On Sept. 10, the day Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived in Israel, the country became preoccupied with another event: the disappearance of Ya\’acov Schwartz.
Madeleine Albright left behind a Middle East that\’s more fearful than when she arrived on Sept. 10 to salvage the peace process. In her first official visit, the secretary of state failed to restore even a modicum of trust between Israelis and Palestinians, or to coax the Syrians back to the negotiating table.
How did it come about that, just prior to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright\’s visit to the Middle East, the government of Israel released some funds it was withholding from the Palestinian Authority? And then after her departure, it transferred 50 percent of the moneys owed to the Palestinians?
More than a century ago, Theodor Herzl was a prominent Europeanjournalist who lived in Vienna and was essentially a Jewish assimilationist. He wasn\’t much concerned about Jewish life or identity. As an intellectual, he considered himself a citizen of Europe.\n\nThen came the assignment that would change his life, and world Jewry, forever.
The 1997 Community Awards, which recognize outstanding achievementin the Jewish community, were given out during a special meeting ofthe Federation\’s board of directors at Sephardic Temple TiferethIsrael.
Just one floor beneath the legendary Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, there\’s a large room that, for much of the week, remains locked. The chef has the key. So does the catering manager. But if they ever want to so much as crack open the door, they can\’t do so alone. First, they need the rabbi.
Charges against a Brooklyn Chassidic rabbi of groping a 15-year-old girl during a transpacific flight were part of an extortion plot and will be dismissed by federal prosecutors.
To many American Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Zionism, the ancient dream of a Jewish homeland that spawned a political movement and the birth of Israel almost 50 years ago, is little more than a footnote in a Sunday-school textbook.
Think kosher food, and you think blintzes, kishke, brisket, tsimmes, matzo balls, corned beef on rye.\n\nYou don\’t immediately think of fajitas, smoked-salmon quiche, turkey burgers with onion rings, rosemary-grilled breast of chicken with braised leeks and forest mushrooms, or flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.
Among the Southland\’s some 1,500 Yemenite Jews, \”a conservative estimate is that every third or fourth family has a connection,\” says Eli Attar, 46, the president of Solomon\’s Children, a Yemenite activist group.
