Donald H. Harrison

One Palestinian cartoon shows why there isn’t peace

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — After fifteen years of following the Palestinian Authority (PA) media on a daily basis, I’ve never seen anything that sums up the problem of why there’s no peace better than this cartoon in al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official PA newspaper. If only the Western mass media ran this cartoon the situation […]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

McDonald’s row prompts Irish slaughterhouse to drop kosher and halal products

WEXFORD, Ireland(WJC) — A slaughterhouse here that supplies meat to many London-area stores has stopped kosher slaughter following a protest by the fast food chain McDonald’s, the ‘Jewish Chronicle’ reports. McDonald’s has been under fire in recent days following media reports that halal meat, which is ritually slaughtered for Muslims, is used by some of the

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Travel and Food

Tutu urges Cape Town Opera to cancel Israel performances

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (WJC)– The retired Anglican archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu has urged the Cape Town Opera to abandon an upcoming trip to Israel, saying that Palestinians would not have equal access to the performance. “Cape Town Opera should postpone its proposed tour next month until both Israeli and Palestinian opera

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Travel and Food

Survivors’ attorney contends Vatican money laundered Holocaust assets

WASHINGTON, D.C (WJC)–Holocaust survivors from the former Yugoslavia have accused the Vatican Bank of helping Nazi allies launder their stolen valuables and asked the European Commission to investigate their claims, the news agency ‘Bloomberg’ reports. “We are requesting the commission open an inquiry into allegations of money laundering of Holocaust victim assets by financial organs associated with,

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Travel and Food

San Diego Jewish Book Fair presents a mother who gave all, did all, to save her child

Saving Henry: A Mother’s Journey by Laurie Strongin, Hyperion, 2010, 271 pages including epilogue, $22.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—When Laurie Strongin comes to speak at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Lawrence Family JCC, many in the San Diego Jewish Book Fair audience will attend not only to meet an author, but

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Donald H. Harrison

A witch in time

By Cynthia Citron BURBANK, California — There are certain witches that everyone remembers.  Macbeth’s three brewed toil and trouble in a steaming cauldron.   Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery did the dishes by twitching her nose.  The Wicked Witch of the West melted when Dorothy threw a bucket of water on her.  But unless you are a movie

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Cynthia Citron

Tel Aviv University researcher says more breech babies should be delivered vaginally

  TEL AVIV (Press Release)― Most babies are delivered head-first, but in about 4% of all deliveries babies are “born breech” ― with their buttocks or feet first. Doctors usually exercise caution and use caesarean sections (C-sections) as the delivery method of choice for such births, believing it safer for the baby. After a large-scale

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Science, Medicine, & Education

25 Conservative congregations latest to join ‘Mitzvah Initiative’

NEW YORK (Press Release)– A new cohort of 25 congregations from Judaism’s Conservative Movement will enroll in The Jewish Theological Seminary’s groundbreaking Mitzvah Initiative this fall, joining the nearly 50 synagogues, Solomon Schechter day schools, and Ramah camps already involved with the program, among them Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. The 2010–2011 cohort includes

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Jewish Religion

Lighter side: Austria, Cuba and other ‘Middle Eastern’ players

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — What could be more routine than those little notes countries send other countries to say Happy Birthday? Yet even here there’s a sort of strangeness about the current U.S. government’s approach to the Middle East . On October 25, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent national day greetings to

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International, Middle East, USA

Education Department rules threats, hostile acts toward Jews are Civil Rights violations

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — Congressman Brad Sherman applauded Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for agreeing to return to its 2004 policy and applying Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to the protection of Jewish students from anti-Semitism on campuses. “For two years, I have been pushing the U.S. Department of Education to adopt this

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USA

Judy Gross pleads in letter to Raul Castro for release of her husband Alan

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The wife of a Jewish American aid worker jailed in Havana for allegedly being a spy has written a letter to Cuban President Raúl Castro expressing regret for his actions. The ‘Reuters’ news agency also reported that Judy Gross, wife of US Agency for International Development employee Alan Gross, had claimed President

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Travel and Food