SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — He’s been brandished “the most dangerous man on earth,” accused of being a “public advocate of genocide” and likened to Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi “Angel of Death.” Yet he’s also been hailed as “one of the world’s 100 most influential people” and “among the… Read more »
Tagged HEADLINES
Op-Ed: N.Y.’s Jewish community report can apply elsewhere in U.S.
(JTA) — The 2011 Jewish Community Study of New York was released with some fanfare earlier this month. Some of the UJA-Federation of New York’s survey results came as somewhat of a surprise. After a decrease from about 2 million Jews in 1970 to 1.4 million in both 1991… Read more »
In Supreme Court’s immigration ruling, Jewish groups see progress but have concerns
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Most Jewish groups who have weighed in on Arizona’s controversial immigration law saw progress in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to repeal three of the law’s four parts, but had concerns that law enforcement officials would still be allowed to check the legal immigration status of… Read more »
GOP hopes N.Y. rematch puts second Jewish Republican in the U.S. House
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish Republicans nationwide are hoping that a heated congressional race rematch in the New York suburbs puts a second Jewish Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following a narrow 593-vote defeat two years ago to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Jewish businessman Randy Altschuler again is… Read more »
Planned West Bank construction, evacuations stir U.S. furor, settlers’ ire
Israel’s government coupled its compliance with a Supreme Court order to remove buildings from a neighborhood on the outskirts of the Beit El settlement with the announcement of new construction in several West Bank areas. The latter action drew a sharp rebuke from the United States and others. Meanwhile,… Read more »
Romney, guarded about his Mormonism, faces the Lieberman challenge
Mitt Romney’s Lacrosse moment awaits him. The Democratic convention in Los Angeles was where Joe Lieberman made history as the first Jewish candidate on a major ticket on Aug. 17, 2000. But two days later, history came to life in Lacrosse, Wis., the little college town where he walked… Read more »
Rabbinic sisterhood: 3 rabbis now in Chernow family
(Jewish News of Greater Phoenix) — When Ilana Mills was 16 years old she had an epiphany: “I want to be a rabbi.” At first, she worried the only reason she wanted to follow that career path was because her two older sisters had talked about becoming rabbis. “I… Read more »
Shimon Peres has journeyed from ‘loser’ to Israel’s most popular public figure
WASHINGTON (JTA) — For decades, the joke in Israel went: How do you know when Shimon Peres is headed for defeat? When he announces that he is running. Peres — today Israel’s extremely popular president and on Wednesday a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom — always seemed doomed to… Read more »
Miami shul controversy harbinger of political tone in Jewish community
WASHINGTON (JTA) – When does a bimah turn into a political soapbox? The controversy last month over a Miami temple’s invitation and then disinvitation to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) — which prompted the resignation of an influential congregant who also is a Republican activist — has revived with… Read more »
In outreach to Orthodox Jews, Obama repeats commitment to Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama is spreading the word, one Jewish constituency at a time: He has Israel’s back. Obama defended his record on Israel and on religious freedoms on Tuesday during a White House meeting with Orthodox leaders. Challenged by one of those leaders on the efficacy of his… Read more »
Gymnast David Sender’s Olympic Games journey began in Israel
NEW YORK (JTA) — Nineteen years ago, gymnast David Sender and his family attended the opening ceremonies of the Maccabiah Games in Israel, where the then-7-year-old told his mom, “Someday, you’re all coming back here to watch me back down here.” Sixteen years later, Sender was one of the U.S.… Read more »
Ethiopian-Israeli Jews, mistaken for African migrant workers, feel racism’s pain
JERUSALEM (JTA) — When violent riots against African migrant workers erupted in south Tel Aviv recently, a mob attacked Hanania Wanda, a Jew of Ethiopian origin, mistaking him for a Sudanese migrant worker. “Wanda is my friend,” says Elias Inbram, a social activist in the Ethiopian community and a… Read more »
Op-Ed: President Obama’s ‘Polish death camps’ mistake is common
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — President Obama made a simple and very basic mistake when he spoke of Polish death camps during the presentation of a posthumous Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to report German atrocities in his country. The… Read more »
Obama’s same-sex marriage nod echoes historic Catholic-Jewish debate
When President Obama publicly endorsed same-sex marriage last month, most secular Jewish leaders applauded while some religious ones disagreed — the latter group joining their Catholic counterparts. In doing so, these representatives echoed sentiments thrust into the public sphere five decades earlier, ones that simultaneously symbolized a new Jewish… Read more »
Practical steps to curb Alzheimer’s symptoms
Alzheimer’s disease is a dreaded brain disease that afflicts an estimated 5 million Americans — mostly people over 65 — and half of people over 85. Feared more than cancer by most people, Alzheimer’s disease is expected to increase exponentially as the baby boomer generation swells the ranks of… Read more »
To solve Arab-Israeli conflict, end the farce of fake Palestine refugees
The fetid, dark heart of the Arab war on Israel, I have long argued, lies not in disputes over Jerusalem, checkpoints, or “settlements.” Rather, it concerns the so-called Palestine refugees. So-called because of the nearly 5 million official refugees served by UNRWA (short for the “United Nations Relief and… Read more »
JFSA Think Tank 2020 highlights priorities
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona held a community discussion, Think Tank 2020, on May 2. Nearly 100 community members representing diverse ages and backgrounds met at the Tucson Jewish Community Center to begin framing the issues to be explored as part of the Federation’s strategic planning process. The… Read more »
Abuse among the Orthodox: Bad news, good news
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — First, the bad news: Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse occurs in Orthodox Jewish communities. Next, the worse news: Though there is no evidence that such abuse occurs more frequently among the Orthodox than in other populations, two recent front-page New York Times stories are just… Read more »
Bulgaria’s economic crisis has Jewish community facing harsh realities
SOFIA, Bulgaria (JTA) — The stories – some months or years in the making — started trickling in last year. Young successful families were showing up desperate. As Bulgaria’s program director for the American Joint Distribution Committee, Julia Dandalova ran social services programs for the Jewish community’s most needy:… Read more »
Op-ed: Same-sex marriage campaigns should heed local sentiments
GREENSBORO, N.C. (JTA) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Since the May 8 vote to approve North Carolina’s Amendment One referendum, which constitutionally bars the state from recognizing as legal any marriage… Read more »