International News

Confrontation In Kazakhstan?

02/14/2003 | by Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Jewish leaders are promising to raise questions about the human rights record of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev when they meet with him this week.
"Most countries are accused of human rights abuses, and it is an issue we will discuss while there," Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said of the group's five-day trip to Kazakhstan.

Are Their Waiting Days Over?

02/07/2003 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Visitors are a rare sight for Setegn Mantegbosh. To reach her home, a mud hut off a main road in the eastern part of Ethiopia's capital, you walk down a dirt path in a warren of mud structures, go left, right, then left again. Watch your step: a rare rainstorm in the country's dry season has turned the trail into muck.
This morning, some Western visitors come.

Concordia Hillel Still Eyeing Lawsuit

12/20/2002 | by Julie Wiener | Staff Writer

Demanding a formal apology, an unconditional reinstatement and independent access to its funds, the Hillel at Concordia University in Montreal is continuing its legal battle against a suspension by the student government.

Hillel was expected to file an official complaint in Quebec Superior Court in the coming week. It was not clear when hearings would begin.
The Concordia Student Union on Dec. 2 voted to suspend Hillel and freeze its funds. The move was believed to be the first time in history that a Hillel was barred from a North American campus.

Conversion Controversy

09/27/2002 | by Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

In a sign of how divisive the “Who is a Jew” question can become, the first non-Orthodox conversions in nearly 40 years took place between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur in the Czech Republic and Poland in the face of fierce Orthodox opposition.
Because the Orthodox in both countries would not permit the use of their ritual baths, the 38 conversions had to be moved to outlying cities.

Sacks And Salvation

09/27/2002 | by Eric J. Greenberg | Staff Writer

Who holds the keys to true salvation? In recent years, Jewish interfaith leaders have been carefully parsing new statements of Christian theologians on the subject, raising objections when the Vatican or Evangelical leaders declare that everlasting salvation can come only through belief in Jesus.
More recently, militant Islamic clerics have labeled those who don’t believe in Muhammad and Allah as infidels.

In The Shadow Of The Shoah

09/06/2002 | by Julia Goldman | Staff Writer

Berlin: The Jewish Museum Berlin is not a Holocaust museum. So insists the museum's new project director, Cilly Kugelman, who says, "We define ourselves as a German history museum that focuses on the Jewish minority in Germany." It's a distinction that may be lost on many first-time visitors to the museum's permanent exhibition, which opened to the public one year ago next week.