Local organizations seek funds to help Israel

Published on August 17, 2006

Some of the local organizations collecting donations to aid Israel in its time of crisis.

Biblical Logotherapy

By Rabbi Haim Ovadia
Published on June 24, 2004

Torah: parah aduma, which is the ritual of purifying a person who has come into contact with a dead body. During the ritual of parah aduma, the Kohen slaughters a red cow that has never born a yoke and then burns the carcass along with cedar, hyssop and a crimson substance until it has been reduced to ashes. The ashes are then mixed with water and sprinkled on the person who has come in contact with death, thus rendering him pure.

Dialing for Peace

By Helen Schary Motro
Published on April 3, 2003

In the past two years, a soundproof curtain has descended on dialogue between individuals in Israel on the one hand and Gaza and the West Bank on the other. Without the possibility of interchange, it is but a small step to collective demonization of the other.

If Palestinians and Israelis are linked by anything, it seems to be fear and mistrust.

Now a one-of-a-kind social experiment has stepped into the void, attempting to pierce the soundproof curtain. Not between politicians. Not between delegations. Not between professional groups. Not between celebrities.

With supreme -- and perhaps naive -- faith in the common man, a local group has come up with a scheme to allow Palestinians and Israelis a first step in one-to-one contact: giving them the opportunity to talk.