Germany donating $80 million to maintain Auschwitz

Published on December 16, 2010

Germany has committed to a donation of $80 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, for the preservation and restoration of the memorial at the site of the Nazi concentration camp.

Tikkun Olam

By Rachel Pomerance
Published on January 6, 2005

When it comes to helping victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami, the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) is taking the adage, "teach a man how to fish," quite literally.

As part of its long-term relief efforts for victims of the Dec. 26 tragedy, the group is working with its partner organizations in the region, including the Sanghamitra Service Society in Andhra Pradesh, India, which helps local fishing communities with sustainable development and disaster preparedness. The philosophy behind the group's post-tsunami effort is the same as that behind general AJWS operations -- long-term efforts through collaboration with groups in the region.

Briefs

Published on October 21, 2004

Briefs

A Berry-Bursting Celebration

By Lisa J. Solomon
Published on February 5, 2004

When my daughter was born, I walked the floors of our Atlanta home night after night, day after day, holding her while she slept or when she cried, stopping always in front of the wall of backyard windows framing a forest of trees. As I grew into my unexpected role of single motherhood, I watched the bare trees bend, and sometimes break under the weight of silver winter icicles. Then, as if reborn, I saw the same trees stretch tall and proud with tight spring blossoms of white, pink and lavender, before expanding, under the summer rains, into a lush landscape of green. Finally, these magnificent trees transformed, as if to colored music, into passionate reds, singing oranges and dancing yellows of fall, just as we packed our boxes and moved away.

Community Briefs

Published on September 11, 2003

Community Briefs

Dude, Where’s My Kabbalah?

By Gaby Wenig
Published on September 4, 2003

It's official. The Kabbalah Centre has usurped the Church of Scientology's status as Hollywood's hottest creed of choice. These days, it seems like every celeb looking to add meaning to his or her glittering but empty life of fame and fortune is joining the red-string-wearing, holy-water-selling, quasi-Jewish group.

Ariel Avrech

By Michael Aushenker
Published on July 24, 2003

iel Avrech died of complications from severe pulmonary fibrosis on July 1. He was 22.

"He was incredibly learned," said Avrech's father, Emmy-winning screenwriter Robert Avrech ("The Devil's Arithmetic"). "I always learned from him. Our roles were reversed. He was also very funny and had a very dry, ironic sense of humor."

The Gift of Thrift

By Song Oh
Published on March 21, 2002

T-shirts $2. Jeans $7. Handwritten signs point to bargains galore at the National Council of Jewish Women/Los Angeles (NCJW/LA) Council Thrift Shop.

There’s No Time Like the Present

By Ellie Kahn
Published on December 27, 2001

In my family, death and funerals seem to inspire joking. Maybe it's discomfort, but it also seems to be a lack of concern and heaviness about the whole thing. No one in my family does much visiting of graves, and burials are apparently not deemed necessary.

The Circuit

By Michael Aushenker
Published on December 20, 2001

The Circuit

It’s a Little Tricky

By Risa Munitz
Published on October 23, 1997

Once again we are faced with the annual dilemma of what to doabout Halloween. Should we let the kids "trick or treat" or not? Weknow that Halloween is not a Jewish holiday; that is not the problem.We celebrate Thanksgiving and Presidents Day, both American holidayswhich reflect good values. Halloween, on the other hand, does notreflect a value system that we would like to pass on to our children.It focuses on taking, greed and violence, not to mention theconsequences, a nasty trick, played on those who refuse to give.

No Longer

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on July 10, 1997

Her collecting usually takes her to a suburban garage, where the grandchildren of immigrants are giving away bubbe's old Yiddish books to make way for the bicycles. The work is hardly glamorous, but Koral, in her 40s, finds it a "profound connection" to her late parents, survivors of the Holocaust and the Stalinist gulags who spoke to her only in Yiddish.