The Latest News

Lessons From Beit Shemesh: Some Slow Progress
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Natan Sharansky | Special To The Jewish Week

In recent weeks my head has been full of the angry voices of my friends and partners in the United States — leaders of the American Jewish community, allies and comrades-in-arms in the great task of strengthening the bonds between Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. They are angry about the same things I am angry about.

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Sergey Novikov, seated at left, plans to build an anti-conservatory as a member of PresenTense’s first Moscow fellowship class.
PresenTense Joins JDC In Russia
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Russia has long been known for its musicians — and for the grueling conservatories in which those musicians are trained. The notion of learning and playing an instrument for pleasure is a foreign one, but with the support of PresenTense, the Jewish social entrepreneurship incubator, Sergey Novikov is trying to change that.

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Sorry, “Downton” fans: Lady Cora Grantham, nee Levinson of the Cincinnati Levinsons, is a bit of an anachronism.
To Daven At Downton?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Not since the news that Princess Kate Middleton’s mother’s maiden name was “Goldsmith” launched a million Google searches have the masses gotten so excited.

Today the British noble with possible Jewish background is Cora Grantham, lady of the manor on the blockbuster PBS import “Downton Abbey.” We latter-day peasants lust so much for a connection to our betters that we don’t even care if they’re fictional.

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Good Enough To Eat, Ritually And Ethically
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

Within the next few months, consumers will probably see a small symbol — a series of Jewish stars within a white circle — next to the familiar OU or OK or other familiar kosher certification heksher marks on kosher foods in groceries.

The symbol is the sign of Magen Tzedek, a “comprehensive ethical certification” that this week officially announced its certification standards and started accepting applications from interested food producers and processors.

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Attorney Michael Lesher, right, hopes to get documents relating to the case of Avrohom Mondrowitz.
Fight Over Mondrowitz Documents Coming To A Head
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Hella Winston | Special To The Jewish Week

Next week, attorney and author Michael Lesher will argue before New York State’s highest court for the release by the Brooklyn District Attorney of documents he has been seeking since 2007, related to the failed extradition of Avrohom Mondrowitz.

Mondrowitz, an alleged serial Orthodox child molester who fled to Israel in 1984 before an arrest warrant could be executed, was indicted in absentia by a Brooklyn grand jury on 14 counts — including five counts of sodomy in the first degree — in 1985.

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Jenna Weissman Joselit.
Jewish Culture Gets A ‘Master’ Class
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Eric Herschthal | Staff Writer

In the last decade, study after study has shown that Jewish culture — films, music, books — rather than traditional institutions like synagogues or day schools, has become an increasingly important part of American Jewish identity. 

As if to drive home that point, a glittering array of newly built cultural institutions — from the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, which opened in 2005, to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, unveiled in 2010 — have become landmarks for all American Jews. 

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Police stepped up security at Temple Emanuel last weekend in response to memo citing threat from Iran. Photo: Michael Datikash
‘Soft’ Target Threat Gets Community’s Attention
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Adam Dickter | Assistant Managing Editor

Area Jewish institutions should tighten access and watch out for any signs of hostile surveillance, as the specter of Iran-backed terrorism looms larger.

That’s the newly issued warning of the Jewish Community Relations Council amid the growing sense of an imminent military strike by Israel against nuclear facilities in Iran. Those concerns were fueled by comments attributed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a published report last week, followed by an Israeli consular memo obtained by ABC News.

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President Obama at Yad Vashem in July 2008. A similar image is part of a new video stressing his ties to Israel. getty images
Touting Obama’s Jewish Creds
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Boca Raton, Fla. — President Barack Obama discredited the Goldstone Report critical of the way the Israeli military fought a war against Hamas in Gaza in December 2008.

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Shmuley Boteach Considers Run For Congress
Monday, February 6, 2012 | JTA

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has sent a letter declaring his intent to run for Congress in New Jersey's newly formed 9th District.

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Shmuley Boteach To Run For Congress
Monday, February 6, 2012 | JTA

 

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has sent a letter declaring his intent to run for Congress in New Jersey's newly formed 9th District.

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