As someone who wants the world to pressure Israel into ending the occupation, who hopes the UN recognizes Palestine in September, and who roots for Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, I say their agreement Wednesday to form a unity government with Hamas was a blunder. It was a blunder even before Hamas leaders in Gaza denounced America’s killing of the “holy warrior” Osama Bin Laden.
Bar-Ilan University professor Oren Harman won a 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize last weekend for “The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness” (W.W. Norton and Co.), his biography of the tormented American evolutionary theorist who tried to crack the mystery of why humans can be altruistic and was devastated by the results. The book, which was also named by The New York Times as one of the 100 most notable books of 2010, traces previous attempts to discover why people perform selfless acts, in conflict with Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles this week announced the 10 finalists for the Next Big Jewish Idea contest, which offers a $100,000 prize to the winner. The finalists include a Jewish superheroes game, Jewish care packages for those in the military, social service resources and a plan to make day school free. Nearly 112,000 votes were cast for more than 300 submissions during the first round of voting, Jan. 11 to March 31. The finalists include the top five vote-getters along with the five chosen by a panel of judges. The final round of voting opened on May 2 and will end on June 3.
On April 29, two days before Pope John Paul II was beatified in Rome, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced plans to establish a new permanent exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles dedicated to the late pontiff.
To accommodate Shabbat-observant patrons, the Robertson branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) has changed its weekend hours. Located in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson, the branch is now open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays and closed on Saturdays.
Palestinian rival factions Fatah and Hamas in a formal ceremony signed a unity agreement, repairing a four-year rift.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Israel\’s Interior Ministry to postpone consideration of two proposed eastern Jerusalem housing projects. The two projects — 930 housing units planned in Har Homa and dozens more in Pisgat Zeev — had been scheduled to be considered Thursday at a meeting of the ministry’s Jerusalem district planning committee. The postponement request was reported on Tuesday by Israeli newspapers.
Judy Gaynor, a Chicago-area human rights and Jewish activist, was named to the federal body that recognizes outstanding high school scholars. President tapped Gaynor on April 27 as one of two new members of the Commission on Presidential Scholars.
The National Jewish Democratic Council counseled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to use the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation to back down from peacemaking.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared May Birthright Israel month. Bloomberg will issue a formal proclamation at an event Wednesday evening in New York City set to be attended by more than 1,000 alumni of the free Israel trip for Jews aged 18 to 26.\n
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