Jewish Journal
Disaster Relief
The catastrophic earthquake and tsunami is south Asia resulted in worldwide shock and then an outpouring of aid.
Sitting Idle
Africa is not much on our minds these days. We have obviously been preoccupied by America\’s election and by Israel\’s chaos. Many of us have long since stopped reading the news from Africa, since it is almost always gloomy — Africa as the world\’s basket case, the one continent that seems irretrievably trapped by misgovernment and murder, and now by a horrendous pandemic of AIDS.
Up Front
Go into any synagogue, in any part of this town, and you will find them — people whose courageous stories of survival during the Holocaust could each be the subject of a compelling movie or book.
Taking on the Bible
Remember that great scene in \”Inherit the Wind,\” when Clarence Darrow asks William Jennings Bryan if a book that details rape, incest, slaughter, nudity and sodomy should be banned? The fundamentalist Bryan answers, \”Of course!\” and Darrow, with a flourish, whips out a copy of the Bible and declares, \”Then you must ban this book!\”
Eastward Ho
From where Phillip Liff-Grieff sits — literally — the Jewish community is looking better all the time.\n
UP FRONT
No Jewish cookbook of this year, or any year, for that matter, compares with Claudia Roden\’s \”The Book of Jewish Food\” (Knopf), but two new local additions to the genre have plenty of charms on their own.
Filing His Claim
A payment slip from 1927, part of the documentary evidence to support Freddy Jackson\’s claim. Sitting in the Fairfax Avenue deli where he worked for four decades of his life, Freddy Jackson reflects on his chances of getting the millions of dollars due him.
Thai Tikvah
While that may sound like an old Jewish joke, it\’s an arrangement that well suits a community which feels at home in this overwhelmingly Buddhist nation but keeps a low profile.\n
UJ Layoffs
The last days of the Passover holiday brought a shocking message to 14 faculty and staff members at the University of Judaism: They\’re laid off.
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