By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — October baseball, mixing in with the autumn leaves, early football, and the Jewish holidays, is in full swing. The game, like the soul, has eternal life—it only freezes in winter, while we gather around hot stoves of nostalgia and hope. The skeptics love to prophesy the decline or […]
Baseball will survive its erring players Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There are several ways of describing the essence of politics. All of them mean pretty much the same thing: Go along in order to get along Compromise Recognize your limits One who demands too much may end up with nothing There is no absolute justice Justifications for one or another demand are
By overdemanding, Palestinians removed their goals from serious consideration Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Dr. Ehud Eilam WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two intertwined problems confront Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces: the deteriorating economy and the looming elections. The military has always been the dominant actor in Egypt since the July 1952 overthrow of King Farouk and the termination of the constitutional monarchy. After then, every president
To preserve internal power, Egyptian military may seek confrontation with Israel Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — To quote from historian Diane McWhorter’s recent essay in The New York Times, “If you recognized the name of only one of the two greats who succumbed to cancer [last] Wednesday, that’s perhaps because the work of the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who died at 89 in a
Jobs and Shuttlesworth each made their mark Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The New Year has begun and Yom Kippur is behind us. Two prominent issues wait for treatment: peace with the Palestinians and a response to domestic social protest. The Prime Minister says that he is working hard to achieve both goals. Optimists are asking themselves if they can expect decisive
As Yom Kippur ends, social protest and peace with Palestinians return to fore Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastWASHINGTON, D.C. (JINSA)–Bellicose threats directed at Israel by the Turkish government delivered over the past two months are extremely disturbing and demand an American response. Never before in the history of the alliance has a NATO member used such strident and threatening language at a fellow democratic country. This is in addition to nine years
Turkey is not just Israel’s problem; it’s the West’s Read More »
Middle East
Second in a series By Jeanette Friedman Jeanette Friedman WARSAW, Poland –When I went to look for my grandmother’s house and her grave, I sought one friend, Isaac Kot from Boston, to help me. Isaac and I have known each other since 2002, when we both attended our first World Federation of Jewish Child
Searching for babbe in a Warsaw cemetery Read More »
InternationalBy Jeanette Friedman Jeanette Friedman NEW YORK — On the Friday night, immediately after Rosh Hashanna, my son Dan called for Shabbat dinner at Occupy Wall Street. There were about 25-30 of us who made kiddush, ate cholent (translates these days into vegetarian chili), had tuna fish instead of gefilte fish and drank lots of
A Yom Kippur fast while occupying Wall Street Read More »
USA
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — Ben Gurion Airport closed at 1 p.m today and won’t reopen until three hours after the end of Yom Kippur tomorrow night. Public transportation all over Israel grinds to a halt by 2:30 p.m. In the streets later in the day, men hurry along with towels to the nearest
Israel falls unusually quiet as Yom Kippur descends Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle East
By Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — “Mr. President, three years ago I met you at a similar venue and told you then that I worried about you—you answered that you were worried about yourself too—you were a candidate then. I must admit that I have not stopped worrying since and that you are
On meeting the President Read More »
Natasha Josefowitz, USA
By Josh Namm RANCHO SANTA FE, California — Seventy one people gathered at the home of Dr. Bob Shillman on Tuesday night for the debut of “Israel Inside” ahead of its nationwide premiere next week. Produced by Rabbi Raphael Shore and Rabbi Richard Green the film was made in conjunction with Jerusalem Online University. Shore
‘Israel Inside’ debuts before friends in Rancho Santa Fe Read More »
Middle East-First in a Series- By Jeanette Friedman WARSAW–My first glimpse of Poland came through an airplane window. The thick turbulent clouds had just thinned, and from my aisle seat I could see a lush checkerboard of fields punctuated by small forests, and realized that these were the fields and forests where the Jewish Partisans I
Polish Odyssey: 2nd Generation Survivor visits ancestral homeland Read More »
InternationalBy Danny Bloom TAIPEI, Taiwan — When a British newspaper recently splashed some color photos of high school girls at a private Catholic school in Thailand sporting Nazi uniforms during a sports day festival, all hell broke loose on the Internet after the German and Israeli embassies in Bangkok issued statements to the English-language media
Nazi nonsense in Thailand Read More »
International
By J. Zel Lurie DELRAY BEACH, Florida — Many lovers of Israel were disgusted by the brilliant speeches by the American, Palestinian and Israeli leaders at the United Nations General Asembly. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in eloquenant addreses to erase 18 years of talks sunce the Oslo Accords were signed
U.N. Mideast speeches were aimed at local audiences Read More »
Middle East, USA