29
Oct
Why must doing the right thing be such a costly enterprise?
Looking for a new car, a hybrid vehicle seems a natural choice. Saving significantly on gas, I figure, would be good for my personal economics, while contributing to reducing our nation’s dependence on imported oil and helping to improve the environment.
So eager was I to [...]
22
Oct
Just below the radar screen, an important date is fast approaching.
From November 5 to 8, representatives of the 186-member-nation INTERPOL, the Lyon-based international police organization, will gather in Marrakech, Morocco, for their annual General Assembly. Normally, the event doesn’t make headlines, but this time could be different.
The story begins in July 1994. The building of [...]
15
Oct
A few years ago over coffee, an acquaintance told me that his family always treated Israel differently from all other places. As a child, he was encouraged to use his critical judgment on every topic except Israel. On Israel, he knew exactly how he “had to” feel.
That clearly didn’t sit right with him. And he [...]
15
Oct
Isra Yaghoubi, Guest Writer
When Leo Frank, a New York Jew, was unlawfully lynched in 1915 by a mob in Georgia, Josephus Daniels, then Secretary of Navy, called it “the worst blot” on the history of the state of Georgia. The Brooklyn Eagle called it the act of “a mob of barbarians who have brought their [...]
3
Oct
[audio:http://ajcarchives.org/ajchomepage/audio/Simcha_Torah_Shemini_Atzeret.mp3]
Steven Bayme, AJC’s director of Contemporary Jewish Life, discusses the traditions of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. “Much too much is invested in a language of Jewish woes,” says Bayme. “The message of the holiday is that fundamentally the reason to be a Jew is not because terrible things have happened to Jews. The reason to be [...]