National News

JCC Rampage Part Of ‘Pattern’ Of Hate

08/13/1999 | by Eric J. Greenberg | Staff Writer

New York-area Jewish community centers moved swiftly Tuesday to increase security in response to the day’s shooting rampage at North Valley Jewish Community Center in the Los Angeles area.
One Jewish leader declared the incident — the third attack on Jews and Jewish property in the United States in the last two months — to be part of a frightening trend.

ZOA Blasted for Jordan Tactics

08/06/1999 | James Besser | Washington Correspondent

The Zionist Organization of America, known for its rapid-fire, aggressive style of political action, has been rebuked by the leading pro-Israel lobby group for turning its sights on Jordan, a top U.S. and Israeli ally.
ZOA recently engaged in a “gratuitous attack on Jordan’s eligibility for U.S. assistance,” according to Lonnie Kaplan, president of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, and executive director Howard Kohr.

Hillary Plays it Safe at Hadassah

07/30/1999 | James Besser | Washington Correspondent

Washington — First Lady Hillary Clinton touched all the Jewish and pro-Israel bases and avoided treacherous curve balls in a Tuesday appearance before more than 2,100 delegates at Hadassah’s 85th national convention here.

Heaven Can’t Wait

07/30/1999 | by Eric J. Greenberg | Staff Writer

Will Jews be condemned to hell under President George W. Bush?
The question of what the Texas governor and front-running Republican presidential candidate believes about where Jewish souls will wind up in the afterlife is a concern for political pundit Michael Kinsley, editor of Slate, the on-line magazine.

Influencing The Influential

07/23/1999 | by Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

It was as part of a 1993 senior citizens’ lobbying trip to the state capital in Albany that Dorothy Epstein realized there was more to effective lobbying than just showing up and handing out position papers.
“We had divided into groups and each was to visit the chairman of a legislative committee we were interested in,” she recalled. “Although we were in groups of five or seven, only one or two people spoke first.

Split Over Religion Bill

07/23/1999 | James Besser | Washington Correspondent

A strange thing happened on the way to House passage of the Religious Liberty Protection Act (RLPA) last week:
Most Jewish members — once among RLPA’s strongest supporters — voted no, although every major Jewish group, along with representatives of numerous other religious faiths, supported the measure.
The list of opponents included Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), one of the original authors of the measure, which seeks to make it harder for state and local governments to infringe on religious practices, even inadvertently.