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A Toast for Peace
:: haaretz :: A couple of weeks ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced his intention to pass a bill that would ban alcohol from kiosks and gas stations as well as limit its sales and advertisement. The purpose of the bill is to reduce the seemingly rising level of violence and road accidents inside Israel.
The subject of violence and alcohol has been recently seared into the consciousness of Israelis when a group of inebriated teenagers attacked a family of three at a Tel-Aviv beach, brutally murdering the father.
That killing was just one of many harrowing accounts of high-profile crimes reported in Israel this summer - including a mother starving her child, a father killing his toddler, a dismembered woman found in a burning garbage bin, another dismembered woman found in a river, and a shooting at a gay youth center.
Shofar blowers raise the roof at first-of-a-kind conference
:: haaretz :: Over 100 shofar blowers gathered Wednesday at a first-of-its-kind and somewhat ear-splitting conference for men who desperately needed to practice and receive their colleagues' encouragement before the moment of truth - Sunday, when they will put the traditional ram's horn to their lips and coax from it the plaintive calls that form one of the most moving moments of the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
The shofar blowers had another special reason to gather: They are graduates of the first shofar-blowing course ever organized by the Chief Rabbinate. The course included a meticulous study of the laws pertaining to the shofar and a lesson by Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, as well as several useful tips from experienced blowers of the ceremonial horn.
And the sound of the shofar is not the only sign of fall in the air. Another is the blooming of the tall, slender sea squill, with its rows of tiny white flowers, while a third is the forecast for occasional showers over the coming days. After four months of hot, dry weather, moist air is to make its seasonal debut over the holiday, especially at night.
Jewish Agency pulls controversial 'Lost Jews' ads
:: haaretz :: Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky has yanked an anti-assimilation ad campaign that has outraged Jews abroad. The campaign was co-sponsored by the government.
On Saturday, Natan Sharansky ordered the offending newspaper ads pulled, as well as a video clip portraying young Jews who may marry non-Jews as lost or missing. The campaign was supposed to strengthen Diaspora Jews' ties to Israel but imploded in a storm of criticism from religious leaders, bloggers and editorial writers, who saw it as an affront to the children of mixed marriages.
The Movement for Progressive Judaism and a leading Jewish Agency official demanded that Natan Sharansky halt the campaign, which urged Israelis to report on Diaspora Jews involved in relationships with non-Jews.
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, chairman of the movement - the Reform stream in Israel - and the agency's aliyah department chief, Paula Edelstein, attacked both the content and the message of the campaign.
Portugal's secret Jews come out of hiding
:: haaretz :: A bearded man in a red velvet skullcap, chain-smoking on Shabbat at a garden cafe while preaching to friends about the Torah, would be an odd sight anywhere. And he would particularly stand out in Lisbon, with its small Jewish community.
The man, Joao Santos, a regular at Cafe Principe Real, could easily be written off as another colorful urban character. But in today's Portugal his eccentricity is not out of context. It is part of a national trend: The turning toward Judaism of thousands of Portuguese who believe they are descended from Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity hundreds of years ago.
They trace their Jewish roots to the 15th and 16th centuries, to the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions in which thousands of Jews were murdered and countless others were forced into exile or to convert. Many became crypto-Jews, practicing secretly. They were classified in Jewish law as Anusim, Jews who are forced to abandon their religion against their will, but continue to practice insofar as possible.
Their modern-day descendants call themselves Bnei Anusim - sons or children of the Anusim. They are also known by the derogatory Spanish term "Marranos" ("swine").
After 20 years, why has Russian immigration to Israel stagnated?
:: haaretz :: Twenty years after Russia opened its doors to mass emigration, the number of immigrants choosing to move to Israel has stagnated.
Since 1989, over one million Russians have immigrated to Israel. In the past few years, Israel has seen an average of between five and six thousand Russian immigrants per year.
Professor Eliezer Leshem, a former Hebrew University professor and current Professor Emeritus at Ariel University Center of Samaria, believes that the current cessation of immigration may have something to do with discrimination many Russians felt while being absorbed into Israeli society.
Leshem, who is an expert on Russian immigration, cites the state's doubt about some immigrants' Jewish status, as well as trouble integrating into the job market as signs of the intolerance the Russian community has had to face.
Does Birthright have a hidden agenda?
:: haaretz :: Many of the young people who pass through the Jewish Enrichment Center in Lower Manhattan view it with great affection. It is often the first time they have come in contact with a Judaism that is engaging and accessible.
The rabbis responsible for the center's educational and religious programs are charismatic and approachable people who, participants say, have had a large impact on their lives.
As the official New York follow-up organization for Taglit-Birthright Israel - which sends young people on free trips to Israel and lately is trying to keep them Jewishly engaged when they return - there could hardly be a better model.
But there are also those Birthright alumni who have been turned off by the JEC, sensing that it has a hidden, religious agenda that clashes with Birthright's declared nondenominational and pluralistic stance.
Sweden newspaper editor: I'm not a Nazi, I'm not anti-Semitic
:: haaretz :: The editor-in-chief of the Swedish newspaper that printed an article alleging that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to harvest their organs denied accusations on Monday that he was anti-Semitic.
"I'm not a Nazi," Jan Helin, the chief editor at the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, wrote in a blog entry on Monday. "I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm the editor-in-chief who has allowed the publication of a culture article because it asked a number of relevant questions."
The article set off a media frenzy in Israel, where the article's author has been accused of disseminating "a blood libel" against the Jews.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered on Monday outside the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv in protest of Stockholm's ongoing refusal to condemn the article, Army Radio reported.
They waved Matzos [pieces of unleavened bread] smeared with red paint, alluding to the common Medieval blood libel. They also set up a mock market stall with a banner "Palestinian organs on sale here."
When did American Jews start thinking about the Holocaust?
:: haaretz :: Hasia Diner is a historian who believes that things actually happened in history. She is also comprehensive, indeed dogged in her research, which her oeuvre amply demonstrates.
Diner, who teaches history at New York University, made a major contribution with her superb "A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), which articulated for many of us a vocabulary for understanding mid-19th century American Jewish history.
In her latest work, "We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust, 1945-1962" - also an assiduously researched book - Diner tackles the question of consciousness of the Holocaust in America.
Diner's mission is to explode the eponymous "myth" that there was only a gradual evolution of Holocaust consciousness. Diner asserts that much of postwar American Jewish history and public affairs needs to be understood in the context of the Holocaust.
Sephardi Jews lack screening programs for their genetic diseases
:: haaretz :: When he and his wife went to take blood tests in preparation for starting a family in 2003, he discovered that the screening included a panel of tests for Ashkenazic Jewish genetic disorders. But Belinfante is Sephardic.
"We told them at the time that we were not Ashkenazi, but they told us they don't do testing for Sephardic diseases, just for Ashkenazi ones," recalled Belinfante, who traces his ancestry to the Iberian Peninsula via the Balkans, Holland and England. "So they went ahead and did the Ashkenazi tests anyway."
With a note of bemusement, Belinfante, who is the librarian and archivist at the New York-based American Sephardi Federation, added, "Surprisingly enough, they found we did not have any of the Ashkenazi Jewish diseases."
Since screening for Tay-Sachs disease began close to 40 years ago, Ashkenazic Jews have dominated the scene when it comes to Jewish genetic disorders.Readmore
Investigator of Argentinean Jewish center attack resigns
:: jpost :: Argentina's Metropolitan Police Chief Jorge Palacios, who investigated a terror attack at Buenos Aires' AMIA Jewish community center 15 years ago, has resigned his position.
Mayor Mauricio Macri told an Argentine news agency Jorge Palacios had resigned for "personal reasons". Jorge Palacios appointment to the position was criticized by families of victims of the attack, which claimed the lives of 85 and injured an additional 300.
In 2008 the 60-year old investigator was questioned on suspicion that he purposefully distorted the investigation of a Syrian businessman suspected of involvement in the attack.
Mauricio Macri said the resignation was "a noble gesture that only lends him respect". He said Jorge Palacios had not wanted to cause the government any public embarrassment, as Mauricio Macri had supported his nomination.
Jorge Palacios critics also claimed he had taken part in the suppression of a protest against the government in December of 2001, in which 30 residents of the city were killed.Readmore