Three people who know knew Debbie Friedman, the prolific singer and performer who died on January 9, share their memories of her. Compiled by Debra Nussbaum Cohen. ?Debbie?s relationships were deep and intense, even with strangers. She once allowed me to take her to a doctor?s appointment, which, for those who knew her, meant she…
I am one of many individuals across our country?s social, cultural and political mosaic fortunate to know Gabby Giffords. The enormity of the attempted assassination is palpable, and I feel profound sorrow for Gabby and her family and all of those touched by a senseless act of violence. It is a deeply distressing moment for…
When do we stop being surprised by Sarah Palin and the strange things that emerge from her mouth? The latest is her invocation of the words “blood libel” in the course of a videotaped speech denouncing both the shooting of 20 people in Tucson, Arizona and the blame she has taken for contributing to violent…
Ben Warwick writes: ?After reading your article on italics, Rashi script immediately came to mind. In my yeshiva days, most of the m?farshim [biblical and talmudic commentators] were printed in it. I never really understood why it was used in the first place. As I understand it, Rashi never used it himself. Rather, it developed…
SACRED TREASURE: THE CAIRO GENIZAH By Rabbi Mark Glickman Jewish Lights Publishing, 288 pages, $24.99 IN ISHMAEL?S HOUSE: A HISTORY OF JEWS IN MUSLIM LANDS By Martin Gilbert Yale University Press, 448 pages, $35 By Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman It may not appear so at first blush, but Mark Glickman?s book about the Cairo Genizah is…
A typo transforms my cover letter into one aimed at an editor at Birch and I find myself wondering what kind of articles they publish there. Rebuttals of that famous Frost poem, perhaps, from the point of view of the trees getting swung upon. Praise-songs penned on curled bark and sent, ironed flat, via post….
December 2, 2010, marked the 30th anniversary of his death, but the French-Jewish novelist Romain Gary, born Roman Kacew in Vilnius in 1914, has never been more current. And as if to prove it, an insightful new biography, ?Romain Gary: A Tall Story? by David Bellos, appeared recently from Harvill Secker. Bellos, an expert translator…
In the shaping of his perspective as a conservative political commentator, Stanley Kurtz credits his Jewish upbringing and studies of Jewish history and the Tanakh in college. Kurtz engaged historical sources directly as he researched the controversial book he published this fall, “Radical-In-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism” (Threshold Editions), which…
The danger of the Knesset?s decision to set up a McCarthy-style committee for investigating Israeli human rights organizations was aptly summed up by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin. He warned that the inquiry would be a ?show trial? and stressed in a newspaper interview: ?We must stop this murky wave.? Regrettably, only two of Rivlin?s colleagues…
A few years ago I met with an Episcopal bishop to discuss his church?s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mainline Protestant denominations at the time were flirting with selective divestment from companies doing business with Israel. This bishop, in particular, was not known for his Zionist sympathies. He was highly disturbed that Palestinian farmers were…
As Shira Ruskay was dying of cancer in 1997, Debbie Friedman, whose concert schedule was crowded with gigs around the country, kept another, more intimate commitment in Manhattan, with unfailing regularity. ?Once a month we gathered with Debbie, and she uniquely wove together prayer and Torah,? recalled Ruskay?s husband, John Ruskay, executive vice president of…
