Religion

 A Jewish community divided over key constitutional questions is watching closely but mostly silently as a hyper-partisan Senate debates President Barack Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to succeed the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens — and as hints that the nominee’s Jewishness is being used against her surface.

In the wake of an unprecedented move by the National Council of Young Israel to expel a member congregation in upstate Syracuse, a rebellion is brewing among some of the Orthodox congregations affiliated with the movement.

The challenge to the National Council surfaced during a conference call last Thursday with representatives of the organization’s nearly 150 member congregations.

 Dan Smokler, a 31-year-old Yale graduate, ordained rabbi and former labor organizer, wears the mantle of the Jewish campus community’s equivalent of The Great White Hope with an easy grace.

Defenders of broadly defined gun ownership rights announced this week, in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that limits states’ right to regulate firearms, that they will further challenge the power of municipalities like New York City and New York State to keep guns out of owners’ hands.

The gun lobby will probably miss its target, some experts say.

The Hebrew Free Loan Society, which was formed in 1892 to assist indigent Jewish immigrants here, marked a milestone recently — it has provided more than $220 million in interest-free loans, on a nonsectarian basis, to more than 865,000 borrowers. In the last fiscal year, the total was almost $11.5 million, to over 1,430 borrowers. The default rate, even during the current recession, remains below 1 percent. Executive Director Shana Novick, a former Park Avenue attorney and resident counsel at the Ford Foundation who joined HFLS in 1995, talks about the Society’s work.

If you prefer the strains of Mozart and the strokes of Picasso to the feeling of sand between your toes, head to the Berkshires this summer.

New England’s most storied arts retreat is nestled into the deceptively rural swath along the New York-Massachusetts border, a region named for its lush green mountains. I say deceptive because the bucolic setting, with its fresh breezes and homespun clapboard buildings, has a low-key vibe that belies the intensity of its fine-arts scene. 

Summer in and summer out, the fabled sandy beaches and cocktail crowds of Long Island’s East End draw a reliable mix of celebrities, high flyers and city folk escaping the urban grind. 

But in recent years, an increasing number of Jewish families — parents of young children, retirees and a growing crowd of dedicated weekenders of all ages — have been calling the Hamptons home for all four seasons. 

Since returning from the 36th Zionist Congress in Jerusalem a week ago, I have struggled with a palpable sense of unease about the state of Zionism and the Jewish future. My first impulse was to rather brutally lay that unease at the feet of the World Zionist Organization, which convened the Congress.

In retrospect, I think that impulse was wrong, and unfair.

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) – Barring a last-minute policy reversal, Jewish leaders in New Zealand appear certain to launch legal action against the government over its controversial new law banning kosher slaughter.