The faith-and-football shuffle

Arts

Deferred dream comes true for actress Nan Tepper

"I had been a student, wife, mother, news executive and caregiver, but I had always promised myself that one day I would be an actor."

Food

Eating Bambi (recipe included)

Most of the anti-Semitic mail I get these days doesn't concern Israel, Hollywood or even the threat of a nuclear war in the Middle East -- it's about meat.

Israel

Final aliyah flight leaves Ethiopia for Israel, U.S. revokes Fulbright winners’ visas

The last official airlift of Ethiopian Jews was scheduled to land in Tel Aviv tonight, bringing to an end a state-organized campaign that began nearly 30 years ago and brought in some 120,000 immigrants from the east African nation

U.S.

McCain campaign checks out sole Jewish Republican Congressman as possible VP

As recently as May, the only Jewish Republican in the House discounted suggestions that he would place on the ticket, giggling as he told JTA that such speculation was "ridiculous."

Los Angeles

Southland Olympians go for the gold

World

Allosemitism (noun)—Jews as the perpetual ‘other’

How to define what is "Jewish" provides endless fodder for debate in post-Holocaust, post-communist Europe. Is there, as the concept of allosemitism implies, a "certain Jewish something" that sets Jews apart?

Education

VIDEO: Bar Mitzvah the Tradition

This video, an open source release of Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, gives a good, factual overview of the meaning and tradition of the Jewish coming-of-age ritual, the Bar Mitzvah.

Calendar

Calendar Girls Picks and Clicks August 9-15: Tisha B’Av, music, opera, comedy and Brad

There's nothing like a heated, intelligent political debate to get Jews' social synapses firing. Jewish Journal staff writer, Brad Greenberg, a.k.a. The God Blogger, will be holding the reins of "The Young Jewish Vote," where Republican Jewish Coalition Director Larry Greenfield

Sports

Laker Jordan Farmar shoots for Middle East coexistence

Even though he was not at the Staples Center, the NBA's only Jewish player looked like he was on his home court in Jerusalem, where he led 25 Jewish and Arab children aged 10 to 14 in shooting, passing and ball-handling drills.

Torah Portion

Back to School

Parshat Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22) Both the story of Bilaam and Targum Jonathan instruct us to see beyond the grand, deep, transformative moments of speech, and realize that each and every time we speak, we are taking advantage of a Divine gift.

Opinion

Lebhar’s Dream

Our Moroccan ancestors, the rabbi explained, were Torah romantics. They were so in love with Shabbat that they didn't want it to end