The potency of Israel as a wedge issue for Republicans going into 2012 was on full display when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited a small group of Democrats and Republicans to a first-ever joint meeting at Blair House one day before his May 24 speech to Congress. more>

The Jewish-Latino alliance on immigration issues builds on the heritage and experience of the Jewish community and on the enthusiasm and urgent needs of the Hispanic community. more>

For participants in the Yeshiva University schools' exchange program, the experience has not just been of slumber parties and shopping trips, but also of witnessing politics firsthand.

VIDEO :: Yeshiva University High School girls talk about their study experience in Israel. more>

"How can synagogues here in the United States lend support to our Jewish American soldiers?" First, by acknowledging their existence. more>

Nowhere has the truism that politics makes strange bedfellows seemed truer than in New York's 39th City Council district. The district takes in a wide swath of the liberal, gentrifying neighborhoods of Brooklyn's Brownstone Belt, including Park Slope, a lesbian Mecca and a hub of progressive Jewish life. But it also includes a slice of the Hasidic stronghold of Boro Park. more>

New York’s first Hebrew-themed public school set to open in August 2009 with a mission to widen Jewish engagement in the American society while remaining a secular institution. more>

When Israel unleashed its warplanes on Gaza on December 27, a collective gasp could be heard around the globe. What actually happened, at least in the first days, was quite different. more>

With the economy in turmoil, rabbis around the nation are under increasing pressure to raise funds to keep their synagogues healthy and oversee budgets that are being squeezed as members lose their jobs. more>

Workers at one of the nation’s largest kosher meat producers have voted against joining a union, though the union that led the drive is contesting the vote and accusing the company of foul play. more>

In developments that are already crippling the availability of kosher beef in large parts of America, three of the nation’s five largest slaughterhouses producing kosher beef halted production in the first week of November. more>

Those who had spent years investing money in college funds, much of which is tied up in stocks and bonds, are holding portfolios that have lost a considerable amount of value in recent weeks. more>

Agriprocessors and its owners, Aaron and Sholom Rubashkin, were charged with more than 9,000 counts of child labor violations by the Iowa Attorney General. more>

In response to the ICE raids in Pottsville’s Kosher meat plant, one group of rabbis has drafted a new set of rules to ensure decent working conditions in the kosher food industry; another has dismissed the idea, arguing that ensuring workers’ safety and fair pay is the job of the government, not the rabbinate. What is the moral of this story? more>

A major shift is under way in the politics and power balance of the Islamic world, and it calls for a fundamental change in American and Western strategic thinking. Handled well, the shift holds out the possibility of a lasting thaw in the tensions that now dominate relations between the West and Islam. more>

One of Washington’s nastiest legislative deadlocks came to an end last week when Congress voted convincingly to override a presidential veto and enact the five-year funding package known as the Farm Bill, which provides some $300 billion in food stamps, nutrition programs, foreign aid and conservation programs, along with perennially controversial growers’ subsidies. more>

The mass scale of the operation is especially noteworthy in light of a related fact: the government’s glaring failure to enforce any other laws crying out for attention at the Postville plant. The company has repeatedly been accused of food contamination, environmental pollution and violations of labor relations, workplace safety and plant sanitation laws. more>

Sources say that the company is trying to attract documented workers by offering wages higher than what the undocumented employees had received. But replacing a work force of hundreds could take months, experts on slaughterhouse labor say. more>

Measuring the Jewish attachment of the young has become one of the primary arenas of organized Jewish activism. According to new studies, there is a steady decline in Jewish attachment from oldest to youngest Jewish adults. What is the implication of these observations? more>

Every immigrant community in this city of immigrants must negotiate competing desires to remain unique and to assimilate. But while Russian, Bukharian and Middle Eastern Jewish communities are substantial enough to be visible within the larger Jewish landscape, New York’s tiny Indian-Jewish community has gone largely unnoticed. more>

Judaism has always put a spiritual value on food, but controversies at the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse – along with the publication of several best-selling books on the safety and humanity of food processing in general – have led to a push to infuse kosher food with the values of organic and free-range products. more>

Hillary Clinton announced last week that she would co-sponsor an amendment, proposed by Virginia Democrat Jim Webb, which would require the president to seek congressional approval before taking military action against Iran. more>

Touting “kosher amenities” – including two-sink kitchens, balconies pre-fit for sukkahs, gyms with separate schedules for men and women – these new condominiums are being custom-built for Orthodox populations that are growing in both absolute numbers and wealth. more>

The Pew Research Center released what is being billed as the first comprehensive demographic survey of American Muslims. The survey reports a figure of 2.35 million American Muslims, significantly lower than the estimates ranging from 6 million to 12 million that have been cited by Muslim advocacy groups. more>

Between 200 and 300 employees left their posts last Monday during the morning work shift to protest a May 4 letter sent by the company’s management to employees, many of whom are believed to be undocumented immigrants. The letter asked workers to verify Social Security numbers. more>

Since the shattering events of 9/11, the passions of the Forward, the struggles of Jewish survival, the wars of the Middle East, even the Jewish role in American politics could easily be mistaken for those first headlines of 1897. more>

Long an outsized presence among the activists and fundraisers who make up the lifeblood of national campaigns, Jewish Americans currently hold little clout as primary voters due to their concentration in states that come late in the nominating season. Jewish activists are predicting increased opportunities – and challenges – as a result of the new schedule. more>

Criticism has rained down on conservative talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager who publicly criticized Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison – the first Muslim ever elected to Congress – for planning to use the Quran at his swearing-in ceremony. more>

This past August, an Orthodox meat distributor was discovered using fraudulent labels to pass off non-kosher chicken as kosher. Since then, kosher meat companies – along with the rabbis who oversee them – have been scrambling to find technology that will ensure customers that the meat under the deli window is, indeed, kosher. more>

Americans were simply fed up, they wanted their country back. Except for the good people of Vermont, Americans didn’t vote for social democracy. They voted for sane government. They want to be governed from the center. more>