Chanukah models of courage

Published on December 6, 2012

My 4-year-old son is obsessed with superheroes, dressing up at every opportunity as the superhero du jour to do battle with the bad guys lurking around the corner. (My 2-year-old daughter is just as enthusiastic, but at her age all she can really muster is a “meanie” face.)

Yoni Netanyahu: The heart and mind of a hero

By Danielle Berrin
Published on June 13, 2012

Thank you Steve Jobs.  Rest in Peace.

By Ilana Angel
Published on October 5, 2011

Tahl Leibovitz is not only Interesting, but Completely Remarkable

By Ilana Angel
Published on July 22, 2011

Two Jews on Film: ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ Review

Published on July 21, 2011

Is Tahl Leibovitz The Greatest Jewish Athlete You’ve Never Heard Of?

By Ilana Angel
Published on July 21, 2011

Win or Lose, I Love Manny Pacquiao - UPDATED

By Ilana Angel
Published on May 7, 2011

Angels Among Us

By Dikla Kadosh
Published on May 3, 2011

TV ‘terrorist’ plays Jewish hero on stage

By Orit Arfa
Published on August 12, 2008

‘Forgotten Hero’ of the Shoah Peter Bergson gets his due times two

By Tom Tugend
Published on July 30, 2008

A quiet hero

By David Suissa
Published on July 9, 2008

When Libby was not around, the young women of Shalva often had to be coaxed in order to reveal their insecurities or to talk about sensitive issues. But with Libby, it was the opposite.

Vidal Sassoon—hero of the Jewish people

By Dennis Wilen
Published on April 14, 2008

I’ve never had real heroes

By Gina Nahai
Published on November 8, 2007

t is true that Gunter Grass has brought much good into the world by his writings. It is also true that his late-in-life revelation calls into question or, depending on your point of view, entirely invalidates his right to the high moral ground he has for so long occupied. But in doing so, he has proven to those of us who have followed his life and career what he says he learned as a POW after the war: That no truth is ever entirely true, that what we revere today may become indefensible tomorrow, that the wisest path through life is to distrust certainty and instead to walk, in Grass' own words, "the long route, paved with doubts."

Righteous Heroes

By Tom Tugend
Published on June 28, 2007

What never fails to amaze me is that there were one, or 36, or tens of thousands of the just and righteous, who stood solitarily against the terror, who defied the cautious "wisdom" of their fellow citizens. Let us reserve the once honorable word "hero" for such men and women, even though, ironically, they may be the first to reject the honor.

The tragic irony of a hero in Virginia

By Samantha Simons
Published on May 3, 2007

Irony. In a book or a movie, it's the writer's way of giving the observer a slap in the face. People attempt to expect the unexpected, but when it actually happens no one is prepared.

Liviu Librescu z’‘l

By Steve Greenberg
Published on April 26, 2007

Cartoon.

Heroes and Villains

By Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin
Published on January 18, 2007

We all instinctively identify and label the heroes and villains in our lives, and Judaism supports the need for iconic heroes.

In the ring, at the front, boxer Barney Ross packed a punch

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on September 21, 2006

"Barney Ross" by Douglas Century.

Circuit

Published on July 19, 2006

Circuit news.

My Jewish King Kong

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on January 19, 2006

It's not surprising that my husband is the first in line at one of the earliest "Kong" press screenings. He's loved the giant simian since he first watched the 1933 classic film on TV when he was 7.

War Hero’s Medal Wait Finally Ends

By Tom Tugend
Published on September 15, 2005

Next Friday, as Tibor Rubin enters the White House, generals will stand at rigid attention. The president of the United States also will rise and then drape the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for gallantry in combat, around the neck of the 76-year-old Holocaust survivor and Korean War veteran.

Rubin and a legion of supporters have waited almost 55 years for this triumph of camaraderie and persistence over both bureaucratic lethargy and the prejudice endured by so many old-time Jewish GIs.

African Shoah Lives in ‘Hotel Rwanda’

By David Finnigan
Published on December 23, 2004

When British actress Sophie Okonedo portrayed the wife of a hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 people during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, she worked with 10,000 extras -- including Rwandan refugees living in Johannesburg.

Herzl’s Heirs

By Rob Eshman
Published on July 1, 2004

Years ago I wrote a novel. I don't remember how many years ago, but I began it on a typewriter, so you do the math.

Different Heroes

By Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Published on May 8, 2003

A poster of Moshe Dayan hung in my childhood bedroom. Growing up in the light of the Six-Day War, I adored this new Jewish hero -- tough, cocky, a Jew without fear.

A Hero for Seder

By Si Frumkin
Published on April 17, 2003

Michael and his wife went to a kibbutz in British-ruled Palestine in the 1930s. He joined the navy when war broke out and later ended up teaching French and metal shop at a London high school. It was there that he accepted a challenge that changed his life.

Our Eternal Light

By Rabbi Daniel Bouskila
Published on February 13, 2003

Today, I struggle with my grief for Ramon as the "international hero" and for Ramon as the man who my family and I were privileged to meet, break bread with and get to know personally.

We Soared With Ilan

By Yuval Rotem
Published on February 6, 2003

Yuval Rotem, Israeli consul general for the Western United States, delivered these remarks at a Feb. 1 dinner for Pressman Academy,
honoring him and his wife, Miri, at the Airport Westin Hotel.

Light From Sorrow

By Irene Brown
Published on February 6, 2003

As an aerospace writer, I have watched 87 crews slip the bonds of Earth's gravity and rocket away into space.

Moments of Silence

By Rob Eshman
Published on February 6, 2003

There were a lot of moments of silence this week. There was the one early Saturday morning when you first heard the news of the space shuttle Columbia's disappearance.

Remembering Noam

By Jonathan Medved
Published on January 9, 2003

The bombs that ripped through crowds of Israelis and foreign workers in Tel Aviv this weekend may have saved Yasser Arafat from making some tough decisions.

Internal and external pressures have been building on Arafat to allow comprehensive reforms of the Palestinian Authority -- reforms that effectively would undermine the PA president's grip on power.

But after Sunday's deadly attack by the Al-Aksa Brigade, a terrorist group from Arafat's own Fatah movement, Israel refused to allow Palestinian officials to attend a conference on PA reform in London or congregate in Ramallah to consider a draft of a Palestinian constitution.

Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that there is no need for Palestinian officials to travel abroad to conferences when they have the power at home to end terrorist attacks, but don't use it.

Unintentionally, however, the Israeli moves may have allowed Arafat to dodge a political bullet, at least temporarily.

One Mean Heeb

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on January 9, 2003

At one point in Jonathan Kesselman's "Jewish exploitation" comedy, "The Hebrew Hammer," Mordechai Jefferson Carver strides into a seedy skinhead bar wearing a long leather coat, a black fedora, pais, a tallit and an oversized gold chai. A chalkboard advertises beer on tap such as Old Adolf, but the titular superhero orders "Manischewitz, straight up." Then he crashes a bottle over the bartender's head, whips out two sawed-off shotguns and shouts, "Shabbat Shalom, Motherf------s!"

In this outrageous world of the Hammer (Adam Goldberg), the Orthodox Jewish hero must battle the evil son of Santa (Andy Dick) to save Chanukah.

A Hero

By Rob Eshman
Published on February 28, 2002

As The Journal went to press last week, word came that terrorist kidnappers in Pakistan had brutally murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Angelenos in New York

By Julie G Fax
Published on September 20, 2001

The old truism about any two people on earth being connected by six degrees of separation seems to be insufficient when a tragedy of this magnitude strikes.

A Hero’s Death

By Seamus McGraw
Published on September 20, 2001

It is a long ride from the shattered peace of Bergen County, N.J., to the mournful solitude of Wyndham, N.Y., the upstate ski resort where a memorial service was held Sunday for Jeremy Glick, 31.

Unmasking Purim’s Heroes—and Ourselves

By Rahel Musleah
Published on March 5, 1998

Who needs Halloween or Mardi Gras? On Purim, the masquerade of characters is lively and intriguing: Spangled Vashtis, bearded Mordechais, snarling Hamans, bejeweled Esthers, silk-robed Ahasueruses.