By Jonah Naghi JERUSALEM–Dr. Jeff Halper is an American-Israeli anthropologist who is a co-founder and the director of ICAHD (the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions). In an interview he discussed how the approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to be reframed. Some of the topics he discussed were the current situation in Gaza, his experience
Israeli leftist calls for binational state Read More »
Middle East, USABy Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — “There’s a terrible and relentless TV-movie ropiness about this film [Woman in Gold], combined with a dairy whiff of cheesiness. It deals with a fascinating and important subject but is let down by some embarrassing acting and writing, and it is one that Helen Mirren may have to
‘Woman in Gold’ and Vienna’s rebel art movement Read More »
International, Steve Kramer, USADemocratic leaders believe Iran deal secure in Congress (JNS.org) Democratic leaders in Congress believe that the Iran nuclear deal is secure despite nearly unanimous Republican opposition and intense lobbying efforts to defeat it. “More and more [House Democrats] have confirmed to me that they will be there to sustain the veto,” said House of Representatives
Jewish news briefs: August 3, 2015 Read More »
International, Middle East, USABy Mark D. Zimmerman MELVILLE, New York — In 1985, while Jonathan Pollard was working as a civilian analyst for the Navy, he removed classified material from his workplace. Recognizing that he might be caught, Pollard had set up a secret code with his wife Anne to signal her to remove the classified information from their home if
Jewish trivia: Jonathan Pollard Read More »
Mark D. Zimmerman, Middle East, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’m still among those who don’t know if the Iran deal is as bad as many in Israel say it is or better than its alternatives, which retired big-wigs in the Israeli defense establishment seem to suggest. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s campaign against the
Netanyahu must combat the ayatollahs within Read More »
Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It’s not right and fair to engage in ‘old-timer’ nostalgia at any time, I know, but in view of recent events I can’t help comparing Israel as it was fifty years ago, when I first came to live here, and today. Israel today is, if anything, even more vibrant, productive
Bitter division among Jews threatens Israel Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel has been wracked by violence, conscience, and not a little hypocrisy in recent days. Assailants, widely thought to be extremist Jews, firebombed a Palestinian home in a West Bank village, killing a year-old child and severely injuring other family members. An ultra-Orthodox Jew, recently released from prison for a similar
2 Jewish terror attacks roil Israel, U.N. Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — He grew up in New Jersey being bullied as a Jew and retains little religious identification. His last name was Leibowitz but he changed it to his middle name, Stuart, and was more or less estranged from his Slavic father. The strain was driven by ethnic complexities. Jon Stewart
Stewart railed with honesty against hypocrisy Read More »
USAThe Power of Babel: The Natural History of Language by John McWhorter, Times Books, 2002 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — From the moment of birth a child is likely to be surrounded by the sound of human voices. It doesn’t take long for the child to decode what at first may seem like chaotic
From the Jewish Library: ‘The Power of Babel’ Read More »
Travel and FoodBy Michael R. Mantell, PhD SAN DIEGO — I recently went on the Rabbinical Assembly website and found 15 prayerbooks. Prayerbooks. Fifteen of them. Who needs fifteen different prayerbooks? I guess the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative/Masorti rabbis believes we, the members of Conservative congregations worldwide, need them. But fifteen? Seriously? This got me
Setting goals for our prayers Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
Levi Koenig: A Contemporary King Lear by Dorothea Shefer-Vanson © 2015, ISBN-14: 978-1511909761; 215 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – As their father weakens in body, if not in mind, three daughters do what they can to aid him; all the while resenting each other for not taking up enough of the burden.
‘Levi Koenig:’ 3 daughters and a dying father Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’d like to take back everything negative that I’ve written about President Reuven Rivlin. Though I had repeatedly expressed my admiration for his pronouncements since he became president on behalf of Israel’s Arab citizens, I was distressed by his seeming discrimination against exponents of non-Orthodox Judaism. He seems to
Rivlin, in wake of deaths, urges soul- searching Read More »
Middle East