To commemorate the festival of Nowruz — marking the beginning of the Persian New Year — American President Obama and Israeli President Shimon Peres have each recorded friendly messages, embedded with challenges, for the people of Iran. Obama, in his statement, also available with Farsi subtitles, said: The United States wants the Islamic Republic of…
Israeli Arabs have never been so in demand, and they have the strong showing of the hard-line anti-Arab Yisrael Beiteinu party to thank. This is the thesis of the novelist and satiric columnist Sayed Kashua in Haaretz. Kashua, one of the country’s best-known Israeli Arab writers, has a knack of giving a great insight in…
About to make the first visit of his presidency to Israel, Presdient Bush reportedly is already planning a second trip to the Jewish state. Ha’aretz reports that Bush plans to visit again in May for a convention Israeli President Shimon Peres will hold to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state.
Madonna dropped in on Israel’s president Shimon Peres this weekend amid her latest celebrity-packed Kabbalah conclave in the holy land. Y-Net reports that she presented Peres with a copy of the “Book of Splendor” (i.e. the Zohar) with the dedication: “To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna.” The Material Girl also proclaimed…
The Jerusalem Post reports (following up on an article in Yediot Aharonot) that a bevy of celebrities is headed for Israel for Rosh Hashanah. They’re all stars smitten by the voodoo that Kabbalah Centre does so well: Madonna, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and Donna Karan. The Post’s best tidbit, however, is the following: Kutcher, best…
By now you may have heard … I am leaving the Forward next month to become the managing editor of JTA. This isn’t the time for any long goodbyes. I just wanted to say this: When I started working here nearly seven years ago, Reform Jews didn’t spend their conferences davening and trying on tefillin,…
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