A city funeral home in Moscow will be converted to a Jewish funeral home, the only one in the city. The funeral home will operate under the auspices of the Moscow chief rabbinate, the Bais Menachem Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue and the Chevra Kadisha Hamerkazi Jewish burial society of Moscow, according to Rabbi Sheah Deitsch, a Jewish burial society member and Chabad emissary in Moscow.
As if the triple whammy of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster weren’t enough to enthrall and terrify us, the war in Libya is now providing cable news viewers a fresh hell to follow 24/7.
Anti-government demonstrators chanted \”God, Syria, freedom\” at the funeral of a fellow protester in the southern Syrian city of Deraa. The protesters at Monday\’s funeral added to the chant, \”The people want the overthrow of corruption,\” Reuters reported. Black-uniformed security forces sporting assault rifles oversaw the proceedings. It was the fourth day of anti-government demonstrations in Deraa; five protesters have been killed. Syrians also demonstrated Monday in the town of Jassem, according to reports citing activists.
Warren Christopher, the U.S. Secretary of State whose intensive shuttling shepherded talks with Syria, Jordan and the Palestinians in the mid-1990s, has died. Christopher died March 18 at home in Los Angeles of complications from cancer. He was 85. As secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, Christopher traveled to the Middle East 18 times in an effort to bring peace to the region.
A spunky 11-year-old, troll-fighting Orthodox Jewish girl who dreams of slaying dragons is the unlikely heroine of this year\’s Sydney Taylor Book Awards for older readers. The awards, in three age categories, were announced recently by the Association of Jewish Libraries. “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” is an inventive graphic novel by Barry Deutsch. The cast of characters in this comic includes a mean-tongued stepmother, an older sister obsessed with finding a husband and a talking pig
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