Hope breeds strength

By Raphael J. Sonenshein
Published on November 5, 2008

The French now understand that Obama's election will set off a long overdue debate about the status of minority communities within their own nation. Why, people are asking, are there not more minority members of the national legislative bodies?

L.A. Jewish girl joins the African Jewish matzah dance

By Nili Salem
Published on April 24, 2008

My Pesach preparation, like that of so many Americans, usually involves walking to my local supermarket and loading a cart full of Manischewitz products...

No Teddy Bears’ Picnic in Sudan for English teacher

By JewishJournal.com
Published on November 29, 2007

The Graves Of Sudan

By Ruth W. Messinger
Published on November 25, 2004

In this remote region, more than 1.5 million African tribal farmers have been violently driven from their homes by the government of Sudan and the militias they armed, called Janjaweed (evil men on horseback). Despite repeated calls from humanitarian organizations and U.N. agencies warning of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, there continues to be a systematic program of expulsion, rape and murderous violence that has taken at least 100,000 lives.

In Search of ‘Shlomi’

By Tom Tugend
Published on July 1, 2004

It all looks like another story of another dysfunctional family, a recurring theme in Israeli movies, when Shlomi's life slowly turns around.

An Afro Judeo Beat

By Jewish Journal Staff
Published on November 13, 2003

Tired of the same old synagogue music? Want to put a little lift in your liturgy? Then give your cantor the gift of Ugandan Jewish music, Say what?

Yes, Smithsonian Folkways has just released a singular CD titled, "Abayudaya: The Music of the Jews of Uganda."

This is a sometimes lilting, often haunting and always fascinating collection of African Jewish music in which the rhythms and harmonies of Africa blend with Jewish celebration and traditional Hebrew prayer.

Television Jews: How Jewish Is Too Jewish?

By Sally Ogle Davis
Published on September 6, 2001

The new television season is upon us. African American and Latino groups are making the expected protests about the lack of people who look like them before and aft of the camera, and the Jews are -- as usual -- adding up their TV IQ on the fingers of one hand.

If there aren't many "brothers" out there, there are even fewer "Members of the Tribe," and those that are there are not particularly Jewish Jews, if you know what I mean.

Memories in Melody

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on May 10, 2001

For Ilana Besha, 19, the songs conjure up images of the first mass aliyah from famine-stricken Ethiopia to the Promised Land. "When word came to our village that we were going to Israel, it was like a dream come true," said the teenager, who was in Los Angeles last week with Shlomo Gronich and the Sheba Choir. But her long, exhausting journey was fraught with danger. As Besha, at 4, walked with her family across the Sudan, several of her baby cousins wasted away and died. "They are buried in the desert," she said.