by Charles Kopel “Education is a human right,” declared Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner to an applauding crowd of six hundred last week in the Haifa Auditorium. The audience was gathered for Wikimania 2011, an annual event to celebrate the Foundation's mission and accomplishments, and to...
By Steven Philp Republican or Democrat, American Jews inherit a history of progressiveness concerning issues of race and religion. Yet a pledge released by the conservative organization Family Leader, expounding racism and religious intolerance uncharacteristic of our community, includes an unexpected Jewish stamp of approval. The...
By Adina Rosenthal There is a new superhero on the block. In true Superman fashion, he spends his days as regular citizen Miles Hastwick, but when trouble is afoot, he transforms into a superhero ready to rescue the public from a pernicious danger that has afflicted...
By Steven Philp Kosher products are a common sight in most American stores; it is an industry that is recognized outside the Jewish community, employing both Jews and non-Jews in its processing and distribution. Americans are less familiar with halal products, even though they are consumed...
By Steven Philp On April 6, 1959 Time Magazine reported the birth “of the most famous and perhaps most beautiful baby,” a Jewish girl named Elishaba Rachel Taylor. The prior week marked the conversion—or “birth”—of the 27-year-old actress Elizabeth Taylor to the Jewish faith, following six...
By Symi Rom-Rymer In the midst of cheering crowds and booming music at an auditorium in Düsseldorf, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Turkish audience of 10,000 to "integrate…into German society but don't assimilate. No one has the right to deprive us of...
By Symi Rom-Rymer In the midst of cheering crowds and booming music at an auditorium in Düsseldorf, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Turkish audience of 10,000 to "integrate…into German society but don't assimilate. No one has the right to deprive us of...
By Symi Rom-Rymer Journalist Stéphane Foucart posed an interesting question in a recent article in the French daily paper, Le Monde: what can Google tell us about our prejudices? Intrigued by an earlier piece in Télérama, a weekly French magazine, that pointed out that the word...
By Kayla Green How is it possible to judge the attitude toward Jews in the Czech Republic, a country where Jews have in recent history suffered not only from the devastating Shoah, but from stifling Communism, as well? Many westerners are quick to associate the country...
By Gabriel Weinstein Last week a group of twenty cantors from the American Conference of Cantors (ACC) serenaded Catholic officials in Rome with rousing renditions of Adon Olam and other Jewish liturgical melodies. The concert was a part of the Interfaith Information Center’s conference on Catholic-Jewish...