Dennis Ross, the Obama administration’s senior Middle East hand, is leaving his post in a move that may reflect a declining interest in the conflict as the 2012 election looms. Ross pointed to personal reasons for his resignation although many experts believe President Obama is backing away from active engagement in the Middle East as…
The White House can add one more senior staffer to its list of advisers with Jewish roots, and it is an unlikely name. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s senior adviser and assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement, disclosed her Jewish ancestry to a Jewish gathering on Monday. Speaking on behalf of the administration at the…
The White House released a comprehensive report today on the state of women in America, the first report of its kind in nearly 50 years. The information in the report isn’t new, but rather a compilation of a wide-range of studies that together provide an aerial view of the progress, and lack of progress, made…
A day after the seven-hour meeting between Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in New York, one of the Obama administration’s top Middle East hands, Dan Shapiro, was sent to brief Jewish leaders on where things stand. It was a classic Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell conference call this morning. It was billed…
In the tradition of Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, Nathan Diament, the director of the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs, will be sitting out an important event due to religious observance. Only this time, it’s not a baseball game, it’s a Ramadan feast — at the White House. Last year, Diament joined Israeli ambassador…
There’s nothing more unsettling than the public discussion of money, and how much or little of it one makes. Not long ago, competitive salary analysis among urban professionals was a brutal sport. The fangs of the once-well-paid have retracted in these tough times, though, as the employed are simply ecstatic to have a place to…
First, there’s a Seder in the White House. Then a dog named for a Torah portion? Given all the hubbub about the Obama’s new dog — a closely guarded secret that somehow was leaked over the weekend — it strikes some of us as more than curious to see the connection between the dog’s new…
What are your plans for Kislev 5769? People around the world are lighting the candles in a multitude of different ways, but always left to right, others have chosen to show communal solidarity on 28th and 29th Kislev by volunteering at hospitals and soup kitchens. President Bush celebrated Kislev by flying to Iraq and dodging…
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