In a break from its stance in recent years, the pro-Israel lobby is pursuing a hard-line agenda toward the Palestinian Authority at its annual conference, as 10,000 activists prepare to carry its message to Capitol Hill. The lobbying agenda of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee traditionally includes two elements over the past several years…
As we sit in a music classroom in an independent-assisted living facility in Silver Spring, Md., Jerome “Jack” Bluestein and I talk about Hitler. Or, more specifically, about the “Adolf Hitler” photo album that Bluestein has kept with him for the past 60-plus years. The book was known as a cigarette photo album because it…
After causing a stir by endorsing the 1967 borders as the basis for an Israeli–Palestinian peace agreement, President Obama on Sunday sought to reassure the pro-Israel community about his views regarding the future borders. In a speech, which at times received lengthy applause and at other times was met with silence, Obama provided clarifications to…
President Obama’s declaration affirming the significance of Israel’s 1967 borders in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is animated in no small part by the need to face the challenge of a looming UN General Assembly vote recognizing Palestine as an independent state, the White House has told Jewish leaders. In an off-the-record conference call after Obama’s May…
The recent departure of the high-profile president of Workers United after a tempestuous tenure has raised questions about whether the last of the historic garment unions can overcome the infighting in its recent past. With just 100,000 members, Workers United is now a small but costly affiliate of the massive Service Employees International Union, which…
Haley Tanner’s debut novel, “Vaclav & Lena” (Dial Press), is about love without questions, hesitation or limits. This love flourishes between two Russian-Jewish immigrant children in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn: Vaclav dreams of becoming a magician, like Houdini, and casting the fragile Lena as his assistant. Tragedy temporarily unhinges this plan, and when…
Shlomo Dubnov, an associate professor at University of California, San Diego, had an unusually busy schedule the first week of May. On Monday, he checked out the “Palestinian wall” erected on campus, then attended a pro-Palestinian spoken word performance and a lecture on “Palestine: Past, Present & Future.” Wednesday, it was a pro-Palestinian “Speak Out!”…
Update: On May 18, Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned his position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. On May 19, he was released on bail. PARIS — Just weeks ago, Dominique Strauss-Kahn worried aloud that his Jewish identity would be exploited during France’s upcoming presidential campaign. In what were to have been off-the-record meetings with…
Forget for a moment that John Demjanjuk is guilty. Forget what a German court has just concluded: that he was a camp guard at Sobibor between March and September 1943, when 28,060 mostly Polish Jews were murdered. Imagine instead that Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, 91, is an innocent, elderly man who has been hounded for 34 years…
A seemingly minor proposal buried in the Federal Register is sparking debate over the extent to which separation of religion and state should be maintained beyond American borders. At issue is an attempt by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to ease existing regulations to allow funding for the construction and upkeep of religious…
After her husband stepped on the glass, and she survived the chair dance at their wedding without falling off, Emily Brecher changed into a traditional red Chinese dress. “Then my husband and I knelt down before my parents and my Jewish in-laws at the tea ceremony,” Brecher recalled. “The dim sum hors d’oeuvres were a…
