Features

Newsfeatures and service pieces exploring topics ranging from life on the West Bank to finding the perfect afternoon tea in Manhattan's swankiest salons.

Joan Rivers comes to the Pantages, disses, then dishes with this reporter

November 7, 2011

From Weekly Volcano

by HEATHER ROBINSON

“Where are we?” Joan Rivers rasped from offstage last Friday. “The Pantages Theater in Tacoma? It’s come to this?”

So the icon kicked off a performance so politically incorrect it would make the diversity-minded...

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Come west, funny woman: Joan Rivers talks tattoos, military men and staying sexy in her 70s

November 2, 2011

From Weekly Volcano

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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Since her days on The Tonight Show in the 1970s, Joan Rivers has been a comedic icon. Now 78, Rivers, as captured in Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (last year’s film documentary about her life) seems to fear just one thing: a blank...

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Good news, bad news: Jewish groups granted lion’s share of area’s federal security funds

September 2, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

The Department of Homeland Security last week announced the allocation of $19 million for 2011 to non-profit institutions deemed vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The allocations were made as part of its Nonprofit Security Grant Program...

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‘Sign here!’: Petition effort launched against likely unilateral Palestinian statehood bid

August 31, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

Sign here. That is what Jewish organizations across the country are asking people to do in e-mails and up-close-and-personal appeals in advance of next month’s opening of the United Nations General Assembly. In this area,...

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Economy taxes agency resources: ‘Second wave’ of needy feared as nation’s financial picture worsens

August 25, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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In the wake of the economic downturn three years ago, many people in our area turned to local Jewish social service agencies for help, according to those agencies’ directors. Last week, as stock markets seesawed wildly, those same...

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Triathlon Tribute: Bergenfield resident races to honor slain compatriots

August 7, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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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 Rhode Island, moved to...

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Hebrew charter school leaves teachers, parents in the lurch

July 23, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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Teachers and parents are scrambling to make alternate arrangements in the wake of the announcement July 15 by the New Jersey Department of Education that Shalom Academy, a Hebrew-language charter school, will not open in September....

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Battle of Digital Billboards Moves to Midsized Cities of Pittsburgh and Tacoma

July 20, 2011

From The Huffington Post

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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Riding by car or bus last Fourth of July weekend, you may have enjoyed the green hills and valleys, the rust-colored canyons or wheat-covered plains rolling past your window.

If you’ve admired the natural beauty along our...

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N.J. lawmakers act to protect volunteers who drive: Federations sought measure, which would help Meals on Wheels

July 16, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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“No good deed goes unpunished,” or so the saying goes. But an alliance of New Jersey nonprofits has enlisted a bipartisan group of legislators to prevent that maxim from applying to volunteer drivers in the Garden State.

The move...

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Local student gets HIAS help: Russian emigre looks forward to resuming medical education

July 16, 2011

From The Jewish Standard

by HEATHER ROBINSON

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Robert Goldberg of North Haledon, a former Muscovite, is among the 60 scholars chosen this year to receive a scholarship from HIAS, the international organization that has assisted in resettling Jewish immigrants for 130 years....

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