The Jewish Week | National News

Vice President Joe Biden, left, with Presidents Conference’s Malcolm Hoenlein and Richard Stone. Joshua Roberts
White House Reassures Jews As It Readies Iran Offer
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | Ron Kampeas JTA

Washington — The differences between the U.S. and Israeli positions on Iran’s nuclear program are about to become very clear, and the Obama administration is reassuring the Jewish community that the divide is not so vast.

Administration officials in a meeting Monday with Jewish communal leaders emphasized that they will be steadfast in upholding one key Israeli demand: That sanctions not be sacrificed to the negotiating process. Iran won’t get relief just for showing up for talks, the officials said.

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When the JDC’s Steven Schwager resigned earlier this month, the organization took several days to name an interim replacement.
Organizations’ Plans For Succession Seen Lacking
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

The resignations of the top executives at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society come just weeks before the release of a survey showing that an “overwhelming majority” of almost 450 Jewish executives have no succession plan prepared in the event of their departure.

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Sen. Richard Lugar, right, with Sen. John Kerry and actor George Clooney on Capitol Hill. Medill DC via Creative Commons
Fallout From Lugar’s Defeat
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | Ron Kampeas/ JTA

Washington — Richard Lugar was never considered to be one of Israel’s leading advocates on Capitol Hill.

The veteran Republican senator from Indiana, who suffered a primary defeat last week after 35 years in office, is famously his own man.

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President Barack Obama revealed that his views had changed. getty images
Gambling On Gay Marriage
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Most American Jews, who continue to overwhelmingly vote Democratic, will likely see President Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he supports gay marriage as further reason to vote for him. After all, a “Jewish values” poll released last month by the Public Religion Research Institute found 81 percent support the right of same-sex couples to marry.

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With Methodists Avoiding BDS, Presbyterians Likely To Follow Suit
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 | Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

One prominent mainline Protestant church’s vote last week against divestment from Israel may influence another church to defeat a similar divestment resolution next month, according to a leader of the anti-divestment campaign.

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Evan Zauder, a teacher at a Paramus, N.J., day school, was arrested for possession of child pornography.
After Arrest Of Teacher, Questions About Vetting
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 | Hella Winston | Special To The Jewish Week

In the wake of the shocking arrest last week of a yeshiva teacher and youth worker for possession of child pornography, attention is turning to how day school — and indeed, all — teachers are vetted, and how to balance the need to ensure children’s safety with legal concerns about discrimination and privacy.

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President Obama at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last month. getty images
Obama’s Jewish Numbers On The Rise
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Does President Barack Obama have his Jewish mojo back?

Did the rightward tilt of the Republican presidential primaries, where culture war issues surged to the top of the GOP agenda, scare off potential Jewish voters?

Or is Election Day simply too far in the future for a poll in April to carry much significance?

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Mitt Romney, left, and President Barack Obama.
Anxiety In Both Camps As General Campaign Begins
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 | James D. Besser | Special To The Jewish Week

As the general election campaign kicks off in earnest, the Jewish strategies of President Barack Obama and the presumptive GOP nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, are coming into sharper focus.

And for both camps, a sense of anxiety looms.

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Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel, spent 10 recent days in a hospital and is reportedly in poor physical shape.
Pollard Supporters To Lean On Peres
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Efforts are underway in Israel to convince Israeli President Shimon Peres to decline the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in June unless President Barack Obama changes his mind and grants clemency to Jonathan Pollard more than 26 years after he was convicted of spying for Israel.

Peres on April 9 sent Obama a personal request asking that he release Pollard on humanitarian grounds. But on Tuesday, Matt Lehrich, a White House spokesman, said in an e-mail to The Jewish Week:  “The administration’s position has not changed.”

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Stav Shaffir, center, a founder of Israel’s social protest movement, was an opening speaker at J Street’s annual conference.
Israeli Government Stops Its J Street Boycott
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 | Ron Kampeas/ JTA

Washington — The first Israeli government official to ever appear before J Street received a rousing, whistling, foot-stomping reception.

And that was it, as far as the welcome went.

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