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Laughing at Death
‘There are no online reviews for hospices,” I said to my 79-year-old brother shortly after he announced he was stopping dialysis. His decision meant this was the first day of the rest of his life, yet we both laughed. Jack had been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, complicated by serious heart and kidney problems….
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Ron Perelman Is a Mix of Tabloid Headlines and Chabad Charity
Ronald Perelman is in the news, and once again it is for his family’s trademark feuds, fueled by millions, many millions, of dollars. In the latest round, now on display at a New Jersey court, Perelman’s daughter is suing her uncle over her grandfather’s inheritance for more than $600 million. In the past decades, there…
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Jews Pay Emotional Tribute to Nelson Mandela, ‘Joseph’ of South Africa
Jewish South Africa paid an emotional tribute Sunday to Nelson Mandela — a man they dubbed the rainbow nation’s Joseph for overcoming apartheid to build a future based on reconciliation. Speaking to an overflow crowd of several thousand people in a Johannesburg suburb, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein recounted the Biblical story of Joseph, who overcame…
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German Hate Mail Comes From Surprisingly Well Educated Sources
Over the course of a decade, the letters poured into the Central Council of Jews in Germany like a river. “Is it possible that the excessive violence in Israel, including the murder of innocent children, corresponds to the long tradition of your people?” asked one. “For the last two thousand years, you have been robbing…
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Doctor Cannabis
“Also, one will beautify [Shabbat candle lighting] when the wick is made from cotton, flax or cannabis…” That’s right, cannabis. This dictate, found in the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), piqued the curiosity of Boston geriatrician Yosef Glassman when he was reading about Sabbath rituals on a religious quest nearly two decades ago. The…
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South African Jews Mourn Nelson Mandela, ‘Mensch’ of the Nation
South African Jews joined the rest of the nation and the world in mourning the death of Nelson Mandela Friday with prayers and memories of the iconic figure who led the country from apartheid to freedom. “You are talking about a person larger than life with so much compassion for every person in this country…
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Nelson Mandela, Iconic Leader for Jews of South Africa — and World
Nelson Mandela, who died December 5, has become a beloved icon for all of South Africa, and no less for its Jewish community. But until he became the first democratically elected president of South Africa, he had had no formal relationship with its organized Jewish community. That was because the formal structures of the community…
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Family Faults Obama Inaction as Alan Gross Marks Four Years in Cuban Prison
The chants of “Free Alan Gross!” were unlikely to reach the ears of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. But the gathering of several dozen activists outside the White House — on the fourth anniversary of the arrest of the Jewish American contractor in Cuba — highlighted a tactical shift in the movement for…
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American Studies Association Posts Terms of Israeli University Boycott
The American Studies Association posed the terms of a boycott of Israeli universities, although it had yet to announce a formal boycott. According to the Frequently Asked Question page posted on the ASA website, the boycott will not inhibit collaboration with individual Israeli academics. “The ASA understands boycott as limited to a refusal on the…
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Jews Bid Farewell to Bloomberg, With Powdered Sugar on their Lips
And on the sixth night of Hanukkah, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the Jews all the jelly donuts they could handle. Waiters bore the ponderous mounds of donuts into the event hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where 500 of the mayor’s guests were celebrating the last official Hanukkah party of the Bloomberg administration. It…
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A Poet’s Life Spanning Shtetl and Subway
Few of us will lead a life as full as my “shviger” (mother-in-law), Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman: a life that spanned an ocean with an unremitting creative urge and a sense of personal purpose that encompassed a universe. While it may appear that her tragedies outweighed her joys, she dazzled the world with her accomplishments and was…
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