From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
Yitzhak Zahavy is competing this Sunday in a grueling sports event because he can. He can, he says, because three of his comrades gave their lives to save his. He is competing to honor them.
Zahavy, who was born in …
I’m off to Israel for a week as part of JNFuture’s first Jewish Leadership Institute mission. While I can’t wait to meet with members of the Knesset, enjoy the beach in Tel Aviv, and pray at the wall Friday night in Jerusalem, I am terribly sorry I won’t be here in NYC …
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
Starting this fall, Ramapo College of New Jersey will offer its students a minor in human rights and genocide studies. It will be the first program of its kind in New Jersey’s state college system, according to Michael …
This terrific editorial, which ran last week in The New York Times, should be required reading for anyone who thinks he or she can make peace in the mideast by putting the squeeze on Israel and/or employing high-level diplomacy. I would analogize the latter to attempting to make peace between a wife and her …
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
From using “Jewish guilt” to interrogate criminals to reporting to the New York Police Department from the scene of suicide bombings in Israel, Mordechai Dzikansky’s career has been unique.
“You have to be unconventional and you have to take risks …
Recently I interviewed a Syrian-American acquaintance, a restaurateur in his mid-thirties, Ahmad (name has been changed for security reasons) about what it was like to grow up in Syria (he immigrated to the U.S. as a young adult) under the regime of Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez Assad. I also spoke with him about the unfolding …
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
Historically, the Jewish community has been a partner with organized labor, but the connection has weakened in recent years. Martin Schwartz, executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee, wants to reinvigorate it. To that end, the nonprofit …
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
On Sunday, Israel announced the arrest of Amjad Awad, 19, and Hakim Awad 18, both from the Palestinian village of Awarta, in connection with the murders of the Fogel family in March. Both have reportedly admitted to perpetrating the …
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
In the rush of day-today life, it is easy to forget Sgt. Gilad Shalit, reflects Michaela Elias, 16, of Teaneck.
“It’s very easy to dismiss his situation because it doesn’t have relevance in [one’s] daily life,” said Michaela. “To feel like, ‘We’ve lost …
Blood donation is a mitzvah
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
Judaism has always insisted on “safety first.” Starting with such Torah-based commands to build a parapet around one’s home to prevent objects from falling off roofs and to cover holes on roadways and fields, Jewish law requires that not just care …