CHICAGO — Waving American flags, more than 400 people gathered last Sunday in Chicago’s Warren Park, carrying signs that read “God Bless America.” At first glance, the scene was unremarkable in this time of rallies for and against the war. But there was something unusual about this crowd. Their Middle Eastern looks. The hand-lettered signs…
Violent hate crimes in France quadrupled in 2002 over the year before, rising to their highest level in a decade, according to a new report by the National Consulting Committee on Human Rights. More than half the assaults were aimed at Jews. A string of incidents have taken place in recent days, most notably the…
French champagne and canapés greeted arrivals at the March 19 “Sounds French: A Festival of New Music from France” reception at the Fifth Avenue headquarters of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services. The evening celebrated the month-long series of performances of works by French composers at New York City concert halls. “In view of the unfortunate…
LOS ANGELES — The most popular Saddam Hussein impersonator in Hollywood is putting his act on hold. A Sephardic Jew and pro-Israel activist, Jerry Haleva told the Los Angeles Times this week that the country was not in the mood for such antics. “We have a lot of brave people in harm’s way over there,…
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — At a time when most Jewish leaders in South Africa are keeping a low profile on the war in Iraq, a leading Jewish jurist has called the American-led coalition attack “unlawful under international law.” In interviews published Sunday in two major newspapers, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Independent, Judge…
Last month when my mother died I followed her wishes for a funeral with a minimum of fuss and religious ritual. I arranged for a graveside service with a Reform rabbi and requested that only immediate family attend. I was aghast when an Orthodox cousin whom I had not seen in 40 years showed up…
With a gentle voice, a doughy, pleasant face and a knit yarmulke atop thinning brown hair, Mitchell Ackerson is a sort of Every Man’s Rabbi. Except for the camouflage uniform, that is. The senior chaplain for the 220th Military Police Brigade and, incidentally, the senior rabbi of the army’s entire combat theater, Ackerson sat March…
JERUSALEM — Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that Israel is teetering on the edge of an economic abyss and desperately needs an emergency rescue plan. His critics counter that his proposed cure, a stiff austerity package mixed with hefty doses of tax-cutting and privatization, is worse than the illness and will ultimately plunge the country…
December, inaugurating the world’s first entirely kosher Caribbean cruise. While in recent years, more and more cruise ships have specialized in trips offering frozen glatt kosher food or a separate kosher dining room, Shollar’s Chosen Voyage is to be the first luxury ship to be made entirely kosher, from bow to stern. For five weeks…
Of Noteworthy Items in the Press Noam Echad: As a child, he summered at Camp Massad in the Poconos, where he organized Zionist youth groups and wooed his future wife with his fluency in Hebrew. He developed an analysis of modern Hebrew grammar for his undergraduate and master’s thesis. And he and his wife seriously…
The Jewish Agency for Israel is arguing that Israel’s new austerity plan would cut immigration absorption programs so drastically as to discourage aliya and prevent needy arrivals from ever leaving absorption centers. The chief complaint of new immigrants to Israel, or olim, and their advocates is the government’s plan to cease grants awarded to every…
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