The Forward

Orthodox Woman Runs for L.A. City Council

2008-05-05T16:37:00

Growing up in New Haven, Conn., just across the street from Senator Joe Lieberman, Adeena Bleich never thought it was out of the ordinary for an Orthodox Jew to run for political office. Now, the 30-year-old West Coast transplant is herself running for office in Los Angeles, angling to become the city’s first Orthodox Jewish city councilor.

Methodists Reject Divestment Resolutions

2008-05-06T11:10:00

After nine days of meetings, The United Methodist Church rejected five proposed resolutions urging divestment from companies doing business with Israel.

Organizers of Bible Quiz in Israel Get Question of Their Own: ‘Who is a Jew?’

2008-05-06T17:35:00

The organizers of Israel’s annual state-run Bible Quiz are used to asking tough questions. But as this year’s contest approached, the tables were turned as they were forced to answer one: Who is a Jew?

Expectations Low for Bush Visit to Israel

2008-05-08T17:28:00

An unfolding corruption investigation against Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has lowered already limited expectations for President Bush’s upcoming trip to the Jewish state. On May 14, Bush will embark on his second trip this year to Israel, where he will attend events marking the 60th anniversary of its independence.

Movie on Holocaust Funds Draws Fire

2008-05-08T17:29:00

An Israeli television program broadcast on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day has drawn the main organization that distributes Holocaust restitution funds into ongoing battles about the financial condition of Israeli Holocaust survivors.

With McCain’s Spot on the Ticket Secure, Jewish GOPers Jockey To Win His Favor

2008-05-08T17:33:00

As the Republican Party coalesces behind presidential contender John McCain, Jewish bigwigs in the party are vying for influence in the campaign.

Proposed Olympic Boycott Sparks Debate Among Jewish Groups

2008-05-08T17:36:00

Jewish organizations are fighting over a proposed boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympics, due in part to a concern that the campaign could harm Israel’s relationship with China.

Israeli Diamond Magnate’s Business Unwelcome in Dubai

2008-05-08T17:37:00

Last month, Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev announced plans to open two eponymous jewelry stores in Dubai, but steps taken by officials in the emirate seem to indicate that Leviev’s business is not welcome there.

Think Tank Aims To Infuse Jewish Mainstream With Dashes of Color

2008-05-08T17:38:00

Go to almost any Jewish conference and you’ll likely find the ethnic makeup to be largely, and unsurprisingly, white.

Wearing Identity on Its Sleeve, German Far Right Gets a Makeover

2008-05-08T17:39:00

An otherwise quiet block in central Berlin has been rocked in recent months by paint bombs, broken windows and protests.

Rabbinical Court Puts Thousands Of Converts in Legal Limbo

2008-05-08T17:40:00

More than 40,000 Israelis who were converted to Judaism in the past decade by the state’s official conversion courts may find their conversions annulled — rendering them non-Jewish in the eyes of the law — following a ruling last week by Israel’s Supreme Rabbinical Court.

Plan to House Two N.Y. Shuls Erupts Into Feud

2008-05-08T17:42:00

Plans to establish a downtown Manhattan outpost of the famously insular Brooklyn Syrian Jewish community are falling victim to an intra-community business deal gone bad — a mess that has sparked controversy within Brooklyn’s Sephardic community and embroiled a storied Ashkenazic congregation as well.

Israeli Police Probe Allegations That New York Charity Funneled Funds to Olmert-Tied Entity

2008-05-08T17:43:00

A Jerusalem foundation with a fundraising arm based in the suburban home of a Long Island businessman is being probed in Israel in a corruption investigation that is threatening to bring down Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Investigators are looking into allegations that The New Jerusalem Foundation and Morris (Moshe) Talansky, who heads its American fundraising efforts, served as a conduit for fund transfers to interests tied to Olmert.

Probe of Israeli Prime Minister Centers on N.Y. Businessman

2008-05-07T10:37:00

A corruption investigation that is threatening to bring down Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is centered on an Orthodox businessman from Long Island.

A Daring Declaration

2008-05-07T13:01:00

As late as three weeks before Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, no draft of an Israeli Declaration of Independence had yet been written. Cobbled together by legal draftsmen, attorneys and politicians, the final version reflected the influence of multiple authors and texts, including a draft of an Israeli constitution (written in January 1948), the American Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. Having taken under 12 minutes to read, the document contains an essential history of the Jewish people, recounting, among other things, the Jewish longing to return to Eretz Yisrael, the emergence of Zionism and the movement’s international legitimation by the League of Nations and the United Nations. The declaration defined the rights of its citizens, looked ahead toward future Jewish immigration from the Diaspora and extended an olive branch to belligerent Arab neighbors.

Book Challenges Old Myths and Uncovers New Surprises About Famed Quartet

2008-05-09T12:36:00

Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” which premiered in Stalag VIIIA on the Polish-German border in sub-zero weather in January 1940, has become one of the most acclaimed and performed works of the 20th century. In May alone, there are two major performances scheduled in New York: one by Mitsuko Uchida & Friends at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall on May 17, and another at Town Hall on May 5 by Peter Serkin, who for this concert has reconstituted the quartet he founded nearly 40 years ago specifically to play this music.

May 16, 2008

2008-05-08T10:06:00

100 Years Ago in the forward: While Anna Sternlieb was out shopping, William Meyers was inside Sternlieb’s East 103rd Street apartment, robbing her blind. It just so happened that when Sternlieb was walking back into her apartment, Meyers was about to walk out, but Sternlieb quickly saw what was happening. She grabbed Meyers by the arm and started screaming. Nine women from other apartments in the building came running out when they heard Sternlieb’s screams. One woman grabbed his hair, another grabbed his ears, others held down his legs. The women began to beat him mercilessly. Hearing the commotion and the thief’s screams, Officer Hanratty entered the tenement and saved Meyers from certain death.

Sephardic Roots

2008-05-08T10:10:00

A group of young artists, writers and musicians discuss their generation’s connection to its Sephardic roots in an event titled Young Artists Exploring Our Heritage: A Journey Where Art Meets History. The panel discussion, moderated by the Forward’s art and culture editor, Alana Newhouse, features Michael Jay Cohen, Michelle Ishay-Cohen, Vanessa Hidary and Galeet Dardashti. The American Sephardi Federation sponsors the talk.

Stranger in a Strange Land

2008-05-08T10:13:00

In “Rapture Ready: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture” (Scribner, 2008), Daniel Radosh presents a delightfully varied compendium of Christian items known among many actual Christians as “Jesus junk.” These include candy conversation hearts imprinted with “John 3:16” and “He Lives” instead of “Kiss Me” and “Sweet Talk.” There are Faith Pops (wrapped in bible verses) and Cross Pops (shaped exactly the way you think). There are Testamints. There’s a T-shirt that looks like it’s adorned with the Mountain Dew logo, but when you look closely it says “Do the Jew.” (“The Jew” would be Jesus, not, say, Abe Foxman.) There are gospel golf balls (“Now when you lose a golf ball you will be sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ!”) with a pastor’s endorsement: “This golf ball is the most effective outreach tool I have ever seen in golf.” Which, Daniel points out, raises the question of exactly how many golf-based outreach tools there are.

Life’s a Beach: Film Reveals Surfing Family’s Secrets

2008-05-08T10:15:00

I first met the amazing Paskowitz family in 1978, when I was a writer and producer for “Two on the Town,” a CBS magazine show in Los Angeles.

English Literature, in the Land of Aleph and Bet

2008-05-08T10:16:00

It’s a warm October afternoon, and 11 of us are in an airy classroom on the third floor of a university high-rise, talking about a draft of a short story. The writer, a 30-something journalist with a New York accent, quietly takes notes. The prose is strong, we say, the premise promising: a newly discharged soldier taking up with the sister of his best buddy from the army, who was killed in action only months earlier. But the friend’s ghost metaphorically hovers, and the soldier’s motives for the relationship with the young woman are complicated, intriguing, murky. Too murky, we tell the author. If you can figure out what’s driving your character, we say, you’ll have a terrific piece of fiction. The writer, satisfied, puts down his pen, and we all troop downstairs for coffee before returning for the second hour: a close look at a couple of gems by Canadian writer David Bezmozgis and that grand dame of fictional voice, Grace Paley, to see how they did it.

A Tree Named Jerusalem

2008-05-08T10:19:00

‘City of David” is a poem from “Descartes’ Loneliness,” Allen Grossman’s new collection. Born in 1932 in Minneapolis, Grossman has spent much of his life in the academy. And in professorial life, as in poetic work, he has never shrunk from Jewish themes.

A Diary Found, And a World Recovered

2008-05-08T10:21:00

The lilt of a Yiddish-Irish brogue is not heard often in northeastern Ohio. But thanks to the efforts of Eudice Landy Gilman, we can now connect Jewish Cleveland to the Emerald Isle.

A Jewish Pop Band Worth the Wait

2008-05-08T10:22:00

On most evenings, the lower Manhattan venue Drom, where I recently caught a live set by the Los Angeles-based Moshav Band, probably seems very much like any other subterranean hipster hangout.

Giving Galveston Its Day in the Sun

2008-05-08T10:23:00

Of all the current national issues that seem to vex us a lot, immigration is surely at or close to the top of the list. Some Americans extend a welcome hand to those who would like to call the United States their home; others turn their backs on them, and still others talk incessantly about boundaries and fences, driver’s licenses, Social Security and workers’ visas. In each instance, what’s most striking is the constancy of the discussion: Immigration has long been a hotly contested issue. Over the years, for every American who spoke lyrically of the potential that would accrue were the nation to welcome immigration, an equal number warned darkly of its consequences.

‘Israel Is Slightly Smaller Than China,’ And Other Misconceptions

2008-05-08T10:25:00

Journalist Donna Rosenthal was inspired to write “The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land” when a CNN producer (her former journalism student) told her: “I’m confused, and our viewers are confused. We have footage of Jews who look like Arabs and Arabs who look like Jews. We have black Jews, and bearded 16th-century-looking Jews in black hats and sexy girls in tight jeans. Who in the world are these people?” Rosenthal — a former Israel TV news producer and Israel Radio reporter whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Newsweek and The Atlantic — decided to write a “bible” for reporters who cover Israel. This country, about one-eighteenth the size of California, has more reporters per capita than any other. Since the April release of the 2008 paperback edition of “The Israelis” (Free Press/Simon & Schuster), especially updated for Israel’s 60th anniversary, Rosenthal has been interviewed on many radio and TV programs and is finding that confusion and misunderstanding about Israelis abound.

Off 2nd Avenue

2008-05-08T10:29:00

In Moishe Nadir’s 1928 Yiddish play, “Messiah in America,” theater producer Menachem Yosef and his assistant, Jack “the Bluffer,” concoct a scheme to present the messiah onstage, dressing up a bearded Jewish immigrant to play the part. Their success in attracting audiences prompts a rival producer to introduce a second messiah — this time, a young English-speaking variant who arrives on a motorcycle. After the competing producers hold a competition to determine which one is the true messiah, they conclude that the competition should take place in the boxing ring. When the match ends with the death of the younger messiah, the producers flee, with their profits, to Florida.

Israeli Arabs and Hebrew

2008-05-08T18:00:00

An unsigned e-mailer has sent me an article that appeared recently in the English-language edition of the daily Hebrew newspaper Haaretz. It’s about the use of Hebrew by Israeli Arabs, and since I had already noticed in it the Hebrew Haaretz myself and considered writing about it in these pages, the idea for this column can be said to be a joint one.

Aaron David Miller on ‘Jews and Power’

2008-05-08T20:00:00

Domestic politics, as Bill Clinton’s national security advisor, Anthony Lake, told me when I interviewed him for my book, is like sex to the Victorians: It’s on everybody’s mind, but nobody wants to talk about it. It’s about time that we start talking about it, particularly when it involves Israel, the pro-Israeli community in America and Arab-Israeli diplomacy. Furthering American national interests in the Middle East depends on it. But this conversation must be honest and clear.

Ruth Wisse on ‘Jews and Power’

2008-05-08T20:00:00

Had Jews always remained a self-governing people in their land, there would have been no Crusader wars over Jerusalem, no Spanish Inquisition and no Holocaust. Karl Marx would not have concluded that “the bill of exchange is the Jew’s actual god” and Stalin would not have mounted a lethal campaign against Jewish “rootless cosmopolitans.” Host nations would not have wreaked upon Jews some of the most terrible evils in the history of humankind. The Jewish contribution to the welfare of the world would have been all the greater had the Jews managed to secure for themselves their aboriginal land.

Unterzakhn, Part 11

2008-05-09T16:15:00

Read this week’s installment of Leela Corman’s new graphic novel, “Unterzakhn,” which is being serialized in the Forward.

Listening to the Storm

2008-05-08T16:23:00

The devastation visited on Burma on May 6 by the cyclone known as Nargis is too vast for the human mind to comprehend. The official toll at press time was 22,000 dead and 42,000 missing, but the number of deaths is expected to reach above 100,000 when the count is completed. Hundreds of thousands of survivors cling to life amid the wreckage of their country, scrounging for food and clean water while they wait for rescue workers to fight through the ruins.

Conversion Blues

2008-05-08T16:24:00

Israel’s Supreme Rabbinical Court acted cruelly and capriciously when it voted to nullify a woman’s conversion to Judaism this month, 15 years after she took the supposedly irrevocable step of casting her lot with the Jewish people. The court’s decision robbed the woman and her Israeli-born children of a lifetime of loyalties and identities. It cast a shadow over the religious status — and the marriage, divorce and inheritance rights — of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Israelis who were converted under the same procedure as the unfortunate woman. And it almost certainly transgressed the traditional rabbinic ban on questioning or shaming a convert.

May 16, 2008

2008-05-08T16:27:00

Rabbi Stands By Words: A May 9 editorial compares me to Reverend Jeremiah Wright by accusing me of “inflammatory rhetoric” and of publicly hurling “strong epithets” in 1995 at then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, including calling his government “the Rabin Judenrat” (“Wright and Wrong”). The latter accusation is false.

Never Forget: Hip-Hop Artist Looks to Youth

2008-05-08T16:28:00

‘Does anybody have a tissue?” Grammy Award-winning hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari asked. “I’m having a moment.”

Letter to Israel

2008-05-08T16:31:00

The 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet will be getting a lot of attention this year. The samech, which represents the number 60, has taken form in California as an 8-feet tall, 400-pound sculpture. Created by the artist Kingsley, the piece — an interactive musical work of art— was commissioned to commemorate Israel’s 60th anniversary.

Soccer Finals’ Jewish Flavor

2008-05-08T16:32:00

The May 21 finals of the European Champions League, soccer’s most prized club competition, will have a decidedly Jewish flavor. Not on the field of the Loujniki stadium in Moscow, where none of the 22 players of English teams Manchester United and Chelsea will be Jewish — but on the sidelines. To wit, in the VIP lounge, Chelsea’s owner, Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, will square off against American billionaire Malcolm Glazer, who bought Manchester United three years ago.

Fashion Maven’s Yiddish Style

2008-05-08T16:33:00

As the creative director of the hip department store Barneys, and the author of four books and a regular column on style in The New York Observer, Simon Doonan has established himself as one of New York’s chief purveyors of cool.

A Time for Mourning, A Time To Rejoice

2008-05-08T16:34:00

In this week of remembrance and celebration, some people are having a hard time. The remembering begins with Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s memorial day for those who have fallen in its wars. It is a day of both public and private solemnity.

Iranians Ought To Be Clear on the Price of Going Nuclear

2008-05-08T16:35:00

Hillary Clinton recently asserted that if she were president and Iran launched a nuclear attack on Israel, the United States would retaliate with strikes that could “totally obliterate” Iran. Here in America her pledge has ignited a flurry of commentary, most of which is likely to be forgotten after the presidential campaign is over. In Iran, it ought to have a sobering, long-term impact.

Help Others In Israel Follow The Path of The Druze

2008-05-08T16:36:00

It began shortly after I first landed in Atlanta to take my position as consul general. Members of the local Jewish community took an interest in my background and started to visit Israel’s Druze towns. Many traveled to my northern Israeli home town of Isfiya, on Mount Carmel. People wanted to know: What was this new Druze consul general made of, and who exactly were these Druze people?

Let Them Change Light Bulbs

2008-05-08T16:39:00

We are told that the earth is overheating and that the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbons is to blame. We are told that every dollar we spend to import oil props up terrorism-sponsoring and unsavory regimes. We are told that the era of cheap oil is over. We are told that growing biofuels is causing food riots and burning coal is causing hurricanes.

Photographic Indecency?

2008-05-09T12:17:00

NEWS ITEM: Hamodia, an English-language newspaper geared toward an ultra-Orthodox readership, refuses to print photos of women. The editors contend that doing so would violate Jewish laws governing modesty.

Emotions Run High at Yom HaShoah Event

2008-05-09T13:20:00

“Did you ever meet Isaac Bashevis Singer?” I asked film star Lena Olin at The American-Scandinavian Foundation’s gala, held April 7 at the Pierre Hotel. Olin and her husband, filmmaker Lasse Hallström, were honored at the event. “No,” Olin said, “but I was told that he was happy with my portrayal.” Our chat was in regard to the 1989 film “Enemies, a Love Story,” based on Singer’s novel à clef in which she portrays Masha, the seductive married lover of the also married Herman Broder, portrayed by Ron Silver.