SUKKAHS UNDER ATTACK: Two sukkahs at universities in Northern California were vandalized, one defaced with anti-Israel slogans and the other burned. The good news, San Francisco’s J. notes, is that the latter desecration may not have been the result of bias: The vandals “may just have enjoyed burning things.” SHAME ON THE CHIEF RABBINATE: “In…
FROM RUSSIA WITH HATE?: New York’s Russian-speaking community is growing steadily less Jewish, and some of the new immigrants, it seems, are no philosemites. The New York Jewish Week examines the controversy in the Russian community. Also in the Jewish Week: The ArtScroll editions of traditional religious texts are increasingly popular, but Orthodox feminists say…
FRIENDS OR FOES?: Boston Jews are split on whether or not they should welcome the new Boston Palestine Film Festival, the Jewish advocate reports. Organizers of the festival are reaching out to area Jews. “I think Jews that want Israel to survive and Palestinians that want to be heard have a lot in common,” Salma…
DRIFTING RIGHT: As the Seattle Kollel marks its sweet 16, some fear that the Orthodox-run educational organization is pulling the city’s Orthodox community to the right, toward ultra-Orthodoxy. Seattle’s Jewish Transcript has the story. SY HERSH SPEAKS: The New Yorker’s legendary intelligence reporter Seymour Hersh talks with the L.A. Jewish Journal about the Bush administration…
FOR THE GIRLS: New York Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt recalls his first granddaughter’s simchat bat — and asks why ceremonies welcoming newborn girls haven’t caught on with his fellow Orthodox Jews. Also in the Jewish Week: With synagogue dues rising and members fleeing, an article explores whether congregations need to find a new ways…
YOFFIE OFF-BALANCE: New Jersey Jewish News editor Andrew Silow-Carroll offers a characteristically thoughtful analysis of Reform movement leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie’s headline-grabbing speech to the Islamic Society of North America. On the one hand, he hails Yoffie as “American Jewry’s Daniel, boldly strolling into lions’ dens.” But Silow-Carroll also suggests that in Yoffie’s speech, much…
ARMENIANS AND US: Harvard Armenian studies professor James Russell offers a broad — and personal — take on Armenian-Jewish relations in Boston’s Jewish Advocate. “Armenia has strong ties to Iran and Syria; Israel has a strategic alliance with Turkey. We Jews need not apologize to anybody: Our country is in a dangerous neighborhood,” Russell writes….
AGE-OLD DREAM: Dina Noth, a 99-year-old resident of the Hebrew Home for the Aged, is set to make aliyah to Israel. “As far as we know, she’s the oldest person we’ve sent [to Israel] in the last 10 years,” New York-based aliyah emissary Boaz Herman told New York’s Jewish Week. Also in the Jewish Week:…
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