The Dead Sea Scrolls, recorded by ancient Jewish scribes some 2,260 years ago, are at the center of a criminal case featuring such 21st century concepts as cyberbullying and Internet sleuthing.
Conflict-free diamonds may be the most conscientious way to buy an engagement ring. But the debate over what makes a diamond conflict-free is rife with … well, conflict … so consumers looking for one may need to do a little research of their own. In African countries like Angola, Sierra Leone and Congo, diamonds are a highly profitable natural resource. But for decades, these countries and others saw the diamond trade co-opted by violent rebel groups, who, by smuggling diamonds out of the country, used profits from their sales to fund often-brutal civil wars. These diamonds came to be known as conflict diamonds.
A recent poll conducted in the West Bank and Gaza found that a majority of Palestinians support direct peace negotiations with Israel and a two-state solution to the conflict, but that most would prefer a single Palestinian state to any two-state solution. Conducted in early October by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a leading polling firm based in Washington, D.C., and sponsored by the Israel Project, a nonprofit education organization, pollsters interviewed 854 Palestinians face to face in the West Bank and Gaza. Questions were asked in Arabic and covered a variety of topics, including support for Hamas and Fatah, feelings toward Iran and its president, and an assessment of what the priorities of the Palestinian Authority (PA) should be.
As the director of academic and college guidance at YULA Girls High School, Jessica Pashkow has been helping this year’s seniors and their parents through the college application process for the better part of the past year. And with deadlines looming in the coming weeks and months, essays are at the forefront of many of the students’ minds. The dreaded personal statement: Students have just 500 words, sometimes 1,000, to stand out among thousands — often tens of thousands — of applicants. And when it comes to Pashkow’s students, based on their experiences alone, it can be hard to distinguish them from one another.
While clearing away the rubble from Dennis Prager’s latest attack on “liberals,” which he likes to think is not ad hominem (unless, of course, one understands the term literally), we have to acknowledge that he may have a point. One can debate whether Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are “the major impediment to peace in the Middle East.” After all, there are weighty factors other than settlements that complicate prospects for a negotiated settlement, including Israeli political opinion, Palestinian public opinion, the attitude of neighboring Arab states, and the lack of resolve of the international community to offer carrots and sticks at the appropriate moments.
In “Next to Normal,” the bipolar Diana Goodman (Alice Ripley) sings about the litany of side effects caused by her medications: vomiting, anxiety, sexual dysfunction and, finally, “I don’t feel like myself. I mean, I don’t feel anything.”
I cannot overstate the importance of the cover article “The Ugly Secret” in this week’s Jewish Journal (Nov. 19). There is no doubt in my mind that, based on my personal and professional experience with victims of domestic violence, the articles and stories you shared with your readers will literally save women’s lives. Thank yo
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