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January 22, 2004

What’s in a Name?

When Jews come across the biblical name for God — spelled yod-hay-vav-hay in Hebrew — custom teaches us to substitute the term Adonai ("my Lord"), for according to Jewish tradition those letters are the unpronounceable name of God.

Home Repair

In a narrow Jerusalem alley a few blocks away from the souvenir shops of Ben Yehuda Street, a former drug addict who wants to\nbe called Shimon is telling me the story of his horrific childhood.

The First Step

First let\’s do the numbers: It\’s been about four days that I\’ve been single. I was married at 23 and stayed that way for 17 years. I\’ve just met a charming and articulate woman at a party and stumbled through an uncharming and inarticulate request for her phone number.

And wonder of wonders, she gave it to me.

Now all I had to do was call her for a date.

Immigration Plan Poses Challenges

President Bush\’s Jan. 7 proposal to dramatically expand immigration to the United States ignited a national debate about this highly emotional issue. While this is a critical policy that will profoundly affect all Americans, it is a policy that must be of particular concern to American Jews.

Hello, I Must Be Going

There is something Marxist about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\’s pledge to \”disengage\” Israel from the Palestinians through the completion of a security barrier and the evacuation of a few settlements. Just like Groucho Marx, Sharon is declaring his intention to leave and stay at the same time.

No Silence on Hate

It was late on Sunday afternoon when a high school student from Cleveland, his shaggy hair covered by a huge multicolored yarmulke, came bounding down the steps of Ohio State University\’s student center. An Israeli flag was draped around his bulky parka and a broad smile plastered across his face.

Silver Screen Propaganda

Largely unnoticed, Palestinian filmmakers have lately been turning out a respectable number of movies. In the process, they have proven themselves more skilled propagandists than their Israeli counterparts, whose works tend to be personalized escapist fares or highly self-critical of their society.

Starry, Starry Political Night

The ripple effects of Mideast politics are spreading as far as Hollywood\’s glamour-studded Oscar awards.

Tracks of the Missing Ten

On a rocky hillside in Mardan, Pakistan, in the 1990s, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici stared in awe at a hulking pillar covered with faded script. The stone was an ancient propaganda sign, one of many that had been placed throughout a Buddhist empire 2,300 years ago. But while the other stones appeared in Sanskrit, the archaic language on this tablet was Aramaic.

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Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.