A majority of Israelis believe that their government representatives should meet with Diaspora Jewish groups that criticize their policies, a new survey found.
Agencies in the San Francisco Bay area were among the Jewish groups to condemn the attack on the northern California home of Tikkun editor Rabbi Michael Lerner.\n
An array of Jewish groups expressed their dismay at the passage of Arizona\’s restrictive new immigration enforcement law.\n
If right-wing radio talk-show host Glenn Beck has his way, many American Jews would be abandoning their synagogues. If one Jewish group has its way, Beck will be drowned out by a wave of haikus.\n
Do the words \”innovative\” and \”Jewish groups\” seem like oxymorons? Not to the publishers of \”Slingshot,\” a new guidebook to the \”50 most innovative Jewish groups in North America,\” published by a division of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
The political brawl over the replacement for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O\’Connor, who announced her resignation last week, could be the most bitter since Justice Clarence Thomas\’ 1991 confirmation battle.
And that free-for-all, which liberals and conservatives alike predict could be the \”mother of all battles,\” could leave many Jewish groups in an awkward position.
The tenor of the debate was evident within hours of O\’Connor\’s surprise announcement. Christian conservatives, calling in their chits from last year\’s presidential election, demanded that President Bush fulfill his promise to nominate judges like his favorites, Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas. Just as sternly, groups associated with women\’s rights, civil rights and the separation of church and state warned of pitched battles ahead if the president doesn\’t make a \”mainstream\” choice.
Advocacy groups immediately hit the airwaves to sway public opinion. The nomination fight will almost certainly be the most expensive ever.
Men slowly arrange scattered clothes into a makeshift tent on the front steps of 126 N. St. Louis St. A few windows in the building\’s powder-blue facade are broken; an old chimney stains a sliver of the north wall black.
Today, the anonymous building is one among thousands that dot the Los Angeles cityscape, but in the 1930s and 1940s, the Vladeck Center was the secular heart of Jewish Boyle Heights. The building was a base for the Workmen\’s Circle and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, as well as the founding location of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC).
The Vladek Center\’s history was unearthed last year, half a century after most of Los Angeles\’ Jewish community moved west, when the city began moving forward with plans to demolish the building for an expanded Hollenbeck Police Station. Getting the city to alter course seems a tall order, but the planned demolition has attracted critical attention.
With the holidays and the congressional interregnum, Washington has been a quiet place in recent weeks. But that quiet belies feverish behind-the-scenes planning as political partisans and advocacy groups get set for a particularly contentious legislative session.
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