Since none of them is offering any evidence to back up their optimism, here is my Top 10 list of signs of progress to look for in your cup of Mideast tea leaves to help you judge whether this peace process is serious:
Rescuing excess food from Israeli corporate cafeterias on a daily basis is just one of the projects Joseph Gitler conceived about five and a half years ago when, as a new immigrant to Israel, he decided he must do something about the disturbing reports of poverty in Israel.
Profile of winemaker Eli Ben-Zaken, owner of Domaine du Castel winery, a family operation in the Judean hills in Israel.
\”Quietly and without attracting much consumer attention,\” said wine critic Mark Squires, \”Israel has developed a wine industry that will confound preconceptions.\”Only in the past 25 years has there been any real quality wine produced in the Promised Land that deserved attention. But now the plot — though thankfully not the wine — thickens. A growing number of boutique winemakers have turned the corner qualitatively and are making some superlative wines. Indeed, there is one Israeli wine that plays on the world stage and merits inclusion in any great cellar: Domaine du Castel.
It has been a year since Dana Rishpy, an Israeli girl last seen vacationing in Mexico, disappeared. In that time, her parents have had their hopes buoyed — and then dashed — by numerous erroneous reports that Dana had been spotted in Guatemala or Belize or some other Central American country.
UCLA historian Saul Friedlander, a child Holocaust survivor, has been awarded a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his definitive account of \”The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945.\”\n\nThe $10,000 award in the general nonfiction book category honors the 75-year-old scholar and Israeli citizen for his remarkable ability to evoke the entire Nazi era through a combination of meticulous research and a novelist\’s eye for personal, human detail.
The era of Jewish boxers — tough guys from the ghettos, like Benny Leonard and Barney Ross — is over. For that matter, the era of boxing itself, once king of all American sports, has passed, as well. In that regard, Dmitriy Salita is doubly a throwback, being both Jewish and a boxer, with an added twist: As a practicing Orthodox Jew, he does not fight on the Sabbath. What normally might be a potentially fatal limitation for a boxer (many fights are scheduled for weekend nights) has proved to be a public relations bonanza for this undefeated junior welterweight, now the star of Jason Hutt\’s documentary film, \”Orthodox Stance,\” opening April 11 in Los Angeles.
The situation couldn\’t be more stressful: convince your ex-boyfriend to sing at your sister\’s wedding after the band quits; keep the groom\’s sister from making it \”her\” day; assure the groom\’s mother that it is OK to have a store-bought wedding cake; make sure the bride\’s divorced parents don\’t kill each other; don\’t let the bride know the groom had a stripper at his bachelor party; and above all, keep the bride calm.
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