The RosenBlog

Need something new to worry about the Mideast these days?

Consider that the candidate emerging as the likely next president of Egypt is one of Israel’s fiercest critics – and that seems to be one of the key factors in his widespread popularity.

My one encounter with Amr Moussa, the 74-year-old head of the Arab League who has a huge lead in polls leading up to democratic elections planned for the fall, leads me to think that we’ll soon be pining for Hosni Mubarak.

There was nothing halfway about the response to our article this week on Orthodox teens who refer to their seeming addiction to Shabbat texting as keeping “Half Shabbos.”

Soon after it was posted online Tuesday evening and before the print edition was delivered, the story went viral, prompting dozens of comments on our website as well as many more on various blogs.

It’s the fault of pampered kids, indulgent parents, clueless teachers; you name it.

Along with The Western Wall in Jerusalem and the ice sculptures at swanky Passover hotels' lunch buffets, the annual AIPAC conference in Washington surely must rank as one of the Seven Wonders of The Jewish World.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had an excellent response to President Obama’s major speech on the Arab world and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But it came two days too late, and the net result is another hasbara disaster for Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said on Saturday that Obama had “shown his commitment to Israel’s security, both in word and deed,” in Thursday’s Presidential speech, adding: “We are working with the administration to achieve common goals.”

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire Las Vegas businessman and philanthropist, called me last Friday afternoon to complain about our story, “Will Gingrich Bomb With Jewish Republicans?” (May 13), saying it was “biased and prejudiced” and unfairly negative, “starting with the headline.”

He said he has known the former house speaker, who last week announced his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, for close to two decades, and asserted that “no candidate is stronger” than Gingrich or more supportive of Israel.

Mayor Bloomberg, a surprise guest at Birthright Israel’s New York City Mega Event last night (May 4), tried to impress the sell-out audience at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater with his Hebrew, greeting them with “mah nishmah?” (loosely, “what’s up?”).

But he botched it by emphasizing the first rather than the second syllable in “nishmah.”

 In the wake of our April 15 story, “HASC Staff Fighting Return Of Disgraced Exec,” an effort is under way to bring legal action against the board of directors of the highly praised special needs camp for rehiring Bernard Moshe Kahn, who was forced to resign more than seven years ago for alleged improper use of charitable funds.

Uriel Reichman, 68, a distinguished Israeli educator who almost – and should have been – appointed education minister several years ago, is as pessimistic about Israel’s diplomatic status as he is enthusiastic about the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC), the country’s first private university, which he founded and serves as president.

During a visit to The Jewish Week offices this week, he predicted that the entire Mideast region would undergo a major shift toward Islamic extremism, isolating Israel even more than today.

It seems my column this week hit a raw nerve in describing how some Jewish groups are using alcohol and partying as outreach tools to attract young people.

On the first day I've already received several dozen emails, in addition to online Comments, ranging from kudos for "telling like it is," to strong critiques for exaggerating, if not outright fabricating tales of overindulgence at organizational events.

I spent almost 10 hours at the American Jewish Committee headquarters yesterday, most of that time engaged in discussions on whether young American Jews are distancing from Israel.