Despite diplomas, Ethiopian Israelis can’t find jobs

By Dina Kraft
Published on December 25, 2008

Of the approximately 4,500 Ethiopian Israelis who have earned university degrees, fewer than 15 percent have found work in their professions, according to a recent study. Instead, most end up working temporary public-sector jobs serving the Ethiopian Israeli community, remaining disconnected from the larger professional Israeli workforce.

Where’s the struggle?

By David Suissa
Published on November 19, 2008

When I see the coarse arguments currently raging over the issue of same-sex marriage, I don't see any thoughtful or fascinating debates or any embracing of tension. I see two armies shooting at each other.

It can’t happen here

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 11, 2008

"People choose to remain gay, and people choose to remain Jewish," said an organizer. "Why should the majority of us be forced to honor that choice?"

Turning a page in the history books

By Steve Greenberg
Published on November 4, 2008

Proposed USC-Dubai journalism school concerns faculty and community

By Bill Boyarsky
Published on October 29, 2008

Faculty members at the USC Annenberg School for Communications are deep into a controversy that should be of interest to the Jewish community.
It concerns a proposal from USC for a $3 million contract for Annenberg to work with the American University in Dubai to create a journalism and communications school in the Middle Eastern nation.

Will herstory repeat itself?

By Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein
Published on July 30, 2008

Parshat Masei (Numbers 33:1-36:13) With the recent on-court fracas of the WNBA, the historic presidential candidacy of Sen. Hillary Clinton and the real potential for both parties to nominate a woman for vice president, it's probably worth our while to consider where we have been, where we are and where we may go in regard to gender equality, both in Torah and in our time

Briefs: Methodists don’t ‘divest,‘ Jewish groups mobilize for Myanmar, Reno TV anchor sues

Published on May 8, 2008

Briefs

‘Teenism’ gives young adults an undeserved rep

By Justin Morris
Published on May 1, 2008

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 20.2 million people in America aged 15 to 19, and they are 7 percent of the population. So be careful what statements you make, or what biases you might allow yourself to believe.

‘Jews Only’ JNF land plan counters Israel’s values

By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
Published on August 9, 2007

It is unthinkable that Israel will be a country where purchasing land will require a paper from the chief rabbinate certifying one's Jewish status. It is unthinkable that Christian and Muslim Israelis, non-Jewish foreign investors and the 700,000 Russian immigrants whose religious status is unclear will be prohibited from leasing public lands. It is unthinkable that a people who has suffered from similar discriminatory laws throughout its history, including in Iran and Saudi Arabia today, will now impose them on others.

Are magnet schools LAUSD’s last hope to keep Anglo kids in the system?

By Mark Slavkin
Published on July 5, 2007

From the perspective of that child and his or her parents, they are being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. This was part of the context of the recent U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Conservative Supreme Court rulings vex Jewish advocacy groups

By Ron Kampeas
Published on July 5, 2007

Not only has the Supreme Court thoroughly abandoned a decades-old tradition of upholding the liberal gains of the 1950s and 1960s, it has become the premier bulwark of conservatism now that Democrats have retaken Congress and the White House is weakened to the point of impotency.

Golan’s Druse live with hope and anxiety

By Uriel Heilman
Published on September 28, 2006

Despite renewed international pressure on Israel and Syria to restart peace talks, people are not very excited by the prospects.

Fight Against Campus Bias Gets Boost

By Morton A. Klein
Published on May 4, 2006

If you're a Jewish college student, you no longer have to tolerate anti-Semitism or Israel-bashing on your campus. You are protected under our federal civil rights laws. These were the landmark conclusions of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an independent federal agency that analyzes information about discrimination and reports its findings and recommendations to the president and Congress.

Tehran Jews Talk of Future in Iran

By Lev Krichevsky
Published on April 20, 2006

The trip was a rare group visit abroad by Iranian Jews, who live in an Islamic community whose government is virulently opposed to the State of Israel. The Iranians -- ages 14 to 30 -- came to Russia thanks to diplomatic efforts by Arkady Gaidamak, a Russian Jewish leader and businessman, who helped obtain a special permit from Iranian authorities.

Lift The Ban on Gay Blood Donors

By Lisa Hurwitz
Published on March 2, 2006

When students arrived at Milken Community High School on the morning of Jan. 10, they were confronted by a large banner reading: "Did you know homosexual males cannot give blood?" That was the start of a student-led Equal Blood Campaign to press the FDA to lift its blanket ban on all gay blood donors.

South African Judge Inspires Redemption

By Laureen Lazarovici
Published on January 19, 2006

Today, Sachs is a justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, appointed to the bench in 1994 by President Nelson Mandela and playing a leading role in writing the nation's new constitution after the fall of apartheid.

Alito Protects Minority Rights

By Jeffrey N. Wasserstein
Published on January 12, 2006

It's axiomatic that Jews tend to view all news through the lens of "but is it good for the Jews?" It's therefore no surprise that this filter now is being brought to bear on my former boss and mentor, Judge Samuel Alito Jr., who has been nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.

French Riots Not a Jewish Problem

By Lauren Elkin
Published on November 10, 2005

That appears to be the consensus of French Jews, who are simultaneously alarmed at the widespread violence of mostly Muslim youths in suburbs around the country -- and relieved that Jews have not been directly targeted, as they were during the height of the Palestinian intifada.

Bills Seek to End Israel Travel Penalty

By Idan Ivri
Published on August 25, 2005

It happens over and over again: A planned trip to Israel induces gasps of worry from friends who have never visited the country. Every suicide bombing or mortar attack on television reinforces the vision of Israel as a vast raging war zone.

High Court Hears Prison Religion Case

By Matthew E. Berger
Published on March 24, 2005

Though Jews make up a small proportion of the prison population, they often are discriminated against and denied religious materials, such as kosher meals and tefillin, advocates for Jewish prisoners say.

Jew Jokes Not a Joke

By David Finnigan
Published on July 1, 2004

A Jewish teenager in Ventura County has filed a federal lawsuit against the Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), alleging that his high school coach and teammates repeatedly made anti-Semitic remarks to him and that school officials were indifferent to his complaints.

How to Be Religious in Prison

By Gaby Wenig
Published on May 20, 2004

California state prison inmate Raymond Morrison was forced to wear paper clothes, had his personal property taken from him, spent months in "the hole" (a.k.a. administrative segregation), was denied telephone calls and family visits, all because of his adherence to a halachic tenet.

Are Muslims Endangered?

By Idan Ivri
Published on May 13, 2004

Heightened ethnic and religious hatred might be rearing its ugly head in California -- but some politicians are eager to stand in its way.

Falsely Imprisoned Man Files Claims

By Adam Wills
Published on May 6, 2004

It took a Long Beach Superior Court judge two minutes to free Thomas Lee Goldstein on April 2, releasing him after almost a quarter century behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. The white-haired former Marine from Kansas mourned a lifetime of missed opportunities.

‘Til Death Do Us Part

By Rob Eshman
Published on February 12, 2004

Stephen Sass and Steven Hochstadt had been partners for 14 years when they decided to fly from their home in Los Angeles to Canada and officially get married. Though the couple had wed in a Reform Jewish ceremony five years earlier, an Ontario court had just upheld a law legalizing gay marriage, and the two Steves wanted, in Sass' words, "some official recognition," of a relationship that has been more stable and loving and productive than most marriages.

British Writer Snubs Pro-Israel Letters

By Richard Allen Greene
Published on August 14, 2003

"I have developed a habit when confronted by letters to the editor in support of the Israeli government to look at the signature to see if the writer has a Jewish name. If so, I tend not to read it," Richard Ingrams wrote in his July 13 column.

New Form of Anti-Semitism

By Richard Allen Greene
Published on June 19, 2003

Coming after conferences on anti-Semitism in New York, Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna, the book, "A New Anti-Semitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st-Century Britain," is something of a symposium unto itself.

ADD, ADHD—Life in the Fast Lane

By Wendy Mogel
Published on June 19, 2003

Two forces in our culture are at odds here -- the desire to respectfully accommodate differences, and the ease with which we claim victimhood for ourselves and for our children.

Home of the Free

By Joseph Hanania
Published on May 29, 2003

Anti-Semitism, I learned on a recent trip through France, is alive and pervasive. Nor, I discovered with some surprise, was the rabbi or those in charge of the synagogue overreacting.

Political Ties of U.S.

By Dr. Alexander Ford
Published on April 10, 2003

The old truths by which we in the Jewish community have
ordered our political alliances are being shaken to the core.

Crisis Manager

By Marc Ballon
Published on March 27, 2003

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center, has known Nussbaum for seven years. He said the banker's efforts to coax Wells Fargo to pay the reparations reflect Nussbaum's deep commitment to Jewish values.

Japane wish American Reflections

By Ellen Fuji
Published on January 23, 2003

If there is such a thing, I am your typical Japanewish American Princess.

My Mom is Japanese American, my Dad is ethnically Jewish and, in a wonderful embrace, I came to be. Growing up in a town in which racial and religious combinations were not the norm, my two heritages naturally blended into one. Kamaboko (fish cake) and matzah ball soup were just as normal to me as they were odd to everyone else. On several occasions, my brother and I would joke about being double-teamed by our parents, whose academic standards were sky-high. Mom and Dad seemed to be the only ones on the block who strategically transformed games of report cards and SAT scores into two-on-one situations. But no matter how much I still accuse them of being ruthless, they didn't team up to be mean -- they just wanted us to be the best we could be.