When a Hebrew expression that was unknown in the English language 20 years ago appears not once but twice in a column by Thomas Friedman about the war on Iraq, on the editorial page of The New York Times, that’s a linguistic success story. The expression is tikkun olam (pronounced “tee-KOON oh-LAHM”), and I don’t…
Campus Incidents Up The Anti-Defamation League released its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents this week, showing that antisemitic incidents on college campuses totaled 106 in 2002, an increase of 24% over the previous year. Overall, the audit showed a slight increase in activity over the previous year, with 1,559 anti-Jewish incidents reported in 2002, up…
If I stood with my heels together, distributed my weight evenly and curved my arms slightly at my sides with my palms facing backward, I would be starting to shape myself in the tai chi equivalent form of an aleph, the first letter of my Hebrew name. I would also be practicing Otiyot Khayyot, or…
WASHINGTON — Republican outreach efforts to the American-Muslim community during recent years have yielded considerable fruit that is not likely to be undercut by the war in Iraq, according to the GOP activist most closely identified with that outreach, Grover Norquist. The reason, Norquist said in an interview with the Forward, is that ethnic and…
MC Cain and MC Abel, unlike their biblical namesakes, get along famously. The young MCs, aka Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion, have a two-man show, “Job: The Hip-Hop Musical,” which makes its New York premiere March 30 at the Here Arts Center, after becoming a favorite of the Saint-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival and touring Canada…
WASHINGTON — The war against Iraq is dramatically eroding President Bush’s support among Arab Americans and Muslim Americans and could weaken his 2004 reelection prospects in states with sizeable Arab- and Muslim-American immigrant populations, such as Michigan and Florida, some experts say. “I have told the White House and people in the Republican Party that…
After decades in show business, Tovah Feldshuh may be ready to answer a question the Bard long ago posed: What’s in a name? The award-winning actress — currently portraying Golda Meir off-Broadway in William Gibson’s “Golda’s Balcony,” which opened this week at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater — was born not Tovah, but Terry Sue. She…
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military is anxiously awaiting Saddam Hussein’s last stand in Baghdad, fearing that the Iraqi president may decide to attack Israel in an ultimate act of do-or-die desperation. But while the military is wary of the war’s last days, Prime Minister Sharon appears more preoccupied with the days that will follow. Sharon…
“The Pianist,” a film about one Jew’s survival in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation, scored a major upset when it won three Oscars on March 23. The film, adapted from a memoir by Wladyslaw Szpilman, garnered Academy Awards for director Roman Polanski, lead actor Adrien Brody and screenwriter Ronald Harwood. Another Holocaust-related film, “Nowhere in…
In November 1998, then-Texas governor George W. Bush did something very unusual, at least for him: He traveled abroad. Together with fellow governors Paul Celucci of Massachusetts, Mike Leavitt of Utah and Marc Racicot of Montana, all Republicans, Bush spent three days in Israel as a guest of the National Jewish Coalition, currently known as…
No matter one’s politics, the seemingly inexorable trajectory of world events has engulfed us all of late. Those opposing a U.S. assault upon Iraq have felt particularly powerless. Even those supportive of military engagement can hardly feel sanguine about the unpredictable series of events that will play themselves out in upcoming weeks and months. March…
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