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By Rabbi Anson Laytner , Special to JTNews On one side of the road were three young demonstrators holding signs saying “Pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-ceasefire” and “Not in my name.” On the other side of the road was an older demonstrator, wearing an Indian feather headdress, handing out flyers that declared,Continue Reading

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By Ron Kampeas , JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — For some relief from the misery of Israel’s south and Gaza, here’s a joke from the second intifada: An American Jew at a party in New York tells an Israeli friend, “I’d love to visit, but it’s just tooContinue Reading

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By Noah S. Friedland, Ph.D. , Special to JTNews Since the dust settled after the Six Day War, the main tenet of the Arab-Israeli peace process has been Land for Peace (LFP). Under this equation, Arab countries would enter into formal peace agreements in exchange for Israel ceding lands acquiredContinue Reading

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By Amy Hirshberg Lederman , Special to JTNews I was in the fourth grade, hiding in the girl’s bathroom with Fran Schneider, when the loudspeaker rang out: “All students are to return to their classrooms immediately.” We looked at each other and giggled nervously, afraid that we would get bustedContinue Reading

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By Murray Meld , Special to JTNews Both presidential aspirants agree: Let’s get out of the Iraq debacle. But they differ as to how and when — and neither forewarns us that withdrawal without safeguards might result in a Blackwater Company attempt to take over “security.” Given the number ofContinue Reading

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By David Benkof , Special to JTNews Jews often complain that prayer is boring. Young people resist going to synagogue — and older people drift away from prayer altogether — because they find it to be a chore. In response to this claim, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, perhaps the longest-tenured pulpitContinue Reading

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By David Rosen , JTA News & Features MADRID (JTA) — When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced his intention some three months ago to reach out to the leaders of the main religions of the world to convene an interfaith dialogue and to work together to address major globalContinue Reading

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By Sen. Adam Kline , Special to JTNews One of the biggest warning signs surrounding Initiative 97, the “Divest from War and Occupation” measure, is that it is being promoted deceptively. It purports to be an anti-Iraq War measure, but frequently omitted from the signature-gatherers’ spiel is the provision thatContinue Reading

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By Richard Silverstein , Special to JTNews The debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about to heat up considerably here in Seattle. Peace activists have taken a page from the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, which have proposed resolutions divesting church funds from companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation. InitiativeContinue Reading

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By David Shayne , Special to JTNews The last JTNews featured an article about Norman Finkelstein’s participation in local “Naqba” observances. While discussing his remarks at length, the article omitted pertinent facts about Finkelstein himself and the origin of “Naqba” day. Although described as an “academic lecturer,” Finkelstein is notContinue Reading

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By Raffi Wineburg , Special to JTNews What is education? To some, to many, to me, it used to mean no more than a desk and a textbook. Education did not extend beyond the classroom. It did not extend past several hours a week on the source praying for thatContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Moshe Kletenik , JTA News & Features SEATTLE (JTA) — We are all too familiar with the stories. Someone who for his entire life considered himself Jewish is suddenly told by a rabbinical court that his Jewish identity is suspect. A woman adopted and converted as a childContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Marc Angel and Rabbi Avraham Weiss , JTA News & Features NEW YORK (JTA) — The Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Rabbinical Council of America have concluded an agreement related to conversion that will allow the two groups to work together. This solves a problem that reachedContinue Reading

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By Ami Eden , JTA News & Features NEW YORK (JTA) — Barack Obama has spent months fending off successive waves of highly misleading and outright false e-mail campaigns, but this week the Democratic front-runner found himself scrambling to respond to an indisputable YouTube-documented outrage: the inflammatory sermons of hisContinue Reading

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By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews That members of the West Seattle Torah Learning Center sent Judge George Holifield 100 letters in support of Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz says something about their devotion to their rabbi. But was it the right thing to do? Rabbi Schwartz was convicted in January ofContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Richard Toban , Seattle Kollel In this past week’s Torah portion, the Talmud (Megillah 10b) tells us that during the miracles at the Splitting of the Red Sea, when the Egyptians were being drowned, the children of Israel burst into song. The malachai hashareis — the ministering angelsContinue Reading

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By Dov Burt Levy , Special to JTNews Jewish angles in the presidential primaries? Here’s my take, so far. First, what a difference four years makes. In the 2004 democratic primary, we had Jewish connections everywhere: General Wesley Clark’s birth father was Jewish, so were John Kerry’s paternal grandparents, andContinue Reading