July 11, 2012
(JTA) — The U.S.-based Episcopal Church adopted a resolution at its General Convention Assembly calling for “a negotiated two-state solution” and “positive investment” as responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Also at the meeting in Indianapolis, delegates tabled a resolution urging “corporate engagement” by the church and dissemination of “information on products” made in the West Bank.
The moves “distanced the church” from the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, according...
July 11, 2012
(JTA) — The Obama administration criticized an Israeli panel finding that West Bank settlements are legal under international law. “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters Monday evening in answer to a question about the Levy Committee report. Ventrell added that the State Department is “concerned about it, obviously.”
U.S....
July 08, 2012
By RON KAMPEAS and NEIL RUBIN
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Proponents of using economic pressure to force Israel out of the West Bank may have lost a key battle this week — by a hair’s breadth — but they have no intention of giving up. That’s the message from backers of a divestment motion at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which late Thursday night rejected a proposal to...
July 03, 2012
BOSTON (JTA) — Danny Richter and his fiancee, Lauren Perkins, have never been to a Jewish wedding. That’s about to change. This fall, the interfaith couple is planning to be married in a Jewish wedding ceremony. The wedding marks other significant firsts: It also will be the first time that Rabbi Jill Perlman, assistant rabbi at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, Mass., has ever officiated at an interfaith wedding. In fact,...
July 02, 2012
By DEBRA RUBIN (JTA) — The Sidmans are among the lucky ones: Their Colorado Springs home is still standing, nearly untouched by the flames that left many of their neighbors’ houses in ashes. “I was just sobbing uncontrollably, even though my house was perfect,” Renee Sidman told the Colorado Springs Gazette.
For the past week Sidman and her family — among some 30,000 Colorado residents who were evacuated from their...
June 28, 2012
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts voting in the majority on Thursday, June 28. The Court upheld the most controversial provision of the law that required all American citizens to purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty.
The court struck a provision that forced states to expand their Medicaid programs...
June 27, 2012
Nora Ephron, the celebrated novelist and essayist who had a successful film writing career veer into a career as a director, died Tuesday night in Manhattan. Her death was officially attributed to pneumonia, but it was revealed she had been battling acute myeloid leukemia for several years. She was 71. Ephron’s most popular nods as director were “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail” (both starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan)...
May 09, 2012
Vidal Sassoon, the legendary Los Angeles hairstylist who revolutionized his industry in the 1960s, died at his Bel Air home on May 8 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Although Sassoon lived in the glitzy entertainment world for more than a half century, he never forgot his humble beginnings in London’s East End, nor his Jewish ancestry. At the age of 20, Sassoon joined the Haganah and fought in Israel’s war for independence in 1948....
May 08, 2012
Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of children’s books including the 1963 classic “Where the Wild Things Are,” died of complications from a stroke in Danbury, Connecticut on May 7. He was 83. Born in Brooklyn, Sendak’s parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland, who lost many members of their family during the Holocaust. Sendak began work as an illustrator as a young man for other authors before writing and illustrating...
May 07, 2012
In a tradition begun in the George W. Bush administration, the White House released a proclamation declaring the month of May as “Jewish American Heritage Month.” As part of the proclamation, several well-known Jewish figures were cited and acknowledged for their various contributions. However, following objections from Jewish scholars and leaders, a revised proclamation was issued on May 3 to exclude the name of Gertrude Stein as a “Jew who brought to...
