend the next two days…
Hadassah ladies are famous for many things: fundraising, love of Israel, hospitals and, last but not least, cookbook compiling. The first Hadassah cookbook came out in 1931, a product of the hard work of a chapter in Dorchester, Mass. It had an ochre cover and advertisements, but no illustrations. The dishes included such non-kosher fare…
Gabai’s father, Yosef, the chief Sephardic rabbi of northern Israel, had recently died, and she long had yearned to be a rabbi herself. But rabbinical school simply wasn’t an option for women in her family, which claims a lineage of Orthodox rabbis going back to the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. So Gabai put…
The first spice, according to the Bible, was found in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:12 we are told of the land known as Havilah, “and the gold of that land is pure: Bdellium and onyx stone are there.” Bdellium (it is, in case you’re wondering, the only word in the English language that…
Shot Seen ’Round the World: The most enduring image of the 32-month-long intifada is undoubtedly that of Mohammed Al-Dura, the 12-year-old boy who died in his father’s arms during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in Gaza. The footage of the firefight, shot by a French television cameraman, has become a touchstone…
Journalist Ruth Gruber and sex guru Ruth Westheimer — with doctorates, the “two Drs. Ruth” — took center stage at the May 12 women’s luncheon hosted by the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Following greetings by co-chairs Patti Kenner and Ann Oster, museum chairman Robert Morgenthau and director David Marwell, CBS…
The former chief Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel who was said to have authorized a controversial plan to build a memorial at a Nazi extermination camp in Poland is now saying he knows nothing about the plan. The American Jewish Committee and other organizers of the plan have been pointing for months to a letter written…
Stanley Siegelman of Great Neck, N.Y., is one of our most faithful readers. He is also a master of the wit and wisdom that distinguishes seykhl from ordinary intelligence. His special genius is Yiddish poetry, usually on current matters with a generous dose of biting commentary. His latest contribution is this piece about Senator Joseph…
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