American Jewry’s large centrist and liberal groups are seeking to radically reform the community’s main umbrella organization, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. This new effort is the biggest fallout yet from the Presidents Conference’s controversial decision to reject the membership bid of J Street, the dovish Israel lobby. In a May…
(JTA) — When the 92nd Street Y announced last week that it had hired a new executive director, Crain’s New York Business went with an eye-catching headline. “It’s a goy! 92nd St. Y picks first non-Jewish chief.” The announcement that Henry Timms would lead the famed Upper East Side cultural center represented the culmination of…
(JTA) — The vote is over, but the debate rages on over the recent rejection of J Street’s application to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Depending on where you stand, the 22-17 vote rejecting the application was either about J Street’s own missteps or the conference’s failure to live up…
(JTA) — Sure, the news from the city of Detroit seems endlessly grim: bankruptcy, crime and so forth. But the metro area, whose northwest suburbs host a panoply of Jewish amenities, is the most affordable place in the United States to raise a “committed Jewish family,” at least according to one graduate student’s admittedly “back-of-the-napkin”…
A lot has changed for Baltimore’s Northwest Orthodox community since 1969. For one, it’s grown from a tight colony of a few hundred families to tens of thousands of residents. It’s also drifted northward as small synagogues have sprouted up and down the community’s streets. But people still remember. The store near the corner of…
In court in April, William Rapfogel wore a huge black yarmulke and a grim expression as he admitted to stealing more than $1 million from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the major New York charity he ran for two decades. Rapfogel’s future is clear: The 59-year-old, once among New York’s most powerful political figures,…
For more than 1,000 young Jews assembled in Moscow at the end of April, it was just another successful event in a chain of gatherings that has become a magnet for Russian-speaking Jews around the world. But this year’s Limmud FSU meeting also marked a change: The food served was all kosher for the first…
Koala bears, kangaroos, blockbuster beaches, food festivals, mouthwatering honey and exceptional wine: customary expectations on a visit to Tasmania — but Jews? On Australia’s largest island, a triangular land of exotic woods and quaint cities, I encountered a history of remarkable Jewish life and the two oldest synagogues in Australia, each dating from 1845. The…
One day after American Jewry’s pro-Israel umbrella group rejected its bid for admission, J Street, the dovish lobby, posted a tongue-in-cheek thank you note on its website. “Thank you,” the letter said, “for finally making it clear that the Conference of Presidents is not representative of the voice of the Jewish community.” The letter, addressed…
Few people are envious of Mrs. Donald Sterling this week, despite her claim on half of her estranged husband’s estimated $1.8 billion fortune. Born Rochelle Stein, 80-year-old Shelly Sterling remains something of an enigma. Is she simply another in a long line of the L.A. Clippers owner’s victims? Or has she played a role, as…
The dovish group J Street has lost its bid to gain admission to the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations by an unexpectedly wide margin. In a secret ballot vote held Wednesday evening at the Conference offices in New York, J Street failed to come close to winning the two-thirds majority of participating members…
