American Jewish Congress

What’s your definition of a “major national Jewish organization”?

Could it be made up of less than 20 people?

Don’t laugh. Consider the case of the American Jewish Congress.

Twenty-four years ago, in December 1988, a group of us, women from the diaspora, carried a Torah scroll to the women’s side of the Kotel, the Western Wall, in Jerusalem, and began chanting from it. We had been attending a conference about women held by the American Jewish Congress, and represented a cross section of Jewish denominations. Soon after our service began, a haredi woman nearby started shouting that women were not permitted to read from a Torah scroll.

Pope Benedict XVI received a private audience of Latin American Jewish leaders from 12 countries.

The group, which met Thursday with the pope, was led by Latin American Jewish Congress President Jack Terpins.

According to Latin American Jewish Congress, the pope said that "dynamic Jewish communities exist throughout Latin America, especially in Argentina and Brazil, living alongside a large Catholic majority."

’Tis the season for tension over religious displays in public spaces, and the latest flareup was triggered by Santa's appearance at a Hoboken public school. The event triggered bureaucratic maneuvering and a noisy web-based debate edged with hostility toward Jews.

Last week, a parent complained about the longstanding tradition at Hoboken’s Salvatore R. Calabro Elementary School to allow children to pose for Santa photos, said Superintendent Mark Toback, who would not reveal the parent’s name.

Lay leaders of the American Jewish Congress appear to have one motto: “Never say die.”

Despite closing their offices and discharging 10 staffers last month as part of a reorganization,” the group’s president and at least one board member said they still believe the organization could rebound. But it will have to do it without Marc Stern, its general counsel for 11 years and the man who served as co-executive director for the past two year. 

(JTA) — David Twersky, a veteran journalist and former kibbutznik, died last Friday night at his home in West Orange, N.J., following a long battle with cancer. He was 60.

Twersky opened the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Forward in 1990, at the end of the first President George Bush’s administration.

Following his stint in Washington, Twersky was named editor of the New Jersey Jewish News, which he led from 1993 to 2002. He later joined the New York Sun as foreign editor and columnist.