Weeks before George Washington’s historic letter to the Jewish community goes on display at the National Museum of American Jewish History, President Obama received a copy of the document from a delegation of Orthodox rabbis and communal leaders visiting the White House. The letter, in which President Washington promises America would give “to bigotry no…
While Puerto Rican boxer Miguel Cotto’s fight against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. this past weekend in Las Vegas was clearly fair (Cotto lost in a unanimous decision), Rabbi Jason Miller is questioning whether it was completely kosher. Actually, the rabbi was concerned not about what went on in the ring, but rather about what Cotto was…
Jewish law takes a pretty liberal stance when it comes to birth control. Pretty much any rabbi will say it’s permissible for the sake of a woman’s physical, emotional or mental health, or the sake of a couple’s marriage, or the needs of a family. Furthermore, many rabbis consider oral contraceptives to be most preferable…
As the Times Square ball dropped, government and corporate sectors switched from their 2010 to 2011 budgets. In the mix, New York State, whose population makes up the largest kosher consumer market outside of Israel, has stripped the Division of Kosher Law Enforcement, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 11-employee division of the state Department…
Earlier this week, Sue Fishkoff wrote about watching a goat get slaughtered and people who only keep kosher on holidays. She is the author of “Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.” Her blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish…
Congressman Joe Sestak’s signature on what is now known as the Gaza-54 letter has been at the center of attacks launched against him by Republicans and right-wing groups as he campaigns now for the Senate in Pennsylvania. The letter, signed by 54 Democratic members of Congress, called for an easing of Israel’s blockade of the…
Pundits on the right were quick to celebrate the first casualty of the war between the dovish J Street and the hawkish Emergency Committee for Israel, but it is not clear that Joe Sestak did indeed retract his support for J Street’s congressional letter calling for easing the Gaza blockade. Sestak has been the prime…
An article in today’s Forward explains why Jewish groups are up in arms about a judge’s injunction to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The judge’s ruling interpreted the Dickey-Wicker amendment—a law that prohibits federal funding of research that harms or destroys human embryos—to include all research involving embryonic stem cells, which are obtained…
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