Some of the Torah\’s laws are difficult to comply with. Others are easier. One that certainly belongs in the latter category is the law that prohibits us from engaging in child sacrifice.
Daisy Lawrence is worried about her friends.\n\”They\’re really nice Jewish people,\” says the twentysomething single, \”hard working, very bright, nice looking, ethical Jewish people — and they all have tremendous difficulty meeting other Jewish people.\”\n\nSo when the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles put together a Jewish Singles Task Force to study the dating habits of Los Angeles\’ Jewish singles, Lawrence got involved.\n\n
From the beginning, there were clear indications of the kind of year that lay ahead.
One evening in 1962, a fresh-faced Sheriff\’s deputy, Sherman Block, busted comic Lenny Bruce for obscenity. The comic\’s crime: Saying the word \”schmuck.\”
I promised I\’d call her the next evening, but I never did. For five days, I felt guilty, but what could I do? To make the commitment to call Jenny Lerner is like signing on to a weekend of aerobics; you really want it — the challenge, the learning opportunities — but when the time comes, you take a rain check. Jenny talks and talks, rails against injustices, sings songs or reads from the Torah. Conversations go on for hours, and if one doesn\’t insist that it\’s time to go — my house is burning down, Jenny; sorry, gotta hang up — she can go on until dawn. She\’s got that kind of energy. I have a family to take care of; sometimes it\’s weeks before I can call. She has other friends, yes, but, basically, Jenny is like so many other lonely, older people in this city — she could drop dead one day, and no one would know.
The man whom many call the conscience of Germany has announced that he has failed.
This past October I found myself, along with four other North American Jewish journalists, flying business class — a wonderful way to fly — to Croatia on Lufthansa Airlines.
Three years ago, the BBC decided to make a television documentary to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1956 Sinai campaign.\n\nThe filmmakers were soon stymied in their search for one top-secret document: the Protocol of Sevres, in which leaders of the three temporary allies coordinated their plans to seize the Suez Canal, five days before the actual attack on Oct. 29, 1956.\n\n
Joy pervaded the Knesset last week as news spread that a report of legislator Amnon Rubinstein\’s death was untrue.
The rejoicing provided testimony to the respect and affection felt for Rubinstein, who was very much alive in a hospital after suffering a minor stroke.
Contemporary Holocaust literature for young adults seems to favor a theme: transport unaware teenagers to German-occupied Europe and, together with the characters, the readers will emerge as more sensitive, aware young adults.
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