Israel

Shopping malls in Israel would be closed on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays, but public transportation would run and cultural events would be open if the Knesset adopts a draft constitution based on compromises with the major parties in Israel.
"We suggest shutting down commerce, industry and shopping malls on the Sabbath," Arye Carmon, president of the Israel Democracy Institute told reporters here Monday. "We would open cultural programs and libraries and movies and restaurants, as well as public transportation in a limited way."

Is it a light-hearted tell-all about the inner workings of the Israeli Mission to the United Nations or a gross exaggeration of the facts and a betrayal?
Gregory Levey, who for a year-and-a-half was a speechwriter there, insists that his just-released book, “Shut Up, I’m Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government” (Free Press), is his honest recollection of what happened.

The Palestiniansí first and greatest propaganda coup of the war was the shooting of Muhammed Al-Dura, the boy whose widely seen death in his fatherís arms at the very beginning of the war (Sept. 30, 2000) established the basic Palestinian legend: the heavily armed, trigger-happy Zionists killing the helpless, unarmed Palestinian child.

It was an opinion from Israel's top judge that American Conservative Jews would have preferred to read in a judicial ruling. But it was enough to put a smile on their faces.
"The lack of civil marriage in Israel is a major violation of human rights," Supreme Court president Aharon Barak told more than 30 members of United Synagogue's Project Reconnect, an organization of former United Synagogue Youth members, during a group visit to Israel last week.

Think of Israel as a product undergoing an overhaul to make it more competitive in the marketplace.

It was 22 years ago that Chava Katz and 12 other young Jewish women were permitted by the Syria government to leave their homeland and travel to the United States to find a Jewish husband. Now, with Israel and Syria talking peace, she has mixed emotions.
"I hope they do it," she said of the peace negotiations. "But I don't trust any Arab countries. Would I ever go back? Never! Even my husband asks me that. But I would never return because times there were very tough."

Grand Central Station will be turned into an Israel showcase during a week in April to demonstrate to New Yorkers the attractions of the Jewish state: its products, its technical know-how, its business opportunities and travel destinations.
"Half a million people move through Grand Central Station each day," said Israel's consul general in New York, Shmuel Sisso. "They spend three to eight minutes in the station and we have to attract their attention" through innovative and interesting exhibits.

The New York Board of Rabbis held its annual sermon seminar last week to permit rabbis to share ideas for their High Holy Days sermons. Rabbi Marc Schneier of The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, L.I., and president of the board, chaired the discussion featuring spiritual leaders from all movements.
Jewish Week: What will be some of the themes of sermons this year?

Israel needs your money but save the tzedaka, says the board chairman of a new Israeli mutual fund that will invest exclusively in Israeli companies.
"Israel does not need charity, only investments," said Shlomo Eplboim of the Blue and White Fund (the colors of the Israeli flag), set to debut Dec. 31.

Back in the Middle Ages, cartographers would draw maps of the world with the Holy Land in dead center, and if you never saw those maps you could pick up the Week in Review section of The New York Times and get the idea.

On one page of the section, Thomas Friedman’s column, “Obama and the Jews” was really about Israel and Friedman’s realization that those who care about Israel will be wiser to vote for the candidate “who will make America strongest ... Nothing would imperil Israel more than an enfeebled, isolated America.”