Parents, teachers and health professionals have reminded us of the essentials: eat a balanced diet, don\’t smoke, exercise, get plenty of sleep and have regular check-ups. What they never explained is why?
Sam Dabby was 100 years old on Nov. 5, but he waited to celebrate with members of his family and friends at a Nov. 18 party given at Kahal Joseph Congregation Temple. Among the celebrants was his workout trainer, Jeremy Forte, who has been helping Dabby lift weights and exercise for the past year. \”Sam has a variety of medical challenges, but it\’s never too late to start working out,\” Forte says. \”Like Sam says, \’You don\’t have to wait a 100 years to do it.\’\”
In September, vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman came under fire from many Jewish organizations for telling a radio talk show host that there is no Jewish prohibition against intermarriage.But according to a survey released this week, Lieberman\’s comments reflect the beliefs of the majority of American Jews. In short, according to the survey, \”the Jewish taboo on mixed marriage has clearly collapsed.\”
The current system may be cumbersome and hard to explain, but it has magnified the power of the tiny Jewish minority in this country.
One of the most riveting – and controversial – photographs to have emerged from the recent violence in Israel was that of a bloodied and dazed young man with an angry Israeli policeman standing behind him shouting. While the young man was first identified by the Associated Press, the photo\’s source, as a Palestinian, it soon became clear that he was an American studying in an Israeli yeshiva – a victim of Palestinians, who had dragged him from a car, beaten and stabbed him; the policeman had been shouting at the Arab assailants. The New York Times, which ran the photo and mistaken caption, published a subsequent correction and follow-up article. Grossman, who is recuperating and undergoing physical therapy for his wounds, feels not only blessed to have escaped his would-be murderers, but richer in a sense for his harrowing experience. He penned the piece below for Am Echad.
Yet fish gotta swim, Jewish children gotta fly. The comings and goings of the flock is an expected, if personally wrenching, experience.
Ten years ago, intermarriage rose up as one of the great bogeymen of Jewish communal life. The National Jewish Population Survey, released in 1990, reported that some 52 percent of Jews marry outside their faith. You could hear the rending of garments from Maine to San Diego, as rabbis and Jewish leaders bemoaned American Judaism\’s imminent collapse. Intermarriage equals demise, we were told. Jewish communities formed committees – task forces, even – and programs on Jewish continuity multiplied like legal briefs in Tallahassee.
A terror bombing against an Israeli school bus in the Gaza Strip this week is forcing Prime Minister Ehud Barak to reevaluate his response to Palestinian violence.
\”We have slaves to help,\” Jerry Rabinowitz, the Friday co-captain of the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry, announces. \”We Jews know something about slaves.\”
A remarkable event brought together nearly 2,000 Christians and Jews in a night of unity, prayer and remembrance on Thurs., Nov. 9, the 62nd anniversary of Kristallnacht.
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