Short Takes

Seeking Teen Activists

09/19/2012 | Hannah Dreyfus | Editorial Intern

At age 13, Zak Kukoff of Thousand Oaks, Calif., would watch his autistic younger cousin sit alone on the playground. “It’s not that students didn’t want to be her friend — they just didn’t know how,” he said. “It hurt me to see.”

Film Fest Titan’s Farewell

09/11/2012 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week

Richard Peña is going out with a bang.

Feeding Frenzy In Brooklyn

09/11/2012 | Julie Wiener | Associate Editors

With the weather still hot, summer camp over and the children restless, the last week before school starts can be a challenge for many parents.

All the more so for haredi parents, who on average have more than three times the number of children as other New York Jewish parents, according to a recent UJA-Federation of New York study. While many of the children receive federally subsidized meals at camp and school, during that last week of summer — with no food programs — low-income families often struggle to get everyone fed.

Holocaust Railroad Case To Proceed

09/04/2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

For the first time, the U.S. Court of Appeals has found that a case may be brought against a foreign national railroad in a Holocaust-related case that seeks billions of dollars.

Late last month, the court in Chicago refused to dismiss a suit against the Hungarian State Railroads (also known as the MAV) brought by Hungarian victims of the Holocaust who claimed the railroad must compensate them for the property it took from them in violation of international law.

Will Cantor Sing Mitt’s Praises?

08/21/2012 | Adam Dickter | Assistant Managing Editor/Online Editor

As Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan head toward the GOP convention in Tampa next week and the home stretch of the campaign, could House Majority Leader Eric Cantor be the man with a mission to woo the Jews?

Cantor endorsed Romney back in March, saying he’s the right guy “to lead this economy back to a growth mode, create jobs so people can feel better about the future.”

Tuesday The Rabbi Made Porn

08/21/2012 | Michael Orbach | Special To The Jewish Week

A rabbi and a pornographer walk into a coffee shop. Insert your own crude punch line here.

That’s essentially the plot of “Your Good Friend,” a feature film/mockumentary directed by Matthew Jacobs. The film, which is still on the festival circuit and looking for a distributor, stars and is co-written by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, a prominent Reform leader and author of over a dozen books on mysticism including the novel, “Kabbalah: a Love Story.”