New York News

The Secular Becomes Sacred

10/01/1998 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

It has been the setting for art exhibitions and military stagings.
It is cavernous and utilitarian.But on short notice, for the Ten Days of Repentance, the Seventh Regiment Armory on the Upper East Side was turned into a house of worship.
Within days of the late-August fire that gutted Central Synagogue, New York City's oldest Reform Congregation, Gov. George Pataki granted permission for religious activities to be held in the Armory, a half-mile away, on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
Then the work began.

State Buys $5 Million In Israel Bonds

09/25/1998 | by Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

For the first time, New York State has bought State of Israel Bonds directly from the Israeli government. The state recently purchased $5 million in Bonds from the Development Corporation for Israel.
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall said the action was prompted in part by his trip to Israel in April for a celebration of the nation’s 50th anniversary.
“Seeing what was happening with the economy and what they were doing with the money was reassuring,” said McCall.

Good GOP, Bad GOP

09/25/1998 | by Adam Dickter | Staff Writer

Turn on the TV in Brooklyn or Long Island and you’ll see former mayor Ed Koch praising Sen. Al D’Amato as “a real mensch.” Or you may see Holocaust survivor Estelle Sapir ask God to bless the Republican for helping her retrieve her father’s plundered fortune from Swiss bankers.

Jewish Education Gets A Chair

09/25/1998 | Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

Jewish education will itself become the subject of education at a Jewish university next year — for the first time at a nonsectarian institution of higher learning in North America.
A new Chair in Jewish Education will begin in September 1999 at Brandeis University, a nonsectarian school in Waltham, Mass., President Jehuda Reinharz recently announced. “This is a big step,” Reinharz said.
The holder of the academic chair will be a professor to be chosen during an international search that begins this month, Reinharz said.

Maass, 79, Soviet Jewry Leader

09/18/1998 | Jonathan Mark | Associate Editor

Richard Maass, the founding chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, died Sept. 10 from cancer at his home in Purchase, N.Y. He was 79. A memorial service was held at Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains where Mr. Maass was a member.

Israel Goes To The Hill For Pollard

09/18/1998 | by Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Saying the case of Jonathan Pollard is “like a bone in the throat” of relations between Israel and the United States, an Israeli cabinet member asked Capitol Hill lawmakers not to criticize President Bill Clinton should he order the convicted spy’s release after 13 years in prison.
“I met with senators and congressmen and everyone said the meetings went well,” said Yuli Edelstein, the minister of immigrant absorption.