The rhetoric on agunot contrasted sharply from that on other topics at the conference, where a sense of confidence bordering on the triumphant prevailed, owing to the substantial progress made in the decade since JOFA\’s founding.
Times are changing, and the Times, with circulation and advertising dropping, can no longer afford to be so high and mighty. At long last, the paper is going to juice up its Web site, and community input like your synagogue discussion meeting and your opinions and activities may be a big part of it.
Let me state for the record: I am a trendsetter.
This just in, according to no less an authority than The New York Times. Based on their most recent census analysis, more American women are living without a husband than with one.
Moreover, now that Hamas is recognized as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, Hamas\’ official stance toward Israel has given Western observers a crisp and reliable thermometer to gauge the Palestinian vision of peace, many times more reliable than the ambiguous polls and speeches we have been reading about in the past.
Sokatch is the founding executive director of Los Angeles-based Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA), a nondenominational group dedicated, in his words, to \”connecting Jews to the critical social justice issues facing our city, such as criminal and economic justice and interfaith dialogue.\”
Is it possible for Los Angeles Jews and Muslims to talk to one another, to share peacefully at the table?
This is the question that some leaders of both groups locally are asking themselves.
\”I want my children to have a future of hope, a future where they can contribute positively to American society as Muslims,\” Al-Marayati said. \”I don\’t want a future of prejudice, fear and victimization.\”
As Israel\’s top representative in this region, the consul general has always exerted a strong symbolic influence in the Los Angeles Jewish community, and his actual impact has varied according to his own priorities and changing circumstances.
The segment begins with host Jimmy Smits providing a quick overview of a familiar litany of problems besetting Los Angeles. There are traffic-choked interchanges, vast tracts of unchecked development, a trickle of water to slake a thirsty city and brownish air.
\”Jews are not cultured people,\” she complains. The other woman disagrees.\n\n\”They are cultured,\” she insists, \”they are just different.\”
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