New York

The 4-year-old boys constructing towering structures at the Lego table here at the JCC of Harrison’s nursery school behaved pretty much the way one would expect — boisterous comments about exactly what they were building, comparisons to what other children were doing — until one of them, frustrated by perceived slights, yelled loudly at his tablemates.

For Ellen Weisberg, who was sitting quietly observing the boys, the outburst was one of the reasons she was in the classroom.

Palm Beach in May? Why not? New Yorkers tend to regard Florida as the ultimate winter destination — a balmy, palm-shaded escape from frigid wind chills around Chanukah time.

But May and June are my favorite Florida months, with more reliable weather and a deliciously warm ocean. When the official high season ends as snowbirds fly north for Passover, all of a sudden Palm Beach takes on the feel of a friendly small town, with locals making small talk at the deli and fishing off the beach. And this year the deals are as sweet as the temperatures.

In late 2002, when our Joshua Venture Group (JVG) cohort was announced, the term “Jewish social entrepreneur” did not yet roll easily off the tongue. There was no “innovation ecosystem” to speak of, few incubators interested in helping us grow our ventures, and little confidence that Jewish life could or should blossom outside of existing institutional frameworks. JVG was founded to help emerging leaders change the Jewish world with their ideas.

The thing about “Greenberg,” the latest movie by my most favorite filmmaker, Noah Baumbach, is that I’ve dated that guy. Not Baumbach, unfortunately. I should be so lucky. But the character, Greenberg, played by the king of on-screen neuroses, Ben Stiller.

A simple search for “Israel” on Google Maps will give you more than just roadways and town names: photographed piles of Gazan rubble will pop out of the map, taking precedent over images of Israel’s popular landmarks and landscapes.
 

Jewish groups were scrambling on Wednesday to develop strategies for protesting next week's likely New York visit of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian leader has requested a visa to attend the U.N.-sponsored Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Obama administration officials hope the meeting will strengthen the 1970 pact as they wrestle with how to enlist international support for tough sanctions aimed at thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions.

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Brandeis has sparked a controversy in the university community with its selection of Israel’s ambassador to Washington as its commencement speaker.

Last week's announcement of Michael Oren as this year's keynoter has evoked a spectrum of responses in campus publications and online forums ranging from enthusiastic support to wary apprehension to outrage.

Neither Oren nor the suburban Boston university are strangers to such controversies.