Craig Breslow is the Boston Red Sox nominee for the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award for his charitable works. (JTA) — When Craig Breslow entered Saturday night’s playoff game against the Detroit Tigers, FOX broadcaster Tim McCarver hailed the Boston Red Sox reliever — a Yale University graduate with a double major in molecular biophysics and biochemistry — as the smartest player in Major League Baseball. But with… Read more »
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, shown here at the National Tennis Center on Aug. 26, 2013, was named the first winner of the Genesis Prize. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) — In August, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told New York magazine, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?” Today, the Russian billionaires — or at least some Jewish ones — returned the compliment, naming Bloomberg the first… Read more »
With Boston back in the World Series, Red Sox marketing guru Adam Grossman doesn't mind the longer work days or shorter preparation time for next season. (Billie Weiss for the Boston Red Sox) (JTA) — You’d think Adam Grossman has a pretty easy job. After all, with the Boston Red Sox owning one of the most iconic brands in professional sports and gunning for their third World Series title in the past decade, how hard could it be to put fans in… Read more »
KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — The police station on Stefan Bandera Street in Lviv used to be just another government building to Dmitry Flekman. But that changed earlier this month following a nine-hour interrogation by two detectives, who were accused of torturing and humiliating the 29-year-old Jewish businessman. It’s an… Read more »
Yekaterinburg Mayor Yevgeny Roizman meeting with a constituent in his office, Oct. 17, 2013. (Cnaan Liphshiz) YEKATERINBURG, Russia (JTA) — Growing up in one of the Soviet Union’s richest cities, Elena Chudnovskaya never imagined that she would be raising her daughter in a place so full of drug addicts that “the flowerbeds became strewn with syringes.” But that is what became of her downtown apartment… Read more »
Former Saudi ambassador Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud confers with Israeli strategic affairs analyst Yossi Alpher at the National Iranian American Council conference in Washington, Oct. 15, 2013. (NIAC) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping the enemy of one’s enemy truly does become a friend. In recent years, Netanyahu has said the enmity for Iran shared by Israel and the Arab states could become a spur to regional reconciliation. Last week, in a speech… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Belief in God is at the core of my very being. But that belief is sometimes challenged by the scores of innocents killed over the millennia in God’s name, from biblical times to the present day. Last month, dozens were killed at a shopping mall… Read more »
Syrian refugees in the Jordanian city of Mafraq collect supplies funded by IsraAid, an Israeli humanitarian aid organization, and distributed through a local Jordanian NGO. MAFRAQ, Jordan (JTA) — The purple plastic sacks fill two rooms in the otherwise sparsely furnished headquarters of a Jordanian NGO, awaiting distribution to Syrian refugees already lined up on the sidewalk. They contain an array of staple dry goods — lentils, pasta, powdered milk, tea — as well… Read more »
Woody Allen (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images) HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (6NoBacon) — You can call Woody Allen a self-hating Jew all you want, but don’t make the mistake of thinking he’s not sensitive when others hate on his people. In an interview Monday in France by Israel’s Channel 2 to promote the European release of “Blue… Read more »
Ljuba Davis presides over an ensemble of diverse musicians performing music in Ladino. NEW YORK (JTA) — Avraham Pengas, a veteran bouzouki player, says few Ashkenazic musicians can make Sephardic music come alive. Ljuba Davis, he says, is “absolutely” one of them. Davis (her first name is pronounced LYOO-bah) is the lead singer of the Ljuba Davis Ladino Ensemble, a group that… Read more »
Jewish immigrants of the Bnei Menashe arriving at Ben Gurion airport in Israel, Dec. 24, 2012. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — A Kassam rocket had just landed across the street, but it couldn’t wipe the smile off David Lhundgim’s face as he entered his apartment in this embattled town near the Gaza border. Born in the rural provinces of northeast India, Lhundgim had lived in Sderot… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — If the Pilgrims are lighting menorahs and the Maccabees are chasing turkeys, it must be Thanksgivukkah, as some have come to call the confluence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah that will happen this year on Nov. 28. It’s a rare event, one that won’t occur again… Read more »
President Obama congratulates Janet Yellen after nominating her to head the Federal Reserve, Oct. 9, 2013. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Janet Yellen is soft-spoken, tough, methodological, flexible — and Jewish. President Obama’s announcement last week that he had tapped Yellen, 67, to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve made news in part because she would be the first woman in the top spot.… Read more »
Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson performing at the United Synagogue centennial in Baltimore. (Mike Diamond Photography) BALTIMORE (JTA) — It will be years before it’s clear whether or not this week’s conference of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism was a success. To be sure, the centennial gathering in Baltimore by nearly all accounts was a far more dynamic and well-attended biennial than those of… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Some folks are taking the rare confluence this year of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah to heart, renaming it Thanksgivukkah, redesigning their menus for the occasion (latkes topped with cranberry relish anyone?) and refashioning ritual objects (a turkey-shaped hanukkiyah called the Menurkey is gaining traction on Kickstarter).… Read more »
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman testifies during the hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Oct. 14, 2011. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is the U.S. government shutdown undermining the sanctions that helped bring Iran to Geneva this week for talks aimed at ending the standoff over its nuclear program? Top administration officials have been emphatically making the case that it is. Wendy Sherman, the third-ranked official at the… Read more »
The title aside, Esther the purple gorilla and friends celebrate the holiday in "Esther's Hanukkah Disaster." (Kar-Ben Publishing) BOSTON (JTA) –A gift-giving, angst-ridden purple gorilla is among the characters who help enliven the Hanukkah celebrations in eight new holiday books for children, families and young adults. One, “With a Mighty Hand,” is not about Hanukkah but will be a treasured gift to add to a family’s bookshelves.… Read more »
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA) — It was only when her sons came at her with knives that she realized keeping quiet was not going to work. For nine years, her rabbis had told her not to speak up about her husband’s verbal, physical and sexual attacks. They assured her that… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — As the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination approaches, we Jews have our own special reasons to mourn. The conventional community memory of Kennedy would be enough by itself. JFK overcame the legacy of his father, President Franklin Roosevelt’s notoriously appeasement-minded ambassador to Britain on… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — The phenomenon this year of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coinciding could mean even larger family gatherings than usual. So here are some tips: Plan the menus well ahead of the special celebration, and pick recipes that are easy to follow and make them well in advance.… Read more »
