A program that brings together Jewish and Arab teens intends to show that there are many ways to look at an issue. Danon said, "We became very good friends at the camp, but then, when it came to discussions about the conflict, we became very angry." more>

VIDEO :: Congressman Michael McMahon says his record of Jewish advocacy speaks for itself, but some voters are still asking questions. NY1's Mari Fagel reports. more>

Many members of the Russian Jewish community at Brighton Beach are angered less by the revelations about a group of ineffectual gumshoes than by the perception that they themselves had managed to escape Russia to start new lives in America, only to find that Russia has followed them here.

VIDEO :: CBS News reports on the fate of the children of Russian agents exchanged in a spy swap and how they are coping with the international scandal. more>

"While surveys for years have pointed to a rising rate of interfaith marriage among American Jews, it's safe to say that Jewish-Muslim relationships are rare," said Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute. "But that may be changing," he says. more>

Micah is one of a growing number of congregations using technology to address two of the most vexing challenges facing supplemental, or Hebrew, schools: how to teach Hebrew effectively and how to best make use of increasingly limited classroom hours.

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The commissioner of the city's Department for the Aging has disputed a report that elderly recipients of Meals On Wheels have been asked to prove they are Orthodox to qualify for the more expensive kosher food. more>

Governor David Paterson has proposed a $5.4 million cut to the State Office for the Aging. Social service advocates and providers have campaigned against indiscriminate cutting, favoring instead an arrangement where some agencies would be exempt from cuts if they provide essential services. more>

"In polls, people say they know there's something wrong with the health care system. But flash the words 'euthanasia' and 'Nazi' and 'socialism' in front of them, and it taps all this built-up anger and the hunt for scapegoats," said a leading Jewish community relations activist who asked that his name not be used. more>

It's time to stop the legislative game-playing and reject the claims of those who insist that fighting violent bias crimes would somehow abridge their religious freedom.

AUDIO :: WBAI's Esther Armah talks with Michael MacLeod-Ball, interim director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office about the death penalty provision of the new Hate Crimes Bill.

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Muslim community groups, backed nearly unanimously by the City Council, are pressing for days off in honor of two of their holidays; however, Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposes the idea. more>

Jewish families who firmly believe in the value of day school education are now facing virtually insurmountable challenges trying to pay for it.  more>

The anti-Israel tirade by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Duban II could undermine the Obama administration's diplomatic outreach, several Jewish leaders, who attended the conference in Geneva, said this week. more>

Jewish community resorts to a healthy and necessary dialogue when tackling the heated issue of reporting sex predators and the victims to the authorities. more>

 Rabbi Nochem Rosenberg on sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish Community.

It may be small comfort to know that Jewish life is reported on with the same bias as other religious communities, but at least the press is, overall, equal opportunity offenders. more>

L.I. Jewish teen, who tagged himself online as a “Nazi Jew,” drove the SUV the fateful night of Ecuadorean immigrant Lucero’s murder. more>

As one former Jewish official called for a national emergency summit of Jewish leaders to deal with the fallout from the market meltdown, Jewish charities were grappling this week for an appropriate response to a fast-moving crisis few fully understand. more>

As a community, we need to remember the things that unite us, starting with concern for our fellow Jews, many of whom still live in poverty and many more who may unexpectedly find themselves in need as the crisis deepens. more>

How many of us have even heard of the breakaway province of South Ossetia? How many care about events in Tbilisi? But the Jewish community should care. There are Jews scattered across what was once the Soviet Union – including up to 15,000 in Georgia. more>

Forged in the fires of the 1991 Crown Heights riots, Project Care is an ad hoc group of community leaders that has met for more than 15 years to keep open lines of communication. more>

The plight of Patskina and of other residents of the 25-apartment building at 35-45 West End Ave. began early last year when the building was purchased for $4 million by the nearby Mesivta and Yeshiva Gedolah of Manhattan Beach. more>

The most familiar religious voices in politics today normally come from the Christian right, said Rabbi Or Rose, an associate dean at Hebrew College in Boston. But a new campaign led by Rabbi Rose and others aims at changing that dynamic by introducing the language of values and morality to left-wing groups, particularly those in the Jewish community. more>

According to Rachel Yehuda, a lead author of the study, “the observation that [sexual abuse] is not less of a problem here is important. One can’t walk away saying Orthodox Judaism is protecting women against abuse.” more>

For nearly three decades, the collective interests of the Jewish community helped to define the political discourse. Today, this emphasis on the common good has been replaced to a greater degree by a focus on selective interests and individualized institutional political goals, thereby weakening the shared agenda that historically shaped this enterprise. more>

A bill that would have required Russian translations of NY election materials is subverted at the 11th hour. According to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), the surprising culprit is Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political figure who, until now, has been extremely popular among Russian Jews. more>

The oldest kosher bakery in New York closed its door’s this week. Locals say that it doesn’t signal the decline of the Jewish community, but the steady rise in property value over the past few years. more>

Rosenblatt assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the current presidential candidates and asks whether any of them have what it takes to become the next president. more>

Hip Jewish Web sites with strong appeal to younger Jews will be surveyed on domestic issues. The goal is to start creating networks of young activists who believe the traditional Jewish organizations do not represent their interests. The responses will be handed to all presidential campaigns to encourage a broader discussion. more>

The numbers confirm what Jewish politicos say may be the 800-pound gorilla in Jewish politics at the start of a long election season: the Iraq war. And Clinton, with a cautious centrist strategy, may be the most vulnerable Democrat. more>

Statistics gathered by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty indicate that one in five Jews in New York City lives in poverty. “Everyone thinks Jewish poverty is an oxymoron,” said Stefanie Greenberg, volunteer coordinator at Met Council, a group that designed a new curriculum to teach children about budgeting income and giving back to their community. more>

Ruth Halimi’s son, Ilan, was kidnapped and tortured to death by young Muslim gang members ten months ago in Paris. Though authorities warn her that she could also be in danger, she is making public speeches to promote mutual acceptance and vigilance against hate. more>

According to the author, even before the smoke cleared at Ground Zero, American Jews felt more vulnerable in two ways: the physical security of their institutions and about their place in American life. more>

“There are some who believe this is being done largely to discriminate against the Orthodox community,” said Daniel Perla, a securities consultant who is president of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, the largest Orthodox synagogue in the area. more>

In the post 9/11 era, U.S. Muslims and Jews have reached out to each other. Muslims see Jews, who have fought discrimination for decades, as natural allies. more>

Rami Sulimani, the head of a major social welfare agency in Israel that works with the country’s at-risk youth, will tell Israeli leaders to be more like Geoff Canada, the president and founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), an independent social welfare organization that works with more than 12,500 children in Harlem. more>

In his bid for Jewish votes, Sheinkopf said Ferrer will find an obstacle in the support of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who remains an unfavorable figure among many Jews and other whites because of his past role in race-motivated controversies. more>

Subway searches by the police department and other terrorism-related public policy debates have major Jewish organizations in a quandary. more>

Some pro-Israel media watchdog groups believe NPR’s alleged unbalanced Mideast coverage could be a weapon against the Bush administration. But other Jewish leaders say it may get them entangled between censorship and partisan bias. more>

In 1975, when the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF) opened its Washington Action Office, Jewish leaders saw a gold mine in the federal programs that were dramatically expanding America’s social safety net. This week, President George W. Bush announced a budget that critics say could start unraveling that net. more>

The way Orthodox Jews see it, the Jewish vote has never been so divided along denominational lines, with the non-Orthodox supporting Kerry far in excess of that 70 percent, while the Orthodox vote has never been more swingable toward the Republicans. more>

In a continuation of a small but troubling trend that was revealed last year, young Diaspora Jews again are using popular youth programs like birthright Israel and college fellowships as a vehicle to volunteer for a Palestinian-run group the Israeli government considers a danger to national security. more>

The Hoodios’ name — a funkier spelling of the Spanish word for Jew, “judio” — and their material reflect the founding duo’s concern with their Jewish identity. Like non-Jewish rappers, their lyrical content can be in-your-face with songs like “Kike on the Mic,” a number that has rubbed a few raw nerve endings. more>

For the first time in recent history there is a higher percentage of poor households within the Jewish community, 13 percent, than among white households in the city as a whole. more>

As cultural winds shift, their lifecycle rites gaining new acceptance. more>

In a dramatic reversal, a leading Jewish group took the first step towards outright opposition to Bush administration tax and budget policies that are forcing sweeping cuts in health and human service programs. more>

Jewish numbers are stable at 1.4 million but the New York area faces poverty crisis. Orthodox Russian population is booming. Some demographers question survey’s accuracy. more>

Community is largely silent despite cuts by the Bush administration that could cripple Jewish services. more>

Armed with chainsaws and other heavy-duty equipment, hundreds of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—some traveling from as far as Salt Lake City—are mobilizing to clean up a long-neglected Jewish cemetery in Queens later this month. Though the two groups have clashed in the past over church members’ policy of posthumously baptizing Jews, relations have improved in recent years. more>

While some have predicted a backlash in the United States, blaming Israel and Jews for the war, American Jewish leaders were slow to appreciate the potential for a problem. Their reticence to speak out on the war may have been based on the lack of consensus within the Jewish community, but critics have interpreted it as a silence implying support for Bush’s war plans. more>

The sheitelmacher’s [wigmaker’s] life is one where bonds are forged as tresses are untangled, where customers visit Georgie as often as every other week for a $60 shampoo and styling of the wigs they wear in keeping with the Jewish laws of modesty for married women. Now, the Brooklyn DA’s office is asking sheitelmachers to help confront a long-ignored fact of Orthodox life: domestic violence. more>

Eleven cars on the streets of Midwood were painted with swastikas, the latest in a series of hate crimes in southern Brooklyn. But the spree has also produced a united front against bigotry from ethnic communities that peacefully coexist in the area. more>

How—and how much—the Jewish community chooses to engage in dialogue with moderate Muslim leaders says more about the Jewish community than anything else. more>

Since the layoff of a Russian-speaking employee, residents of a Brooklyn housing project say they have been left in the dark. Many are elderly tenants, who speak only Russian, and face increased difficulty seeking repairs, reading safety instructions and dealing with building management. Claiming that the language barrier does not allow residents to access services, a public interest lawyer has filed a suit on behalf of 16 tenants. more>

In retrospect, the McCall campaign was “too cautious” and lacking focus, according to some politcal observers. They criticized McCall’s campaign for downplaying the historic nature of his candidacy as the state’s first black major-party candidate for governor. Some fear backlash over weak Jewish support. more>

Bayside Cemetery is in shambles. The Gen-X members of the shul that owns it can’t pay for upkeep. Who’s responsible now? more>

A leading demographer has found that there are 18 percent more Jews in America than earlier reports have stated. The survey sets the stage for a debate over whom should be counted as a Jew; the community’s perception of itself as either withering or thriving; and the crucial communal policy and funding decisions made by Jewish organizations. more>

A four-year battle over who can share living quarters at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University ended this month when the school quietly changed its policy, avoiding a trial in a lawsuit by lesbian students who claimed discrimination. The president of the Orthodox Union is disappointed by the decision. The university is unclear about whether its new liberal policy will extend to all its campuses. more>

The financial crisis in Argentina has led B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue with Argentine roots, to generate support for that country’s once-prosperous Jewish community. more>

Controversy escalates over the continued housing competition between the Hasidic and Hispanic communities in Williamsburg. And IPA-member publication City Limits Weekly reports in Never Ending Stories, that the city Housing Authority (NYCHA) and Hispanic and Hasidic advocacy organizations' recent settlement. more>