Free Republic

It’s Moishe’s Choice Once Again by Norma Zager “Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well...” President Dwight David Eisenhower Comedian Robert Klein commented recently he is becoming more Jewish as he gets older. He has even added a few more “Oys” when he gets out of bed in the morning. The changes in America are less concerning for their political implications, although scary, as for their...

HARTFORD, CN - A new survey suggests that the number of American Jews who consider themselves religiously observant has dropped by more than 20 percent over the last two decades. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that around 3.4 million American Jews call themselves religious, out of a general Jewish population of about 5.4 million. Those who call themselves only culturally Jewish rose from 20 percent in 1990 to 37 percent last year according to the study, which also found Jews more likely to be secular than other Americans.

President Barack Obama last Monday met for the first time with leaders of selected Jewish organizations and leaks from the meeting now make one thing very clear. The only free country in the Middle East no longer has a friend in the leader of the free world. Obama is the most hostile sitting American president in the history of the state of Israel. This was the very first meeting with Jewish community's leaders. Earlier requests for an audience with major Jewish organizations had reportedly been ignored. Six months after taking office the president finally got around to issuing an invitation...

A U.S. organization has been receiving money from perhaps unsuspecting Jewish donors to support blatantly anti-Israel groups. American Jews wishing to donate money to Israeli causes routinely utilize local city Jewish federations as a middleman. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year are sent to Jewish federations across the country with the expectation contributions will be used to aid worthy causes in Israel. Many U.S. Jewish federations as well as individual Jewish donors give to the New Israel Fund, or NIF, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation dedicated to fostering social change and progressive causes in Israel. The NIF budget comes from...

While driving through the West Bank on my family's recent trip to Israel, our tour guide shared an interesting story that helps explain the core issue in the struggle for peace in the Middle East -- and in the rest of the world. Our Israeli tour guide was asked to speak at a conference in the United States several years ago at which he shared the floor with a Palestinian panelist. Before walking off the stage in the middle of the discussions, the Palestinian gentleman politely interrupted him and stated the following: "Dear People, regardless of what you think, the...

Government and Media Seen Fostering Anti-Semitism in Venezuela, ElsewhereJewish leaders said it had never before happened in Venezuela: a break-in with anti-Jewish intent at one of the city's most prominent synagogues. A dozen armed men overpowered guards, spray-painted office walls with anti-Semitic insults, desecrated historic Torah scrolls and made off with computers containing personal information on congregants. President Hugo Chávez condemned the Jan. 30 attack, which has shaken the country's political establishment. But Jewish leaders, supported by Israeli and U.S. officials, have said the populist government's often incendiary rhetoric toward the Jewish state, coupled with rising anti-Semitic diatribes in pro-government...

The 2008 Election: The Defining Line for American Jews The 2008 Presidential election is more than just a defining line for America, it's a defining line for American Jews. In the same way that for Americans in general the 2008 Presidential election at the committed activist level serves to winnow out those who understand what America is and what it is meant to be from those who despise what America is and seek to destroy it-- the election winnows out those Jews who have a Jewish identity from those who have a liberal identity wrapped in foil thin Star of...

Is American Jewry finally waking up from its love affair with the Democratic Party? That, at least, is the question that comes to mind when one considers some very interesting polling data that emerged recently. As odd as it may sound, Republican presidential candidate John McCain may just be poised to capture a significant percentage of the Jewish vote. Early last month, you'll recall, headlines blared in the US and Israeli press trumpeting the results of a Gallup survey conducted back in April which found that American Jews preferred Democratic hopeful Barack Obama by a margin of 61 to 32...

Although Ed Koch has not held elected office for nearly two decades, the feisty former mayor of New York City remains a powerful force in American politics and in the American Jewish community. Reporters still ask for his comments on the latest news developments, and candidates for office still seek his endorsement. Now Koch has a new book out – and it contains a stunning revelation that may ignite a second round of his now-famous clash with James Baker. Round One of Koch vs. Baker exploded across headlines around the world in March 1992, when Koch revealed, in his New...

The problem with watching a situation like Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah develop in the news is that it is very much like watching how a sausage is made, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, the president of the Israel Project, told The Jewish Standard. Sometimes you see things that make you queasy.Even though Mizrahi’s Washington, D.C.- based organization is designed to get a pro-Israel P.R. message to the mainstream American and international press, media have been relaying every gory detail of Israel’s attacks against Lebanon, turning the international community decidedly against Israel. But despite international criticism over Israel’s actions in Lebanon over the...

FOR YEARS I have watched the Palestinians do absurdly self-destructive things, and have never understood them until now. But watching the Bush administration stoutly defend Israel this week against the background of an American Jewish population that vocally (often sneeringly) dislikes him and his administration, and consistently votes by massive majorities for his Democratic opponents, I start to understand the Palestinians just a little. American Jews are not Palestinians and have not sunk to the level of supporting terrorist murderers. But their behavior is a lesson in self-destructive nihilism that could teach even the Palestinians a thing or two. U.S....

For years I have watched the Palestinians do absurdly self-destructive things, and have never understood them until now. But watching the Bush administration stoutly defend Israel this week against the background of an American Jewish population that vocally (often sneeringly) dislikes him and his administration, and consistently votes by massive majorities for his Democratic opponents, I start to understand the Palestinians just a little. American Jews are not Palestinians and have not sunk to the level of supporting terrorist murderers. But their behavior is a lesson in self-destructive nihilism that could teach even the Palestinians a thing or two. U.S....

The American Jewish community has been demonstrating wall-to-wall support for Israel as it fights on two fronts. Major Jewish organizations have backed Israel's actions and are considering a community-wide emergency fund-raising effort. The United Jewish Communities (UJC), which represents 55 Jewish federations and 400 independent Jewish communities across North America, has already provided $1 million via the Jewish Agency that will be used to send children from communities near the northern border to youth villages in the central region. The UJC is considering embarking on a special fund-raising campaign, similar to the Israel Emergency Campaign that raised more than $360m....

It is impossible to keep up with the barrage of statistics 'analyzing' the US Jewish community. The Forward, back on May 7, 2004, carried a story headlined "Survey Released on Jewish Women's Sexuality." I recently tried to locate this study, only to learn that it hasn't been published and won't be for another year or two, meaning three or four years after it was "released." Months earlier, I had no greater success trying to get a Hillel report on the attitudes of Jewish collegians, only to be told that what I saw about it in a newspaper was prematurely released...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean addressed the American Jewish Committee on Wednesday, where he claimed the Democratic Party is more inclusive and a better choice for Jewish Americans. I was recently asked about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties," Dean said. "When it comes right down to it, the essential difference is that the Democtrats fundamentally believe it is important to make sure that American Jews feel comfortable being American Jews." But the facts don't back up the DNC Chairman's assertions. Virginia Democrat Rep. Jim Moran blamed the war in Iraq on the Jewish community, claiming, "If...

The Bully Might Get Punched Back © Rabbi Daniel Lapin Two years have now elapsed since Mel Gibson released his movie “The Passion” and since various Jewish organizations launched their notorious attacks on religious conservatives. Since then, Mel has moved on to film a new movie, also in an unusual and unspoken foreign language. “Apocalypto” follows the adventures of a long-ago Mayan hero. However the same Jewish organizations have not moved on. When their bizarre predictions of pogroms in Pittsburgh and massacres in Mississippi failed to materialize, they just continued with more of the same attacks. These organizations whose purpose...

In a history-making moment, President George W. Bush is expected next week to proclaim May of every year as Jewish American Heritage Month. The proclamation will be the culmination of months of work by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who pushed resolutions through the House and Senate that urged Bush to take action. That’s no small feat for a first-term Demo-crat. Now it’s up to school districts, museums and community groups to make the symbolic designation meaningful. Wasserman Schultz wants these institutions to raise awareness about Jewish contributions to American life, as they have done with Black History Month...

Poll: US Jews uninterested in shul By GEORGE CONGER Jews ranked second to last on the table of weekly worship attendance with less than one in six attending services, beating out only those who report no religious affiliation. "This is a statistical cri de coeur from our people," Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles told The Jerusalem Post. "If things continue as they are we will produce a generation of Jews who will be irretrievably lost." In a series of interviews conducted from 2002 to 2005, Gallup interviewed 11,000 adult Americans and asked, "How often do you...

Palestinians are embracing a government of armed thugs. Syria engineered a political assassination in Lebanon, and are sending terrorists all over the world. Saudi Arabia is seriously torn between the modern world and 14th Century Islamofascism. Ariel Sharon is recovering from a coma. And Iran’s leader, after openly coveting the destruction of Israel, began processing uranium for atomic bombs. American Jews: Why are you still liberal? From various wars to the Intifadah, American liberal Democrat policy has placated and encouraged Israel’s enemies for over 50 years. Once, the resulting mayhem could be managed by a bit of diplomacy coupled with...

Jewish History Month proposal up to president The House of Representatives approved a resolution Thursday calling on the president to proclaim January as Jewish History Month. Quick, who was Judith Resnik? If President Bush heeds Thursday's congressional resolution urging him to designate January as Jewish History Month, schoolchildren across the nation may learn that Resnik was the first Jewish-American woman astronaut. She was killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. The Jewish history resolution was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Weston Democrat who represents Broward and Miami-Dade counties and happens to be the first...