Claudio Papapetrio's opinion's piece highlights how alliances and the continuing conversation between Crown Heights' Black and Jewish population have declined since the  1991 riots and how the two groups co-exist but live very separate lives.

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Columbia University professor Samuel G. Freedman's opinion piece states the most enduring lesson of the Crown Heights Riots is that the Jews did not abandon the neighborhood after the violence, arguing that Jews refused to be driven out and also had to re-evaluate how they stuck to their own communities. Freedman's other main point is that Jews developed relationships with their African-American and Afro-Caribbean to make sure riots don't happen again.

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Fraidy Reiss writes about how men in the Orthodox Jewish community use religious divorce laws against their wives. Under Jewish law, only a husband can grant a divorce or get, leaving many women to become agunahs, or chained women, who cannot date or marry.

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Despite the fact that Anders Breivik, the alleged terrorist who killed 68 people, drew inspiration from the writings of key American anti-Muslim figures, prominent leaders of the movement say they see no connection between their work and Breivik's actions.

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The Jewish Daily Forward editorial board noted that those on the political right and left wrongly voiced satisfaction in the wake of the mass murder on Norway's Utoya Island.  They argue that no one should use the heinous crime as an opportunity to score political points against opposing ideological views.

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The News Corporation scandal leaves some pro-Israel voices wondering whether damage to Rupert Murdoch's influence may cost them a powerful media ally. Yet the real question is how the scandal impacts the state of journalism and governance as we know it.

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In the swell of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, who are mostly Hispanic, there are thousands of Jewish undocumented immigrants, mostly from Israel, who face many of the same obstacles in their search for livelihood.

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Responding to a need to address modern social concerns, Jewish rabbis and community leaders are withholding the "kosher" mark of approval from businesses that mistreat their workers.

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The passage of the same-sex marriage bill in New York elicited clear-cut reactions from Judaism's Orthodox and Reform movements, but Conservative rabbis who have long wavered on the subject are now confronted with whether or not to support the state legislation.

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 Rep. Howard Berman    Rep. Brad Sherman

New redistricting lines in California's San Fernando Valley have been drawn to help bring greater representation to a growing Latino population. But the newly drawn districts have created divisions in a traditionally Jewish area, pitting two pro-Israel representatives against each other. more>

While a right-wing Jerusalem think tank has been urging Jews to embrace Republican ideals of low taxes and decreased business regulation, such policies have resulted in the current damaged state of the American economy. more>

Tensions over the Rockland County schools mirror tensions in the handful of cities and towns across the country, where expanding Orthodox communities have chafed with locals. But coexistence in this New York State suburb has proved to be particularly fraught between the Orthodox communities and their black and Latino neighbors. more>

On a recent late-winter afternoon, the workers' center on the second floor of a nondescript office building in New York City's Chinatown was full and busy. Everyone had just eaten lunch; warm soup was welcome after picketing in the cold outside an offending restaurant, Saigon Grill on Manhattan's Upper West Side. more>

They've long faced off on college campuses and in the media, and now Israel's supporters and detractors are in a pitched battle for the hearts and minds of the gay and lesbian community. more>

The current moment offers an opportunity to pause and try something different. Instead of focusing on how to win in 2012 – or, more generously, how to bring about their private visions of the perfect world – the leaders on both sides could sit down and map out a middle path. more>

Before it became a cause célèbre for Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and other rank opportunists, before the Anti-Defamation League sullied a once-noble reputation by siding against religious liberty, before tweets and satellite trucks spun this all out of control, the plan to turn an eyesore of an empty building two blocks from Ground Zero into a mosque and Islamic center was embraced as a sign of true healing. more>

Many are crying foul to the long-held tradition that only men – and only certain ones at that – are allowed to vote for leadership of the Corwn Heights Jewish Community Council (CHJCC), which facilitates access to government programs like food stamps and housing subsidies, and serves as a clearinghouse for the local Jewish community, as well as represents it to government officials.  more>

Some families of those who perished on September 11, 2001 have displayed great courage by supporting the proposal to create a 13-story hub for Muslim religious and cultural life. But other families have not and their qualms and resistance need to be respected

VIDEO :: Daisy Khan, spokesperson for the Islamic Center, Roy Sekoff of the Huffington Post and Pamela Geller, author of The Post American Presidency and opponent of the center, debate the building of the Cordoba House near Ground Zero on the Joy Behar show last week. more>

Left-wing politics were not foreign to the Upper West Side milieu in which Kagan was reared. Bella Abzug, a feminist and an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, represented the neighborhood in Congress during the 1970s. Residents saw themselves as members of a social and political vanguard. more>

Community officials, who say they are not surprised by the low numbers, attributed the neglect to a host of factors, including a scheduling overlap with hectic Passover preparations, poor Yiddish translations of Census literature and the government's reliance on advertisements on television, radio and other forms of modern media that are shunned in these communities. more>

What is the Exodus story, anyhow, but a tale of immigration whose path to citizenship lasted 40 years? Some illegal immigrants in America have been waiting almost as long.

VIDEO :: The Center for American Progress says that comprehensive immigration reform will help lay the foundation for robust, just, and widespread economic growth. more>

It is hard to overstate the impact of some of the previous national surveys. The 1990 NJPS finding of a 52 percent national Jewish intermarriage rate – later revised downward to 43 percent – sparked a massive overhaul of the Jewish communal agenda. more>

VIDEO :: On the morning after President Obama's historic health care legislation passed in the House of Representatives, Harry Smith of CBS spoke to a group of panelists about how they think the bill will affect their lives. more>

Coming from a community that voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, both Jewish Democrats and Republicans hope to strike a new tone this year, by distancing themselves from their own party's politics. more>

Says non-Jewish parent Deborah Harte, "There may be some who might think: 'Why involve him in Jewish culture? Won't you be robbing the child of his own identity?' But the Jewish culture and the black struggles parallel each other. I don't think our histories are so far apart that it would be difficult for him to empathize with what he was learning." more>

Women make up about three-quarters of the Jewish communal work force, but few Jewish organizations have formal policies that guarantee access to paid maternity leave and flexible work arrangements – and fewer still offer paid paternity leave.

VIDEO :: Oregon's Parents for Paid Leave present the story of Theresa whose family could have benefited from paid maternity and paternity leave. more>

One year after a federal immigration raid at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse exposed deep flaws in the kosher meat industry, much has changed, but too many injustices remain. more>

According to Edith Speizer, 78, the vegetable were watery, mushy and sometimes unidentifiable; the fish portions were smaller than a business card (she measured them and wrote down their dimensions). more>