UCLA has inaugurated a Center for Israel Studies, the first of its kind on the West Coast. A $5 million endowment for the center was provided by Younes and Soraya Nazarian, the Iranian Jewish couple in whose honor the center is named.
Canada\’s leading drugstore chain has pulled a controversial magazine from its racks, but insists the decision has nothing to do with complaints that its latest issue contained anti-Semitic images. Shoppers Drug Mart said Tuesday that it will no longer sell Adbusters, an anti-consumerist/activist magazine based in Vancouver.
Israel \”intervened\” in the U.S. midterm elections in order to scupper the peace process, a PLO official said. Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization\’s Executive Committee, said Wednesday that the election results \”prove that Israel played a role in these elections and cooperated with U.S. elements in order to use the results to thwart the negotiations. More than anything, this testifies to the Israeli government\’s intentions in regards to the peace process.\”
Irene Gladys “Rene” Wisch, the co-founder with her late husband of the Texas Jewish Post, has died. Wisch died Monday at her home in Fort Worth. She was 88. Wisch and her husband of 56 years, the late Jimmy Wisch, founded the Texas Jewish Post in 1946. In 2002, with the death of her husband, she became the editor and publisher of the weekly newspaper, for which she wrote two weekly columns.
The ancient Romans were known for their wild and weird rituals, but one of them, recorded in the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 11b), is of special interest to us. It is said that once every 70 years, Romans would have a healthy man, wearing the legendary garments of Adam, ride on the back of a limping man, who wore the mask of a Jew as he walked through the streets of Rome. At the head of the parade an announcer would repeatedly say: “Our master’s brother is a forger. Whomever sees this parade let him enjoy, because there will not be another for 70 more years. Forgery has not benefited the forger nor deceit benefited the deceiver!”
For many years, Orthodox novelist and playwright Naomi Ragen has drawn upon her own knowledge and experience to shape her texts, but it is her most recent novel that comes closest to home. Inspired by her legal battles over the last three and a half years concerning copyright infringement, “The Tenth Song” tells the story of an upper-middle-class American Jewish family whose lives are suddenly turned upside down by a lawsuit they could never have imagined.
For Jewish readers, November is the kindest month. The month before Chanukah is Jewish Book Month, and Jewish institutions across America are showcasing books and authors on every imaginable subject. The gift-giving holidays are fast approaching, and many of those who attend Jewish Book Month events are also doing their holiday shopping.
The following is a list of the 40 Jewish members — 12 senators and 28 representatives — who are expected to serve in the 112th U.S. Congress, which is set to convene in January 2011:
Some 38 Nobel laureates have signed a statement condemning boycotts and divestment campaigns against Israeli academics and academic institutions. A letter accompanying the statement, released Tuesday under the auspices of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, singles out for special concern the threat of a boycott by the University of Johannesburg in South Africa against Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
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