WASHINGTON (JTA) — Has Israel’s game of chicken with Iran jumped the shark? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in recent months have been more explicit than ever about the likelihood of an Israeli strike on Iran to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons capability.… Read more »
Tagged HEADLINES
What’s in a word? For ‘ordained’ rather than ‘invested’ cantors, a lot
(JTA) — What’s the difference between investiture and ordination? Plenty, say officials at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, which has announced that for the first time since establishing its cantorial school in 1948, it will ordain rather than invest its graduating class of cantors. Six… Read more »
Israel 64 Festival invites Tucsonans to ‘Celebrate Jerusalem’
The Weintraub Israel Center will be taking the Israel 64 Festival to the next level, literally and figuratively. Guy Gelbart, Israel Center director and community shaliach (emissary from Israel), explains that this year’s festival, which will be held May 6 from 1 to 6 p.m., will use both floors… Read more »
Increasing number of Israeli entrepreneurs focusing on social justice
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Capitalism in pursuit of social justice. The notion is becoming more common in Israel as a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in the fields of high-tech, industry and real estate is delving into philanthropy. “The culture of venture capital and the startup nation also… Read more »
‘America’s rabbi’ seeks congressional seat
(NJ Jewish News) — Known by some as “America’s rabbi,” he is a Lubavitcher rabbi, a television host, frequent talk-show guest, and the author of 27 books — among them such provocative titles as “Kosher Sex” and “Kosher Jesus.” As of March 12, Englewood, N.J., resident Shmuley Boteach can… Read more »
In debate over nuclear Iran, lessons of Auschwitz remain relevant
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the Holocaust in his March 5 speech at AIPAC for the same reason that President Shimon Peres referred to it in his speech the day before and President Obama alluded to it in his news conference the day after: Because in the… Read more »
Seeing the world through Auschwitz lens amounts to Jewish PTSD
When I learned of the murder of dozens of members of my family in the Holocaust and then met my Israeli relatives whose Auschwitz numbers could hardly be missed on their arms, I decided to dedicate my life to challenging war, the denial of human rights, the hatred of… Read more »
Polish Jews fight to survive harrowing ‘Darkness’
In the last few decades, German and French filmmakers — reflecting and, in some cases, bravely advancing national attitudes — have examined the Holocaust with both blunt candidness and shades-of-gray maturity. Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s profoundly responsible and beautifully made “In Darkness” represents a rare cinematic attempt to address… Read more »
Passover recipes to please the crowd and de-stress the chef
Passover may be the mother of all kitchen yuntifs, but stay cool and don’t stress. Last year, 99 percent of the dishes I made for Passover weren’t actually Passover recipes. Of course they were kosher for Passover, but they didn’t require any major Passover ingredient tweaks. These recipes were… Read more »
In Foer-Englander ‘New American Haggadah,’ tradition and modern literary sensibilities collide
NEW YORK (N.Y. Jewish Week) — The novelist Jonathan Safran Foer grew up with a fairly typical American Passover. His father would use the Maxwell House Haggadah, supplemented with his own pamphlet of writings, and lead the annual Foer Seder. But nine years ago, sitting at his family Seder… Read more »
John Demjanjuk, convicted of war crimes in Germany, dies stateless and in limbo
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Though the death last weekend of John Demjanjuk brought a close to the seemingly never-ending quest for justice in the case of a man long accused of being a Nazi war criminal, it also brought a premature end to the legal battle over his legacy. Though Demjanjuk,… Read more »
Gen. Grant’s uncivil war against the Jews
(N.Y. Jewish Week) — The recent celebration of Purim offers an appropriate moment to recall a man known for a time as “America’s Haman.” That Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s story ended very differently than the story of Haman in the Book of Esther reminds us how America itself is… Read more »
Surprise: Israel ranks 7th on happiness index
The month of Adar is here, “Mishenichnas Adar marbin b’simcha!” — It’s Adar, be happy! The month of Adar is considered the month of joy in Jewish tradition. As my grandmother used to say, “That’s the way we are; you need to tell us to be happy.” It seems… Read more »
ADL condemns AZ Senate invitation to ‘anti-Semitic bigot’
State Sens. Steve Gallardo and Robert Meza, both of Phoenix, walked out of an Arizona Senate hearing March 1 to protest a presentation by Glenn Spencer, a border activist who the Anti-Defamation League calls “an anti-Hispanic, anti-Semitic bigot.” Sen. Sylvia Allen invited Spencer to speak to the Arizona Senate… Read more »
Temple Emanu-El Bilgray scholar to take philosophical approach
When Rabbi Michael Morgan, Ph.D., comes to Tucson as Temple Emanu-El’s Bilgray scholar, be ready for some lively intellectual discussion. Morgan, a distinguished scholar in post-Holocaust philosophy and the author of 16 books, will be a scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El March 22 to 24, with his first talk at… Read more »
New Jersey native hopes to sled for Israel at Olympics
Meet Bradley Chalupski, Israel’s best hope for a medal on the bobsled track at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. Chalupski is an unlikely Israeli athlete. For one thing, he competes in skeleton, a sport that’s virtually unknown in Israel — not to mention the rest of… Read more »
Beren comes up short in tourney, but stands firm on larger principles
FORT WORTH, Texas (JTA) — In Texas, they say, high school athletics are a religion. But last weekend the saying took on a new meaning. The Robert M. Beren Academy, a small Modern Orthodox school in Houston, had captured national headlines during the week. Its boys’ basketball team had… Read more »
Film offers an inside look at Germany’s neo-Nazi music scene
BERLIN (JTA) — A new documentary is shining light on Germany’s neo-Nazi music scene and the role it plays in cultivating a violent far-right subculture. The film “Blut muss Fliessen” (Blood Must Flow) looks at the neo-Nazi music scene in Germany, as well as in Austria, Italy and Hungary.… Read more »
No surprises in Putin victory, but question for Russian Jews is what comes next
(JTA) — With Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president of Russia pretty much a foregone conclusion, the question facing Russia was never what would result from last weekend’s election but what would happen after the vote. Thousands of protesters turned out Monday in a Moscow saturated with police and soldiers… Read more »
In face of desperate African poverty, Jewish woman provides a beacon of hope
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (JTA) — Two years after moving to Zimbabwe from South Africa 20 years ago, Ruth Feigenbaum noticed that her gardener, James Phiri, was losing weight and looking ill. With the help of a physician friend, Phiri was diagnosed: Like nearly one in seven Zimbabweans, he was… Read more »