There was, if you listened carefully, an undertone of anxiety beneath the hoopla last month,when Israel laid out plans to wean itself off U.S. economic aid.While politicians and pundits celebrated Israel\’s generous offer to give up its $3 billion-a-year entitlement, some Jewish activists werequietly wondering what it would do to Jewish political clout.\n
Israeli lawmaker Alex Lubotsky was having a bad day on Jan. 29. Hehad come to Jerusalem\’s Ramada hotel to address a visiting group ofOrthodox Jews from America, to plead for their support of thecompromise conversion plan authored by Finance Minister YaakovNeeman.
There\’s nothing so intoxicating as when a mentor singles you out,shining the warm light of approval all over you.
It seems you can\’t throw a cat without hitting a story about Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern who may or may no thave engaged in untoward relations with President Clinton. We maynever know exactly what transpired between the two, but it has captured the world\’s attention more than any other of the president\’s alleged dalliances with the opposite sex.
Thoughts of Monica Lewinsky consumed me this week. Her name, her face, the too intimate details of her life. I couldn\’t escape the 24-year-old former White House intern whose allegations against the president have brought on the worst political crisis of the decade. No matter how much I know, I\’m compelled to go deeper. There\’s a story that the media is missing. For me, she\’s a Jewish girl, a Jewish daughter. She is my younger, more naïve self. She is one of our own.
The New York Times devoted 1,500 words last Sunday to a biographical profile of Monica Lewinsky, the 24-year-old woman who allegedly had an 18-month affair with President Clinton and who has been accused of lying about it under oath.
For the record, the Netanyahu administration is expecting business as usual from President Clinton, despite his troubles with the likes of Monica Lewinsky.
After word leaked out that the family of Monica Lewinsky belonged to Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles, the full-court presswas applied by members of a media desperate for any details even remotely connected to the alleged White House sex scandal.\n\n
Abraham Joshua Heschel said that he prayed for one thing: the gift of wonder. He prayed for astonishment, for the capacity to be surprised. As he wrote, \”I try not to be stale. I try to remain young. I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendouslysurprised at life and at ideas. This is to me the supreme Chassidic imperative.\”
Abraham Joshua Heschel said that he prayed for one thing: the gift of wonder. He prayed for astonishment, for the capacity to be surprised. As he wrote, \”I try not to be stale. I try to remain young. I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised at life and at ideas. This is to me the supreme Chassidic imperative.\”
