It has only been in recent months that I\’ve found the courage to speak to some of my Jewish and non-Jewish friends within the Palestinian solidarity community, and the broader anti-globalization/anti-war movement, about the difficulties I have experienced as a Jew within that movement. And to name that experience: anti-Jewish racism, or Judeophobia.
Welcome to Chanukah and the December Dilemma. In Hebrew schools all over Los Angeles — and in temple discussion groups for intermarrieds on how to survive the holiday season — Chanukah is taught as a ritually dense Jewish substitute for Christmas that needs to elbow its way into some December shelf space, rather than a holiday that commemorates a group of Jews fighting against the forces of Hellenistic secularism to remain an insular, Torah-committed community.
Like many single Jews, Sharona Saghian met her husband on JDate, the Internet dating service aimed at Jewish singles. Although by doing so, the 28-year-old broke her community\’s old, venerated matchmaking traditions.\n\nSaghian is Persian and in her community most parents prefer to know the background of their child\’s prospective mate when dating begins.
When young Princeton engineer Jerry Estrin arrived in Haifa on a slow immigrant boat in late 1953 to build the Middle East\’s first computer, he faced just two problems: There were no parts or tools, from vacuum tubes to soldering irons, available in Israel, and there was no staff — trained or otherwise.
With a patient realpolitik, not to mention the tacit approval of Israel and the United States, Mahmoud Abbas is inching toward the Palestinian leadership.
A poll of West Bank and Gaza Strip residents released Sunday found that a plurality of Palestinians, 41 percent, support Abbas\’ bid to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president — a coup, considering the dour, 69-year-old PLO veteran\’s single-digit showing in the polls until recently. The presidential election is scheduled Jan. 9.
American Jewish leaders see it as a dire threat, but in Jerusalem, the current push for divestment by mainline Protestant groups eager to punish the Jewish state is a nonissue — so much so that at a recent conference, Israel\’s foreign minister admitted he didn\’t have a clue about the raging controversy.
Israeli officials may be making a big mistake — one more complication for Jewish leaders here who see divestment as a full-fledged emergency.
It\’s not every day that people affiliated with a strident animal rights group talk turkey with those who oversee kosher slaughter.
But that\’s exactly what happened this week, when an unpaid adviser to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) discussed allegations of improper slaughtering practices at an Iowa kosher meat plant with the head of the Orthodox Union\’s kashrut division.
North American Modern Orthodox Jews say they can explain their connection to Israel in one word: Torah.
\”It\’s an organic existence. An Orthodox Jew grows up and believes that Eretz Yisrael and the people of Israel are one. The fulfillment of Torah is Eretz Yisrael,\” said David Cohen, director of Orthodox Union (OU) activities in Israel. \”It\’s not about connection. It\’s who we are.\”
The gleaming digital tracking board that dominates Shaare Zedek\’s new emergency room, with its color-coded system for monitoring patients, has Dr. David Applebaum\’s fingerprints all over it.
So do the more private individual rooms for patients, the improved nurse-to-patient ratio and an area for paramedics to rest and grab a cup of coffee between calls.
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