World

August 27, 2008

Will new ‘Cold War’ play out in Middle East?

By Leslie Susser

With talk of a new Cold War in the offing following Russia's recent military successes in Georgia, Israel is worried Russia might reassess this policy and use the sale of new weaponry to Syria -- or the threat of it -- to strengthen Russia's hand vis-à-vis Israel's primary ally, the United States.

Featured

Image from Bibi's blogWednesday, August 27, 2008

In the J-blogosphere, everybody knows your screen name

By Amy Klein

"I didn't know there were non-Jewish bloggers," joked Likud leader and blogger Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, who made a last-minute appearance to speak to the bloggers.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Jews recall Musharraf ties and wonder what comes next

By Uriel Heilman

In 2005, Musharraf addressed a Jewish gathering in New York, where he said Pakistan would establish ties with Israel after the Palestinians have a state. During that same visit, Musharraf shook hands with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the U.N. General Assembly. Musharraf also is rumored to have exchanged letters of friendship with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Latest

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ancient seal unearthed in Jerusalem; Leiberman reassures Muslims

A 2,600-year-old clay seal impression was uncovered in Jerusalem's ancient City of David. Bearing the name Gedaliah ben Pashur, the seal impression was uncovered intact recently during archaeological excavations just below the walls of the Old City near the Dung Gate.

Rosa Jinjikhashvili, the last Jew remaining in the Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, stands on the ruins of her home. She is living in a summer house next doorTuesday, August 19, 2008

Emergency aid mission to Georgia: Find every Jew

By Grant Slater

As Russia occupied Georgia, pushing ever closer to the capital Tbilisi and bisecting the country, the relief effort for nearly two weeks has had only one prime directive: Find every Jew.

Victims of the Georgia-Russian conflict adjust to their new surroundings in a Russian refugee camp in Alagir on the border of South Ossetia. Photo by American Jewish Joint Distribution CommitteeTuesday, August 12, 2008

Jews trapped on both sides of Russian-Georgian conflict

By Grant Slater

As the conflict between Georgia and Russia moved toward an uneasy stalemate Tuesday, the migration of refugees away from the devastated capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia spread farther and more Jews emerged from the fog of war.

Klezmer and Jewish dance expert Walter Zev Feldman leads dancers in a square in Weimar, Germany.Wednesday, August 6, 2008

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

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

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?

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

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

Monday, August 4, 2008

Key dates in recent Chinese Jewish history

By Alison Klayman

From the opening of the first synagogue in Shanghai to the start of diplomatic relations between Israel and China, some key dates in Chinese Jewish history.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Your guide to Jewish Beijing

By Alison Klayman

Beijing has had an organized Jewish community since the late 1970s, the city's congregations cooperate well and Jews coming for the Olympics will find plenty of choices for davening.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Recalling Shanghai’s Jewish past

By Alison Klayman

More than 20,000 European Jews fleeing the Nazis found a home in Shanghai, many thanks to a Chinese diplomat in Austria. Honors for Ho Fengshan and a new museum recall that past.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

VIDEO: What do the Chinese think of Jews?

By Alison Klayman

China correspondent Alison Klayman goes out to Houhai lake to ask the question: What do Beijingers think of the Jews?

Dan AlonWednesday, July 30, 2008

Munich massacre survivor still carries Olympic scars

By Chanan Tigay

Thirty-six years on, Munich survivor Dan Alon still carries the scars of the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games, which he and four others escaped.

Rami Zur of Team USA in action during his K1 500m semifinal heat during the Canoe World Championship 2007. Photo by Getty ImagesWednesday, July 30, 2008

Olympics 2008: Swimmers lead U.S. Jewish contingent

By Marc Brodsky

The athletes who make up the U.S. Jewish contingent headed to China, a mix of veterans and newcomers, have a decent chance of winning a medal or two.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Timing is everything in the Olympics—and in Darfur

By Rabbi Lee Bycel

However, I also live with the images of the many people I have met in Darfur and Chad who have seen their communities and lives torn apart. They are not anticipating medals; they simply want to know that the world cares and that we have the resolve to act.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Hot pot dinner bonds two very different ‘believers’ in China

By Alison Klayman

Hot pot meals are popular in China and a double problem for kosher vegetarians.

Dini'sWednesday, July 30, 2008

Jews in China roll out red carpet for Olympics [VIDEOS]

By Alison Klayman

Gold medalists won't be the only ones climbing podiums in Beijing once the 2008 Olympic Games are under way. Isaac Shapiro of Highland Park, Ill. will be stepping up to celebrate his bar mitzvah

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Briefs: Syria and Israel talking again, Israeli colleges want Palestinian students

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Briefs: Olmert vows to solve conversion crisis, Israel names first female U.N. envoy

Ehud Olmert pledged to solve an Israeli conversion crisis prompted by a rabbinical dispute

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his daughter Daphne light the Sabbath candles on Friday evening on Nabogoya Hill. Photo by Richard Sobol/ZUMA PressWednesday, July 16, 2008

Freshly-ordained Ugandan rabbi gets ball rolling on returning home

By Roberto Loiederman

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, the first black sub-Saharan rabbi ordained at an American rabbinical school, has had a very busy time since returning to Uganda in June, after not having lived there for five years.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Briefs: Ahmadinejad to attend U.N. summit, Obama to visit PA, Israel

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans again to attend this year's summit at the United Nations in New York. His speech, Ahmadinejad said, will discuss "ruling the world based on justice."

Community Calendar

9/9/08 10:00 am
Picturing the Process: Landscape Through Time and Space

9/9/08 10:00 am
Humanitas: Images of India by Fredric Roberts

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Candlelighting

9/12 6:45 p.m. PDT


Featured Stories

Arts
Not your average ‘schlub’—a memoir

Max Gross, by his own admission, used to be your average schlub: He sported an unkempt Jewfro, the bottoms of his jeans were tattered and he'd gamely put a good burger before a diet.

Elections
McCain accepts nomination, offers little new on Israel, Iran

John McCain closed out the Republican convention Thursday night with a speech in which he defended traditional GOP policy points, while criticizing his party's recent performance and pledging to work with lawmakers across the aisle.

Israel
Ehud Olmert should be indicted, Israeli police tell prosecutors

Ehud Olmert should be indicted on corruption charges, Israel police recommended Sunday. Bribery is the most serious of the charges that police recommended against the prime minister to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. Others include fraud, breach of trust and money laundering.

U.S.
Michele Obama’s cousin’s cousin is a rabbi; Abbas met with Kuntar

A cousin of the wife of Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, is a cousin of this country's most prominent black rabbi, according to a report in The Forward.

Los Angeles
Rabbi Sharon Brous wins $100,000 award for ‘Inspired Leadership’

Since Sharon Brous, 34, founded her alternative synagogue four years ago, IKAR's young rabbi has frequently been identified as an innovative spiritual leader, someone successful at engaging disaffected younger Jews by marrying Torah learning with progressive social action.

World
Will new ‘Cold War’ play out in Middle East?

With talk of a new Cold War in the offing following Russia's recent military successes in Georgia, Israel is worried Russia might reassess this policy and use the sale of new weaponry to Syria -- or the threat of it -- to strengthen Russia's hand vis-à-vis Israel's primary

Kids & Teens
Cambodia’s killing fields revisited

I can vividly remember the first time I visited the Museum of Tolerance, in seventh grade. Not personally knowing anyone who had survived the Holocaust, I had been shielded from the grisly details of World War II.

Music
Cancer gives musician a new song

This time, Charlie Lustman hadn't come to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for medical tests or to endure another round of chemotherapy. Despite having lost three-quarters of his jawbone, Lustman had come to celebrate, to inspire -- and to sing.

Los Angeles
Rabbi Sharon Brous wins $100,000 award for ‘Inspired Leadership’

Since Sharon Brous, 34, founded her alternative synagogue four years ago, IKAR's young rabbi has frequently been identified as an innovative spiritual leader, someone successful at engaging disaffected younger Jews by marrying Torah learning with progressive social action.

Calendar
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for Sept. 6–12: Hip hop art, veggie Jews, string theory & laughs

Singles
True confessions of an online dating addict #5: Shopping for a new date

There's nothing better than coming home from a bad date and shopping for someone else.

Torah Portion
Moving beyond charity

Parshat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9) One of the biggest misnomers in the Jewish vocabulary is the translation of tzedakah as "charity." This mistranslation has gone on for so long in the American Jewish community that it's a hard habit to break.

Religion
PETA says Agriprocessors misled rabbis about slaughter procedures [VIDEO]

An undercover video shot at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant is prompting new claims that the company engages in inhumane slaughter and misled Orthodox rabbis who visited the plant in July.

Opinion
Joon

Since 1978, Iranian Jews have injected into a stable, maybe even staid Jewish community talent, industry, a profound connection to their Jewish roots and a desire to have a positive political and social impact on the city. They have energized a Jewish community that could always