Tag: 2012

"I'm no expert on the Jews, but May 20th, 2012 might be the most Jewish event in the history of Judaism," writes my friend Baruch Herzfeld. On the money, assuming Baruch means (as I believe he does) that this thing is confusing and self-contradictory like a delicious Talmudic debate.

A recent article in The Jewish Press (Purim And The Tyranny of Beauty, Family Issues, March 16, 2012) written by writer and author Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum generated, and continues to generate, quite a buzz.

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Watch Neturei Karta leader Moshe Hirsch congratulating Israeli Islamist Raed Sallah for his courtroom victory against Deportation from Britain courtesy of MEMRI TV.

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Based on data released today by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the first quarter of 2012 registered an all-time record high for incoming tourism...

The OU Press has brought out two very significant books on the thought of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

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Bet you didn't expect to find those two components, Yiddish theater and Neil Sedaka in the same headline. Well, now you have! The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene will be honoring pop singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka, the son of a Turkish Jew father and a Polish-Russian Jewish mother, at its 2012 annual gala, June 12, at New York’s Town Hall.

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It is the year 2012, people are walking around with smart phones and all sorts of undreamed of gadgets, the "Arab Spring" continues, and an African-American is president of the United States. Times have changed. Yet the hysterical hatred for Israel in the Arabic-speaking world and among Muslims in general has only increased; the philosophy of rejectionism is as strong as ever, or maybe even stronger.

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US medical device company Covidien has acquired Israeli respiratory systems maker superDimension for approximately $300 million, winning a bidding war to purchase the company for its bronchial tube endoscopes which reduce the invasiveness of surgery.

Five years ago, the SWIFT clearing system ban on Iranian banks would have yielded results, but nowadays Iran is relying on rogue financial systems created by South-American countries, and on its trade with India, China, Russia, Brazil and Turkey, to maintain the flow of money, goods and services for which it continues to pay with oil. It's business as usual for Iran.

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Two polls - one commissioned by Maariv, the other by Haaretz - paint drastically different pictures of the current political frontrunners, leading to heated debate in the halls of the Knesset

The winter session, which started October 31, 2011, will end on March 21, 2012. The summer session will begin April 30, 2012, and end...

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Republicans see a political opening in the disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem over two major issues: Jewish settlements and their influence on the peace talks with the Palestinians, and the Obama administration's pressure on Israel to hold off on a military strike against Iran. A House Budget Committee pressed Panetta on reduced budget requests for Israel's missile defense program against ballistic missiles and rockets.

It turns out all the Republicans who are still standing are moving in on the Jewish vote, save for Ron Paul who just doesn't seem to care. The Jews, for a variety of reasons, appreciate being courted. Like the Jewish attorney from NJ who calls on fellow Jews to ignore Rick Santorum's views on abortion, contraception, and religion, and concentrate instead only on the his views on Israel.

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The IDF website reports a decline in the number of army recruits this year, pinning the lowest recruitment rate in eight years on slower...

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