Recently added articles from Washington Jewish Week:

Do-it-yourself Judaism

Jun 19, 2008; Greenberg, Richard ... Non-shul chavurot, shul-based options abound in Greater D.C. It was June 1972. Katz Kosher Supermarket in Silver Spring was selling boneless chuck for $1.09 a pound, Purdue University had just dropped its allegedly anti-Semitic quota on incoming students from New York and New Jersey, and ...

Cease-fire faces big hurdles

Jun 19, 2008; Susser, Leslie ... For starters: Will it really endure? Analysis JERUSALEM - A six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, due to go into effect Thursday, could help create conditions for wider peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians. But there are two huge potential stumbling ...

Mish mash

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... These SOBs like their cats A new calendar features "12 nude, middle aged, mostly out of shape, Jewish men, discreetly covered by cats!" according to promotional materials. The calendar, put out by Semites on Bikes (SOBs), is a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Baltimore's new ...

What little girls can be

Jun 19, 2008; Fingerhut, Eric ... First Conservative woman pulpit rabbi in D.C. to retire from Adas Israel What are you?" Rabbi Avis Miller frequently heard that question when she first began leading services at Adas Israel Congregation in the mid-1980s. She was the first woman rabbi at a major Conservative ...

El Salvador saviors

Jun 19, 2008; Banks, Jaime ... Heroes remembered for helping Jews escape deportation El Salvador isn't,typically remembered as a savior of Jews escaping the Nazi death machine. But that Central American nation's ambassador to the United States, Rene Leon, is hoping "to solve the collective historical gap." He ...

Lawyering the Holocaust

Jun 19, 2008; Greenberg, Richard ... Free legal-aid program assists aging survivors The opportunity to receive token - but not inconsequential - compensation for their suffering brought six Holocaust survivors to the Jewish Social Service Agency in Rockville last Friday. They are among perhaps dozens of ...

Going to bat for Judaism

Jun 19, 2008; Fingerhut, Eric ... Nationals' Kasten draws on Jewish roots Washington Nationals president Stan Kasten likes to visit local synagogues during his travels. He see what separates Jews, but "more often than not, I am amazed at the things that bring us together," he said Monday night as he was honored ...

Rabbi looks at ethics of political leadership

Jun 19, 2008; Kritz, Fran ... Several hundred people kicked off the post-primary campaign season last week by attending an ethics-in-politics conversation between Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, who has written widely on Jewish ethics, and David Gregory, NBC chief correspondent to the White House. Gregory, who said people ...

In Focus: Marc Goldman

Jun 19, 2008; Rubin, Debra ... Marc Goldman likes being at the center of things. Literally. For 14 Georgetown University home games each year, Goldman is on the Hoyas basketball court as the on-court announcer during timeouts, leading the crowd for games and giveaways. "I have an uncanny ability to ...

JCRC hands out honors, political pundits take stage

Jun 19, 2008; Fingerhut, Eric ... While John McCain has a solid chance at the presidency, it's going to be a pretty bleak year for Republicans everywhere else, according to a Republican strategist who spoke last week at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington's annual fund-raiser. Rich Galen, also a ...

A flood of water woes

Jun 19, 2008; Greenberg, Richard ... Line break has Jews reaching for bottled water, aspirin Several Jewish institutions in Montgomery County took precautions to deal with a major water main break that took place Sunday night, but - with some noteworthy exceptions - few of them suffered serious consequences. Among ...

Presbyterian statement sparks outrage

Jun 19, 2008; Leibel, Aaron ... A Presbyterian church statement on anti-Jewish bias and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has inflamed many Jewish groups. "Vigilance against Anti-Jewish Bias In the Pursuit of IsraeliPalestinian Peace," a statement released on the eve of the Presbyterian Church's biennial General Assembly, ...

Flooding affects Iowa Jews

Jun 19, 2008; Leibel, Aaron ... Flooding in Iowa has damaged a number of Jewish-owned businesses and forced some Jews from their homes in Cedar Rapids, according to a local rabbi. Aaron Sherman of Temple Judah noted that some of the businesses that have been flooded date back as far as 120 years. He said an elderly couple in ...

Same-sex couple weds under chuppah in Calif.

Jun 19, 2008; Leibel, Aaron ... One of the first lesbian couples to legally marry in California did so under a chuppah. Diane Olson and Robin Tyler, among the original plaintiffs to sue the state to legalize same-sex marriages, were married Monday evening under a chuppah on the steps of the Beverly Hills Courthouse, the Jewish ...

Olmert: I will survive, run for head of Kadima Party

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told top Kadima Party activists Monday that he intends to run for re-election as head of Kadima in a primary that the party's steering committee approved Monday in a meeting at the Knesset. Olmert reportedly told the activists in conversations first revealed by ...

Israel-Hezbollah deal said to be 'extremely close'

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... A prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hezbollah is extremely close now that progress has been made in the mediation efforts of a German intelligence official, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Ahbar reported Monday, quoting diplomatic sources in New York. The sources were quoted as saying that ...

U.N. official: Probe Palestinians and Israel

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... The controversial new United Nations investigator probing Israel's alleged human-rights abuses says his report should include Palestinian violations as well. Richard Falk, a Jewish American academic who angered Israel by likening its conduct in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Nazi ...

Rabbi OKs building settlements on Shabbat

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... A rabbi in a West Bank community has ruled that home construction there can take place on Shabbat. Ofra Rabbi Avi Gisser's ruling will allow foreign and Palestinian laborers to work seven days a week building new homes in the community located near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in ...

Two Jews arrested in attack on Palestinians

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... Two Jewish men have been arrested in connection with an attack on Palestinian farmers that was captured on videotape. The two West Bank residents, one a minor, were taken in for questioning by the Hebron District Police. The arrests follow last week's release of a video by ...

West Bank 'abduction' may have been bogus

Jun 19, 2008; Anonymous ... Two Israeli teenagers from the West Bank are suspected of faking their abduction by Palestinians. The students from the community of Yitzhar were taken into Israeli custody last week in a military raid on a Palestinian village near Nablus. The teens had telephoned Israeli ...