I came to Odessa chasing a myth. I found it around midnight in a hookah bar on Sobornaya Square, where the music segued effortlessly from trip-hop to a medley of Hebrew songs, “Siman Tov U’Mazal Tov,” “Hava Nagila,” and then back to an electronic beat. Several days earlier and 300 miles north, in the Ukrainian…
After six decades of exempting ultra-Orthodox from the army, the Israeli government appears resolved to draft them. But the plan, widely popular among secular Israelis, may have unintended negative consequences for the tens of thousands of women serving in the military. The planned Haredi draft — a product of the recent deal that Israeli Prime…
Joseph Oppenheim’s iShop, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, looks more or less like any other computer store. Oppenheim sells laptops and iPads, and charges for Internet access at a few Web kiosks in the back. That Internet access, however, is heavily filtered. The porn site Playboy.com is blocked, but so is Yahoo! News. That’s…
“If you’ve been reading the papers lately, you realize I am pretty happy to be anywhere, particularly amongst such great friends,” said News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, the honoree at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust’s 16th annual Heritage Dinner, held on May 7. Roger Ailes, CEO of…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis talks with Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman about a growing sense that the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict may no longer be possible. Then, Josh is joined by opinion editor Gal Beckerman to discuss a new deal that may see ultra-Orthodox Jews serving in the Israel Defense Force…
Heightened media exposure of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox communities may breathe new life into a stymied proposal to extend the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases in New York State, the proposal’s proponents say. Sex abuse victims and their advocates hope that a flurry of high-profile news stories in The New…
A Pennsylvania congressman apologized for sending out a letter that called for Middle East peace negotiations between the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the comatose former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The office of U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, a Republican, said Tuesday that the letter to a constituent picking up language from an old…
Once seen as heresy, proposals for bypassing the Middle East peace process — or even jettisoning a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — are increasingly making their way into mainstream discourse while the peace process itself remains mired in a deep freeze. The spectrum of ideas now being voiced in prominent and respected political…
Who gets your vote when a kid who grew up in a local synagogue runs for U.S. Senate against an incumbent you supported in the last election? That’s the dilemma that Jewish Cleveland will face this November, when homegrown Jewish Republican Josh Mandel takes on incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in one of the highest-profile Senate…
An upcoming ultra-Orthodox mega-rally in New York about the dangers posed by the Internet has a promotional Twitter account. The event’s box office has an email address. Speeches will be live streamed. And one of the event’s organizers owns a Web marketing company specializing in search engine optimization. This isn’t your average anti-Internet demonstration. After…
Israel soccer captain Yossi Benayoun scored a crucial goal to power Arsenal into a third-place finish in the English Premier League and an automatic spot in the all-important Champions League for next season. The crafty midfielder tapped in the first goal after a blunder by West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Marton Fulop in the fourth minute…
