News Brief

by Stewart Ain

03/19/2008 | Shaliach Targeted By Firebomb | Staff Writer

An armed guard has been posted at the Hillel building at Brown University after the weekend firebombing of the off-campus apartment of Hillel’s Israeli emissary.
Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at the second floor apartment of Yossi Knafo, 24, at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday.
One hit an outside wall and caused a minor fire. A second firebomb was thrown through an open bedroom window; the bottle did not break and it caused no damage.

Top Of The Yom Tov To You

03/19/2008 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

Monday was St. Patrick’s Day, and at Chelsea Market, the former Nabisco plant converted into an arcade of boutique food shops and restaurants, it was business as usual.
There were your green-and-white cookies in the racks of the bakeries, your green-and-white balloons tied to the rafters, your lads and lassies doing the jig to Irish melodies in the aisle, and your kosher corned beef and cabbage.
Kosher corned beef and cabbage?

What’s A Nice Catholic Boy...

03/12/2008 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

A devout Catholic and a professional educator, James Otteson learned a lesson about Jewish culture during the second session of a class he taught at Yeshiva University this year about capitalism and morality.

A Month Of Laughter

03/12/2008 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

No, that’s not Groucho Marx with the ersatz mustache.
Sometimes Naomi Chiel likes to pretend she is. “I have to be in the mood,” she says. Last Saturday night she was. At the “Comedy Night @ Kittay,” an evening of humor hosted by Kittay House, an independent living facility for senior citizens in the Bronx where Chiel works as Jewish Program Coordinator.

Preparing For Passover

03/05/2008 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

In Israel, Passover is not a last-minute affair. The planning starts before Purim.
In the weeks and months before the first night of Pesach, tons of shmura matzah are baked, yom tov food orders are placed, seder invitations are made and accepted, and hotel reservations are confirmed.
The work isn’t reserved for families, merchants and rabbis.
Cities make plans too.

New Effort To Aid Ex-Gazans

03/05/2008 | by Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

The Israeli organization that represents the nearly 9,000 people evacuated from Gaza in 2005 has started a $40 million fundraising effort in the United States for the evacuees’ financial, educational and psychological needs.
The $40 million, to be raised over three years, will fill “the gap” between basic needs and the money that the government has pledged to provide, said Dror Vanunu, international coordinator or the Gush Katif Residents Committee (www.katifund.org; Friends of Gush Katif, P.O.B. 1184, Teaneck, NJ 07666).