I was disappointed a few months ago when I received the letter in the mail alerting me that my subscription to Condé Nast Portfolio magazine would be discontinued because the publication had gone bankrupt. But, rest assured, the letter informed me of my consolation prize: a subscription to Details Magazine. To this day, I’m not…
The Reform Movement, under the sage guidance of Rabbi David Saperstein, has always taken the lead in domestic politics. Saperstein, voted Newsweek Magazine’s most influential rabbi, heads the Reform Movement’s Religion Action Committee (RAC). The RAC’s website states that it “has been the hub of Jewish social justice and legislative activity in the nation’s capital…
My first exposure to Catholicism was as a teenager. I was the assistant to a photographer who photographed several Catholic weddings. I found it fascinating to be in these beautiful churches and watch the religious rites of the Catholic tradition. I joked that, at the time, I had been to more Catholic weddings than Jewish…
The State of Israel celebrated its 60th year of statehood yesterday on the 3rd of Iyyar because the official date of Israel’s independence (5 Iyyar) falls on Shabbat this year. World leaders, celebrities, and corporate tycoons are joining Israel’s Yom Ha’atzmaut festivities in Israel. Even President Bush will be attending the President’s Conference next week….
According to a Reuter’s article, Israel’s Asian restaurants went on a one-day spring roll strike Tuesday to protest the Knesset’s new plan to rid their kitchens of foreign chefs. “The restaurants are angry at government plans to purge Japanese, Chinese and Thai eateries of Asian cooks and replace them with Israelis as part of a…
I recently learned about a new program that merges three areas I am passionate about –Jewish camping, Israel, and technology. Israel has always embraced high technology and modern communication. Part of what has made the almost sixty-year-old nation’s economy flourish in the past two decades has been the success of its hi-tech sector. Now a…
I realized the importance of having young adult Jews visit Israel when I led a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip in December 2004. By and large, the students from the University of Michigan and Harvard who traveled with me to Israel became more engaged in Jewish communal life and several became more observant of Jewish traditions. With…
Many new rabbinical schools have opened in the past decade. The American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies ordained its first class of rabbis in 1999, the modern Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) has been ordaining progressive Orthodox rabbis for a few years in New York, and the pluralistic…
In a move that Al Gore would approve of for its energy-saving environmental impact, Jerusalem has agreed to turn off the lights in the Old City before dawn this week so visiting President George W. Bush can enjoy a better view of sunrise from his King David Hotel suite, reported AFP. Bush arrived in Jerusalem…
“I had them at Shalom.”These words are attributed to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein as he was on his way back to Chicago in a rented compact Chevy with author Zev Chafets after Eckstein addressed a group of Christian Zionists at the Family Christian Center in Munster, Indiana. I’ve read every book that Zev Chafets has written….