Jewish History
A New Low for the International Committee of the Red Cross?
A new low for the International Committee of the Red Cross? When it indirectly sponsors activities honoring terrorist murderers. The International Committee of the Red Cross is known for its work as an “independent, neutral organization” which organizes protection and assistance for non-combatants who are actually, or risk becoming, victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence....
March 20, 2013 1:23 am
Violence and the Sacred
Judaism is less a philosophical system than a field of tensions – between universalism...
March 19, 2013 1:15 am
Obama, FDR, and Zionism
President Barack Obama has spoken of his deep admiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and...
March 14, 2013 1:12 am
Between Destiny and Chance
The third book of the Torah is known in English as “Leviticus”, a word deriving from...
March 14, 2013 12:47 am
Grim 75th Anniversary: Hitler’s Dream, Austrian Jewry’s Nightmare
Adolf Hitler had long dreamed of making his native Austria a part of Germany and subjecting...
March 13, 2013 1:10 am
Jewish Leaders Call for Further Measures to Protect Mount of Olives Cemetery
Jewish leaders this week asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take further steps...
March 8, 2013 6:07 am
Israel Escapes Locust Plague in Advance of Passover
In advance of Passover, Israel has successfully escaped the plague of locust that threatened...
March 4, 2013 2:41 pm
A Holocaust Pageant That Was ‘Too Political’ for FDR
Seventy years ago this week, 40,000 New Yorkers watched as Jewish activists and Hollywood...
February 26, 2013 2:17 am
Jesus, Bill O’Reilly, and the Romans
The question of who killed Jesus or who was primarily responsible for the crucifixion has...
February 26, 2013 2:15 am
Study Equates Zionist Pioneers with Arab Terrorists
The film is grainy and amateurish, but the image is stirring: one-armed Yosef Trumpeldor,...
February 25, 2013 4:30 pm
Knesset Archives Go Digital
What did first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion say in the Knesset in 1952 on the issue of...
February 22, 2013 1:28 am
Jewish Museum of Vienna Deals With Items Looted by Nazis
Twenty-five years after the founding of the Jewish Museum of Vienna, museum officials have...
February 22, 2013 1:27 am
Purim and the Evolution of Judaism
It always amazes me how Judaism has succeeded in evolving (or shall we say, for the sake of...
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Personalities Sports
NBA Finals a Time to Remember Legendary Jewish Coach Red Auerbach
JNS.org - At the start of each nationally televised game of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, ABChas aired a film-clip montage of basketball’s great players and coaches—a montage that includes Jewish coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, the mastermind behind nine championship teams for the Boston Celtics. Red was one of four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who left Belarus when he was 13. The couple owned a deli and [...]
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Arts and Culture Jewish History
The Marx Brothers and Jewish Identity
JNS.org - The sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France, the Marx Brothers became zany masters of stage and screen who continue to captivate audiences. But in addition to providing comic relief, their films captured the drama of the entry of their marginalized religion into the U.S. Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the 2012 book The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, explains that the Marx Brothers’ Jewishness as a family “was evident, marked, thoroughly legible.” “Within a family already marked as Jewish within [...]
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Arts and Culture Jewish Identity
SuperJew
For my shekels, the question of whether the comic book character Superman, is Jewish or not shouldn’t even be questioned. Born and named Kal-El by his father Jor-El, “El” is one of the ancient names for God used throughout the bible and found in great prophets such as Samue-el, Dani-el and angels Micha-el and Gavri-el and of course, Isra-el. As Simcha Weinstein in his entertaining book, “Up, Up And Oy Vey” points out, “Kal” is the root of several Hebrew [...]
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Israel Sports
Formula 1 Road Show Thrills Jerusalem
JNS.org – Some 100,000 people attended Israel’s first-ever Formula 1 Road Show in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. For several hours, the controversies that normally characterize Jerusalem were put aside, and a diverse mosaic of Israelis watched up close as the motor-sport stars temporarily conquered the city. “It was an amazing experience, the most fast and furious thing I have seen,” spectator Masada Porat told Israel Hayom. “It was a rare, extreme event that explodes in your face.” Spectator Irena [...]
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Book Reviews Jewish Identity
Klara’s Journey Casts Jews in Fast-Paced Adventure Through Russian History
JNS.org – “If you’re sick, move away. Have some consideration for others,” a red army soldier scolds a slow-moving old man selling train tickets. “No, fires back the old man, proud, haughty, not realizing it’s a new country, a Bolshevik country where force heads the list instead of civility,” reads the following line in Ben G. Frank’s new novel, Klara’s Journey, released June 1. Reminiscent of Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago—whose backdrop is also a train ride across the Russian frontier during the [...]
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Personalities Theater
Nora Ephron, Famed Jewish Screenwriter, Remembered Through Tribeca Film Festival Prize
JNS.org – For filmmaker Meera Menon, no honor could have been more fitting than winning the inaugural award named after famed Jewish screenwriter and novelist Nora Ephron, the woman whose work inspired her. At the recent 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Menon was named the first recipient of the $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, given to a writer or director whose work embodies that of the late Ephron, who wrote the scripts for a number of hit films, including “When Harry Met [...]
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Book Reviews Personalities
Book Review: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Memoir an Important Guide for Players and Coaches
JNS.org – Despite his friends’ and family’s doubts that a young Orthodox Jewish athlete could ever play college or professional basketball without compromising his religious values, between 1999 and 2009 the “Jewish Jordan” defied conventional wisdom and found his place on the court. In his new memoir, Jewish Jordan’s Triple Threat, Tamir Goodman describes his triumphs and disappointments in life, crediting his practice of Judaism for shaping his identity as an athlete and his understanding of basketball as a team sport. [...]
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Blogs Sports
Omri Casspi, ‘Jewish Jordan’ Partner on Basketball Camps to Inspire Youths On and Off the Court
Tamir Goodman (left) and NBA forward Omri Casspi—pictured on the court of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls—together run basketball camps that seek to inspire youths on and off the court. Photo: Courtesy Tamir Goodman. JNS.org – Before last year, basketball camps for Jewish youths never had an instructor quite like Omri Casspi, a forward for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Cleveland Cavaliers and the first Israeli-born player in NBA history. Casspi is a de facto ambassador for [...]
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