In this week?s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by columnist J.J. Goldberg and staff writer Paul Berger to discuss a recent pronouncement of an Israeli commission that the Israeli presence in the West Bank is not an occupation and the resulting international outcry. Then, summer interns Hannah Rubin and Simi Lampert give a preview…
One of the members of the Levy Committee on the legality of settlements in the territories has angrily rebuffed the protest letter against its final report sent to Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this week, accusing its signatories of “insulting” the Committee members, making “incorrect and ill-advised assumptions” and of providing ammunition to those seeking to…
In all my years of watching Jacques Cousteau’s undersea documentaries, I do not recall any reference to an ocean denizen known as a “Jewfish.” The species, however, is featured prominently in “Oceans and Other Worlds,” a fascinating exhibition of works by Brooklyn-born artist Stanley Meltzoff. The exhibit can be seen at the Society of Illustrators…
A “normal”-looking man carrying a fake Michigan driver’s license carried out the suicide bombing that killed seven people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the country’s interior minister said. Israel said Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants were to blame. The attack, carried out by a man wearing shorts and carrying a backpack, took place on…
Regardless of whether you have tried Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda, you likely have an opinion about it. With its grassy smell and vegetal flavor, it’s one of those foods — like licorice or Vegemite — that one either craves or despises with equal vigor. For some, it’s an essential part of the deli experience, with…
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community in Israel and one of the most well-known figures in the Haredi world, died Wednesday at the age of 102. Elyashiv died Wednesday at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he was hospitalized for several months due to heart, lungs and kidney complications. Since…
If you want to be buried in New Jersey, try dying early in the week. Jewish law requires speedy burial, but bans Saturday funerals. So a death late in the week often means a funeral on a Sunday. And in New Jersey, a Sunday funeral means extra burial fees of up to $500, even more…
Holding a thinly sliced piece of prosciutto between two of her fingers, Marina, my Italian host mother, declared, “Dai, provalo!” Come on, try it! It was my first night living in Italy for a semester abroad, and I arrived as a kosher-keeping vegetarian. I hadn’t eaten any meat, let alone pork, for nearly four years,…
When Ramsey Nijem strode cockily into the ring for a televised mixed-martial arts bout June 2011, the breakout star of the 13th season of the Ultimate Fighting Championship reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter,” was draped in a Palestinian flag, a tribute to his father’s homeland. The music blasting through the Las Vegas arena? “One Day,”…
Plans for a full-size replica of the Western Wall in Jerusalem are being drawn up in Wichita, Kan. But women who have had abortions — rather than Jews — are the target audience. The proposed replica is part of a monumental “International Pro-Life Memorial and National Life Center” being planned by evangelical activists in Wichita’s…
Recent media accounts of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s Orthodox community have highlighted the threat victims face from teachers, rabbis and yeshiva staff as perpetrators, and the special pressures — even intimidation — they face from community leaders not to report such cases to secular law enforcement. But a list of child sexual abuse cases…
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