Moishe House Baltimore residents Jen Posner, left, and Mickey Rubin, wearing a Baltimore Orioles cap, host a rooftop barbecue for other young Baltimore Jews, May 19, 2011. (Moishe House Baltimore) SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Ben Levinson, 28, was born and raised in St. Louis. He returned after college to find most of the Jewish friends he grew up with had moved away. That’s not unusual: St. Louis is one of many U.S. cities with shrinking Jewish populations and, as… Read more »
SAN FRANCISCO (j weekly) — It’s a warm Sunday afternoon in the Berkeley hills, and if you look west from the road that abuts Tilden Park, the San Francisco skyline is about as clear as it gets. As with most nice days, the park is full of people —… Read more »
Participants in a 2011 Yeshiva University Alternative Break program in Nicaragua, run throught he American Jewish World Service, learn to connect volunteer service to their Jewish values. (American Jewish World) SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Most young Jews do some kind of volunteer service, but few do it through Jewish agencies or connect it to Jewish values. Poverty, the environment, education and illiteracy are the areas that draw most young Jewish volunteers, with Israel-related work at the bottom of the… Read more »
Helping Palestinians deal with medical emergencies is a significant part of the job of IDF paramedics in the West Bank. (Linda Gradstein) CARMEI TZUR, West Bank (JTA) — Yana Kisluk tosses her long ponytail over one shoulder and adjusts her M-16 over the other. The pretty 21-year-old, who wears diamond stud earrings and perfect eye makeup, looks like any other young Israeli doing her compulsory military service. As a paramedic in… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — One night back in 1985, businessman Bruce Slovin was walking home from a corporate board meeting with a lawyer named Joe Greenberger when Greenberger asked him about his involvement in the Jewish world. Slovin responded that he wasn’t at all active, so Greenberger invited him… Read more »
Congregations Anshei Israel and Or Chadash will host a themed film series, “All God … And Only God,” Sundays, July 10 – August 7 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. The series is free and will include complimentary popcorn and lemonade. A discussion with Rabbi Robert Eisen, Rabbi… Read more »
Michele Bachmann WASHINGTON (JTA) — Michele Bachmann in a bathroom confronted by two lesbians and screaming for help, or Bachmann at the Western Wall surrounded by Jews and weeping with joy. Where your politics are likely will determine which incident involving Bachmann you’d highlight. But supporters of Bachmann, a presidential aspirant… Read more »
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — It’s the nightmare of every parent — and every teacher, youth leader and camp director. When a child dies in an accident while in someone else’s care, the agonizing questions begin: Could we have done anything different? Were all the proper procedures followed? And above… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – When it comes to passing a gay marriage bill in New York State, even many supporters acknowledge that wide-reaching religious exemptions are crucial. After all, this is the state with the nation’s second-largest number of Catholics and largest number of Orthodox Jews, and many say… Read more »
Newt Gingrich, a Republican candidate for president, speaks at the republican Jewish Coalition's California summer bash in Beverly Hills, June 12, 2011. (Zach Abrams) BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (JTA) – Israel and America are at a dangerous crossroads in which the survival of Israel and the safety of the United States both hang in the balance. Year after year, the forces of terrorism become stronger, and the claims of terrorists become more acceptable to… Read more »
Stuart Eizenstat (JPPPI) WASHINGTON (JTA) — A strong secure Jewish state of Israel, supported by the United States as a close ally, has been a central feature of my public and private careers. As a senior government official in several administrations, an American and a Jew, I see Israel from multiple perspectives.… Read more »
Guy Gelbart In the last few weeks I attended, along with several members of the Jewish community, a series of talks that was supposed to focus on a just peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. The series, “Steadfast Hope: Perspectives on Peace and Justice for Palestine and Israel,” organized in… Read more »
The Tzofim (Israel Scouts) Friendship Caravan national tour will stop in Tucson with a free concert of song and dance on Thursday, June 30, at 6 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The Weintraub Israel Center is seeking host families to house the Israeli teens for one night.… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In its first partnership with a faith-based community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with Jewish organizations to expand awareness of suspicious behavior. The “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign will distribute posters and customized announcements in synagogues, Jewish community centers and related… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Did Yale’s program on anti-Semitism die a natural death from lack of academic vigor, as the university says? Should it have been saved, as two major Jewish groups are arguing? Or was it killed for being politically incorrect about Muslim anti-Semitism, as alleged by others? The… Read more »
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — There’s a scene in the 1991 film “L.A. Story” where a waiter in a trendy eatery takes increasingly complex coffee orders from a table of Hollywood types, ending with the sublimely ridiculous “half double decaffeinated half-caf, with a twist of lemon.” What caused a guffaw… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — AIPAC photo-ops? Check. Initiate and pass Iran divestment bill? Check. Pheasant-hunt fundraisers, sandbagging for flood protection and running a bail bonds business… Check. Could Dan Lederman, an energetic and peripatetic 38-year-old Republican state senator in South Dakota, set a new template for Jewish politicians? “He’s somebody… Read more »
NEW YORK (Forward) — Rachel Isaacs has known, for as long as she can remember, that she wanted to be a rabbi. On May 19, she concluded her pioneering journey through the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary to become the first openly gay person of either sex to be accepted into… Read more »
While U.S. officials are running a full-court diplomatic press against the Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition of statehood this September and officials at international Jewish organizations are trying to convince foreign leaders to oppose statehood, the Israeli government appears to be taking a different approach: acceptance. On Monday, Israeli… Read more »
Remember the tension a couple of weeks ago between Israel and the United States? That was all about avoiding tension between Israel and the rest of the world. That’s what Obama administration officials are telling Jewish officials looking ahead to September, when the Palestinians are expected to press for… Read more »
