As Obama hires an operative to prepare the groundwork for a major Mideast policy speech, perhaps before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, his less-known Jewish connections are beginning to surface in the media.
To beautify, adorn and celebrate the physical proves to be a sacred act — with the right intention. So long as we understand that our flashy exteriors are the way in which we humbly diminish our own glory in reverence of a Light too great too look upon, we can draw closer to one another in admiration and inspiration of each individual\’s beautiful expression.
Even Europe had to admit that the Mecca agreement fell short on all three counts.
That left European officials with a dilemma: Should they continue to boycott the P.A. government or fudge Europe\’s conditions enough so it can argue that the new P.A. government has met them?
Briefs
During the Sandinista\’s regime, the country\’s synagogue, damaged in a 1978 fire, was converted into a secular school. It is being used now as a funeral home. The country\’s Torah remains in exile in Costa Rica.
The Lapidus-Kinber union may embody the essence of Limmud: creating space for Jewish learning and schmoozing with peers in a comfortable Jewish environment.
Schmetterling and Czekaj had not seen each other since 1944, when Soviet troops liberated Kopyczynce from the Nazis.
\”I am here today only because she and her family risked everything to save us,\” Schmetterling told the crowd, looking at Czekaj. \”Now, to see her here in Poland, is more than I could have imagined.\”
For the first time in years, serious Israeli-Arab peace moves seem to be afoot. The key mover is Saudi Arabia, and the key document is a 2002 peace initiative that it sponsored.
Social scientists, myself included, have charted — and implicitly celebrated — the growing and exhilarating diversity of Jewish identities, communities and innovation.
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