Recently added articles from The New York Jewish Week:

UJC Now Reassessing Aid To Ethiopians

Jul 25, 2008; Ain, Stewart ... New push for federation funds could come soon; crisis seen at Gondar compound. As Rabbi Jerome Epstein left the synagogue in the Ethiopian city of Gondar Tuesday morning, a dozen children were pounding on the door of the closed food pantry next door. The children, ages 4 to 7, ...

Obama 'Baffled' By Jews' Resistance

Jul 25, 2008; Besser, James D ... Frustration seen fueling intensified outreach to community as candidate wings through Middle East. A key adviser to Sen. Barack Obama depicted him this week as "baffled" by the resistance of many Jewish raters to his presidential candidacy and suggested that Obama's frustration is a ...

Feeling Sderot's Pain

Jul 25, 2008; Mitnick, Joshua; Besser, James D ... In the rocket-battered town, Obama strikes an empathetic tone. Sderot, Israel - In a visit intended create emotional connections to terror-weary Israel - and ease concerns among some pro-Israel voters here that he may break with current U.S. policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - ...

Lieberman: Hagee Still Like Moses

Jul 25, 2008; Besser, James D ... Defying 42,000 petitioners urging him not to attend, Sen. Joe lieberman keynoted Tuesday's Christians United for Israel (CUFI) gala and defended the group's leader, Pastor John Hagee. In a scripture-laced speech - at one point lieberman said he likes to speak to CUFI because "I can go ...

Second 'Exodus' For Survivor

Jul 25, 2008; Lipman, Steve ... Frances Kanenbrand first decided to make aliyah as a child in Sierpe, the Polish town where she was raised in a Zionist family. This week she finally became an olah chadasha, a new immigrant in Israel, eight decades after she started dreaming about life in the Promised Land, 61 years ...

The Kvetch: Bridezillas!

Jul 25, 2008; Wex, Michael ... BORN TO KVETCH A little more on weddings. If someone complains about tantsn af tsvey khasenes (mit eyn par fis), "dancing at two weddings (with one pair of legs)," they're saying that they can't do two things or be in two places at once. You can talk about tantsn af fremde ...

Furor Over The Fuhrer

Jul 25, 2008; Lipman, Steve ... Bad art or bad taste? Breaking an unwritten Israeli taboo that discourages humor in the depiction of Holocaust images, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem this week exhibited the works of a student who presents Adolf Hitler as an icon to be laughed at. Nir ...

Keeping Her Eyes On Elderly

Jul 25, 2008; Cohen, Debra Nussbaum ... When Vivian Fenster Ehrlich left a career in publishing to become executive director of the nonprofit Dorot, 21 years ago, it had a budget of $700,000 and a staff of 24 crammed into two floors of a decrepit brownstone on West 91st Street. Now, as she prepares to become director emerita ...

Questions For Evangelicals

Jul 25, 2008; Anonymous ... Few issues have divided our community as deeply as the growing prominence of Christian Zionists such as Pastor John Hagee, whose Christians United for Israel (CUFI) held its annual Washington summit this week. Many pro-Israel leaders believe such support is based on a genuine love and ...

Saudi Signals

Jul 25, 2008; Anonymous ... Cautious optimism" is a phrase often used by diplomats after meetings related to Mideast peace efforts. And truth be told, the optimism rarely pans out. Similarly, reports on the interfaith conference sponsored by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in Madrid last week, which included 200 ...

Haredim: Underdogs Or All-Powerful?

Jul 25, 2008; Rosenblatt, Gary ... Please stop writing out against us," read the e-mail message I received recently from someone who identified himself as Chaim, a local haredi man, pleading with me not to be "the lackey for people who have no idea what Torah is. Please." I responded to his e-mail with one of my own, and ...

From Anguish, Art

Jul 25, 2008; Wolpe, David ... Does illness contribute to achievement? Many years ago Thomas Mann wrote an essay attributing some of the spark of Dostoevsky's genius to his epilepsy. The ancient Greek myth of Philoctetes recounts that the suppurating wound he suffered ended up enhancing his skill as an archer. "The Wound and ...

Leningrad Siege Survivors Get Payments

Jul 25, 2008; Ain, Stewart ... Germany recognizes group with one-time compensation of $4,000. It has been 66 years, but Isabella Svetlosanova still vividly remembers the Nazi siege of her hometown of Leningrad that began in September 1941, and of fleeing at the age of 4 with her mother in a military ...

Israel-Iran War Talk Has Media Feverish

Jul 25, 2008; Mark, Jonathan ... Doubts about a new president may push an autumn war. Back in 1979, Art Spiegelman designed a cover for the now departed New Jewish Times: an atomic mushroom cloud under the headline, "Next Year In Jerusalem," Judaism's promise that often doubles as a prophet's threat. It seemed ...

Exercising Their Goodness

Jul 25, 2008; Spiro, Amy ... Two bat mitzvah projects hit close to home for a couple of local teens, and help kids here and in Israel. He was a distant cousin - literally; he 6,000 miles away in Israel, she on the Upper East Side. But Katy Mayerson, 13, had grown close to Noam Mayerson over her many trips to ...

The Giving Of The Torah

Jul 25, 2008; Spiro, Amy ... Local synagogues' scroll donations enhance worship for Ethiopian Israelis and IDF members. Torah scrolls from the New York area are writing new chapters in the lives of Israeli soldiers and of a struggling Ethiopian congregation in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh. From the ...

The Next 'Crocs,' Direct From Tel Aviv

Jul 25, 2008; Snyder, Tamar ... Inspired by a cheap sandal once favored by Israel's working class, Shlomit Slavin's Hoki footwear breaks the fashion mold. Sick of donning those goofy, "clown shoes with holes" known as Crocs - but can't resist the obvious comfort factor? Well, there's a new plastic sandal in town, and ...

Conviction In Wiesel Accosting Case

Jul 25, 2008; Anonymous ... (JTA) - The man accused of trying to kidnap Elie Wiesel faces up to three years in prison after he was convicted on lesser charges. A San Francisco jury on Monday found Eric Hunt, 24, guilty of false imprisonment as well as a hate crime. His trial lasted nine days. In February 2007, ...

State 'Aware' Of Abbas Congrats To Kuntar

Jul 25, 2008; Anonymous ... (JTA) - The State Department said it was aware of reports that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Lebanese murderer Samir Kuntar on his release. Kuntar, whose victims . in a 1979 terrorist rajd into Nahariya included a 4-year-old girl, was released last week as part of an ...

Women Excluded From Knesset Choir Appearance

Jul 25, 2008; Anonymous ... (JTA) - Female members of the Knesset's choir were excluded from a plenum performance in deference to fervently Orthodox sensibilities. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was treated to a rendition of the Israeli national anthem while visiting the Knesset on Monday, but the singers were all ...