By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Maariv is one of Israel’s two centrist Hebrew dailies, along with Yedioth Aharonoth. They are between Haaretz to the left and Israel Hayom to the right. While no editorial board may be free of subtle or not so subtle intentions, one doesn’t read Maariv prepared for the most obvious of […]
Ma’ariv headlines make for worrisome Shabbat Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Michael Johnson WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged $60 million in “non-lethal” aid to Syrian political opposition groups during a Friends of Syria meeting in Rome on Thursday. The assistance would go to liberated Syrian communities to “fulfil administrative functions” and provide basic services. The U.S. would also give
U.S. pledges non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels Read More »
Travel and FoodThe Fed-Up Man of Faith: Challenging God in the Face of Tragedy and Suffering by Shmuley Boteach, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem, New York; ISBN 978-965-229-606-1 ©2012, $24.95, p. 340, plus addenda By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — World-renown Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, in his latest book The Fed-Up Man of Faith, continues on the path
Challenging God in the face of tragedy Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish ReligionPollard: ‘I haven’t been forgotten’ (JNS.org) Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a jail sentence in the United States for espionage on behalf of Israel, spoke to his wife Esther by telephone Thursday, who told him that the city of Jerusalem has decided to give him the Jerusalem Freedom Award. “Esther, you don’t know how happy
JNS news briefs: March 1, 2013 Read More »
InternationalSAN DIEGO, California (Press Release)– San Diegan community leader and philanthropist Terri Bignell has been selected by the Jewish Federations of North America as the 2013 recipient of the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award. The national award recognizes an extraordinary woman who has set a high standard for philanthropy and volunteerism in her community. Terri will be recognized
Bignell to receive Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland award Read More »
San Diego CountyBy Cynthia Citron NORTH HOLLYWOOD, California — Most people feel that divorce is more of a funeral than a musical, but the new Divorce Party the Musical: The Hilarious Journey to Hell…and Back! is determined to convince us that there is life after divorce. And that there is sex after divorce. This naughty musical, opening
Play finds bright sides of divorce Read More »
Travel and FoodErdogan at UN summit: Zionism a ‘crime against humanity’ (JNS.org) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan grouped Zionism with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as a “crime against humanity” in a speech at a United Nations summit on tolerance held in Vienna on Wednesday, Israel Hayom reported. “Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it becomes unavoidable
JNS news briefs: February 28, 2013 Read More »
InternationalMartin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by Clayborne Carson ; Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — The book may be about ‘Martin’s Dream,’ but it is as much about Clayborne’s soul. In 1985, Professor Clayborne Carson, already a distinguished and credentialed researcher of the
Tale of MLK’s biographer Read More »
Travel and FoodBy Carol Davis SOLANA BEACH, California—I am in constant awe of war correspondent Richard Engle. It seems that wherever there is a skirmish (and I use the word cautiously) anywhere around the world his is the face I see reporting on it. He is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News and just as recently
Play probes war correspondents’ ethics and adrenalin rushes Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Alan Elsner WASHINGTON, D.C – Over the past few decades, a strange affliction has seized the American Jewish community. As part of a people who pride themselves on questioning everything, debating everything and taking nothing at face value, we have suddenly become speechless when it comes to Israel. Many of our leaders regard it
American Jews need not be silent about Israel Read More »
USAEU report recommends boycott of Israeli products (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The European Union has recommended that its 27 member states “prevent” all financial transactions that support Israel’s Jewish communities in the West Bank. In its “Jerusalem Report 2012,” an internal report written by the EU mission heads in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the European
JNS news briefs: February 27, 2013 Read More »
InternationalBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Yehuda Bauer is one of Israel’s internationally recognized historians. His special fields of research include the Holocaust, genocide and anti-Semitism. His latest book is a collection of popular essays which he’s said to be currently translating into English, probably under the title, The Impossible People. In an essay that
Differentiating anti-Semitism from loving self-criticism Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — In the westerns that I saw as a kid, at a cost of $0.25 on Saturday afternoons, the meaning of “speaking with forked tongues” was clear. White man lied to the Indian. The Hebrew equivalent is כפל לשון (keffel lashon), double tongue. The Palestinian leadership is speaking in כפל לשון.
The deceitful words of international politics Read More »
Middle EastSusan Sherman, The Little Russian, Counterpoint © 2012, ISBN 978-1-61902-070-2, 332 pages, $15.95 By Donald H. Harrison This is an epic about Jewish survival in anti-Semitic Russia, in which the protagonist, Berta Lorkis, evolves from a self-important but poor relation in a rich relative’s home to a brave, self-sacrificing, single mother willing to risk
Survival in anti-Semitic, early 20th-century Russia Read More »
Donald H. Harrison