Click for Contents

P.O. Box 1805,Jerusalem 91017 Tel. 972-2-531-5440, Fax: 972-2-537-9489 Advertising Fax: 972-2-531-5425, Email Editorial: [email protected] Subscriptions: [email protected] Web site: http://www.jrep.com

Jewish World: Kashrut Goes Global
Inside the two-year-old Balparmak honey factory, located on a wooded hilltop on the outskirts of Istanbul, are gleaming stainless steel vats, tidy bottling assembly lines and a quality-control lab where technicians in white coats test the honey for everything from microbes to what kind of pollen it contains. Balparmak, Turkey�s largest honey manufacturer, started exporting to the United States 10 months ago. As part of its plan to break into the American market, the company decided to turn to a process as ancient as beekeeping -- kashrut. "In the U.S. and European markets, many people prefer kosher, not only Jews," says Ahmet Cakir, a polite man with glasses and a closely trimmed mustache who is Balparmak�s export manager. More...

The Americanization of Islam?
A new generation of American-born Muslims is pushing back against strict Islamic orthodoxy. Are they the wave of the future? More...

Paris� Dirty Secret
For 13 months during 1943 and 1944, the Nazis operated three slave-labor camps in the heart of the French capital. And when the war was over, the city conveniently forgot. But the survivors, even as they downplayed their suffering in the wider Holocaust history, didn�t. This is their story. More...

Jewish World: Defender of the Faithful
Philip Roth has long used his fiction to comment on the cultural and political events of the day. Is that what he�s doing in his latest novel, in which he imagines an America being led, during World War II, by a president who starts to round up the Jews? . More...

Strategies for the Heartand Mind
Far from the hype of the kabbalah craze, American Jews across the religious spectrum and across the country are working at ethical and spiritual improvement through a religious discipline called �musar.� And the interest, and dedication, are growing. More...

Jewish World: The Divestment Genie
With its recent policy vote to stop investing in firms that deal with Israel, the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) has set a precedent that has Jewish groups alarmed More...

Jewish World: The Ignorant Jewish Face of the Far-Right
Patricia Richardson, newly elected councillor for the British National Party, sees no contradiction in koshering her chicken and representing a party headed by racists and Holocaust-deniers More...

Jewish World: Conduit to the Candidate
Jay Footlik, liaison to the Jewish community and point man on Israel for Democratic Sen. John Kerry, is tasked with trying to stem the movement of Jews to the Republican camp. More...

Cover Story: The Lessons of our Struggle -- By Natan Sharansky (Excerpt)
Writing exclusively in The Jerusalem Report to mark the 40th anniversary of the movement to free Soviet Jewry, Natan Sharansky, now Israel�s minister for Diaspora affairs, looks back at the origins of the struggle, its successes and its implications for the nurturing of a Palestinian counterpart to his own historic Soviet Jewish dissident campaign. More...

Passover: The Shabbat of History
Passover is observed from April 6 to April 12 More...

Jewish World: Policy of Denial
If you�ve been to Israel, some US firms won�t insure your life More...

A �Troublemaker� Tamed?
Conspicuously Jewish, avowedly Zionist, and consistently outspoken, Irwin Cotler settles in as justice minister of Canada More...

Back in the News: Fencing in The Hague
It won�t be a picnic, jurists warn, for Israel to defend the legitimacy of its West Bank security barrier at the International Court of Justice (This article originally appeared in the January 12, 2004 edition of The Jerusalem Report) More...

Tu Bishvat: The People & the Book: Deeper Roots, Wider Branches
Tu Bishvat is a time to celebrate new life and new beginnings, physical and cultural. It is observed on February 7. More...

Jewish World: 12 Hits in Brooklyn
The police shooting of a hasidic Jew and the subsequent trial were notable for the studious silence of Jewish groups. More...

Jewish World: Over Their Heads
Two part-Jewish French schoolgirls spark an Islamic furorby refusing to remove their Islamic headscarves More...

Jewish World: Taking on a Pandemic
A joint project with the Jewish community and M�decins sans Fronti�res is saving the lives of AIDS patients in South Africa More...

The Back Page: �The appropriate sentence would be time served�
Jonathan Pollard, the American naval intelligence analyst who was arrested in 1985 on charges of spying for Israel and sentenced to life in prison, More...

Jewish World: A Tale of Two Faiths
Spanish-speaking immigrants in New York, descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, rediscover their past More...

Jewish World: Clergy on Alert
In a far-reaching decision, Orthodox rabbis take aim at abusive colleagues More...

Back Page: �Would Truman have hidden my grandchildren from Hitler? Yes!�
President Harry S Truman�s record in support of Israel and Europe�s World War II Jewish refugees has won him a special place in the hearts of American Jews. He urged Great Britain to accept additional Jewish immigration in Mandatory Palestine; he allowed Jews from Displaced Persons camps to enter the United States; and he bucked his own State Department and others in his administration to extend U.S. recognition to the new State of Israel. Given all this, the discovery at the Truman Library in Independ-ence, Missouri, of a personal diary in which Truman expressed anti-Semitic feelings comes as a shock. More...

Jewish World: The Poverty Pitch
Israeli officialdom may be bristling, but US Jewish groups see social distress in Israel and are moved to send funds More...

Jewish World: Transcendence in a Cursed Place
We are marching in silence down a Polish country road. The sky is gray. Two men with a horse plow an adjacent field. Suddenly, there it is, the long low red brick building with the watchtower in the middle, and the railroad tracks leading inside. We enter the camp and take in the rows of wooden barracks, the barbed wire. Workers are repairing one of the once-electrified fences, casually and routinely. This is an open-air museum, after all, a repre-sentation, a theme park from hell. Lush grass grows everywhere, as it did not when the camp was active and prisoners ate leaves from the trees. The snack bar sells ice cream and the book shop takes MasterCard. Khatib throws his arms around me. "I have to hug you," he says. He is a schoolteacher from Qalansuwa, east of Netanyah, who has shown his ninth graders "Schindler�s List." "Instead of arming yourselves," he says to me, "you should airlift people to see this place." More...

Jewish World: Mining the Gene Pool
Discovery of a genetic mutation that appears to be uniqueto Ashkenazi Jews could lead to early diagnosis of the debilitating and heartbreaking Usher Syndrome More...

The Back Page: Where are the Hollywood Jews who say Israel has a right to exist?
Hollywood Jews have always been accused of exhibiting ambivalence toward their origins. Early studio moguls chose assimilation over roots -- motivated at least in part by fears that their influence could stir anti-Semitism and hurt their bottom line. Today, Jews in the film industry face claims that professional self-interest keeps many from publicly supporting Israel. More...

Jewish World: Digging for Auschwitz�s Last Secret
Honoring a promise to an elderly survivor, an Israeli soldier and a filmmaker hunt for buried Torah scrolls in the town that gave the death camp its name More...

Jewish World: Beware, La S�curit�
Anxious about ongoing fallout from Iraq, French Jewry publicizes a security hotline for anti-Semitic alerts -- and defense More...

The Back Page: 'Sure it's dangerous...but it's worth the risk'
Dan Scemama, the Israeli TV reporter ejected from Iraq, defends his right to roam and castigates his fellow journalists over their coverage More...

Jewish World: The Horrors of an Era
A year after the grisly assassination of his son, Judea Pearl speaks out about the role Daniel Pearl�s legacy can play in the battle against anti-Semitism More...

At Issue: �The Belgians Have Gone Crazy�
Alan Baker, the Foreign Ministry�s legal adviser, on the latest bid by Brussels to bring Israelis to trial over the Sabra and Shatilla killings More...

Jewish World: Grave Dispute
A seemingly petty squabble over the inscription on author Stefan Heym�s tombstone reflects a deep identity crisis within German Jewry More...

Jewish World: Tribal Tribulations
High-profile Peruvian Jews are caught up in a slew of high-profile corruption cases. And that�s not even including the rumors about the Jewish wife of the president. More...

Liberalism�s Heart -- Paul Wellstone, 1944-2002
"Of my three campaigns, this one has generated the most emotion, the most volunteers," Paul Wellstone told me on an unseasonably cool and beautiful late August afternoon, as his legendary green campaign bus bounced along down some Minnesota byway. "My supporters think there�s just so much at stake, so much to lose." More...

Jewish World: They didn't do it
The entrance to the nondescript office space on the ninth floor at Yeshiva University�s More...

Jewish World: Newfound Friends
American Jewry is warming up to the Christian right, with its unwavering support for Israel. But not everyone is enamored. More...

Le Pen�s Next Target?
The radical right presidential challenger rode into the second round on an anti-Arab wave. His success may help make the lives of French Jews safer for now, but they�re not dropping their guard. More...

Brief Encounter
Stephen Hoffman, chief executive officer of the United Jewish Communities, came to Israel on April 9 with other American Jewish leaders, for a 48-hour solidarity mission, at the height of Israel�s Operation Defensive Shield. This brief conversation with The Report was squeezed in between meetings with Prime Minister Sharon, army and intelligence chiefs, and visits to the sites of bombings, bereaved families and hospitalized victims. More...

�We Too Were Strangers�
Australian Jews demand a better deal for Muslim asylum-seekers -- but some worry that it may boomerang on their own intifada-stressed community. More...

In Quest of an Errant Father
Why did a dapper Jewish tailor with a burgeoning London business choose wine, women and crime over family life? Three decades later, his daughter is still thirsting for an answer. More...

A Rabbi for All Seasons
He wears a black hat and shuns television, but the new head of America�s troubled Orthodox Union is a practicing psychologist who lectures to police officers and dialogues with Reform Jews More...

Banners, Beatings and Boycotts
South African Jews are feeling the heat from their black and Muslim neighbors. Five months after the Durban anti-racism conference, they are fighting back, but warily. More...

The Prison That Thinks It�s a Kibbutz
An innovative program, inspired by Jewish togetherness on New York�s Lower East Side, has rehabilitation on the menu More...

The People of the Bike
How an investment manager discovered the great outdoors and put it to work promoting health, ecology and Jewish awareness More...

Make Me an Imperfect Match
More and more Jewish yuppies are turning to Orthodox matrimonial services � and coming away disappointed More...

The Dynamic Reformer
David Ellenson, Reform Judaism�s energetic new leader, is an expert on modern Orthodox halakhah who wouldn�t dream of imposing it on his flock. More...

Bagels, and Independence, in Paradise
An American Jewish woman went to the tropics to chill out, but ended up serving the island�s best Spanish mackerel � and sheltering her staff from sexual predators More...

Alarm Bells Along the Champs Elys�es
The New Year started peacefully,but France's 600,000 Jews are bracing themselves for a new wave of violence More...

Branded Loyalty
Shauna Lancit remembers when the tattoo needle slipped under her skin, emblazoning the name of God, Shadai, forever onto her cleavage as if it was burnt on her flesh. More...

Landless in Sarajevo
Young Bosnian refugees came home from Israel with their Jewish identity strengthened, but nothing to build on More...