Free Republic

He’s the judge who says parental rights end at the schoolhouse door and that the Pledge of Allegiance in public school classrooms is unconstitutional. He admires an Israeli judge who’s outlawed spanking and radically expanded the power of the federal judiciary. He considers an opinion he wrote in 1996 in favor of assisted suicide his greatest achievement. He’s Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—the most infamous member of the most radical court in America. He’s notorious because he’s caused real harm—to parental rights, public safety and the reputation of the federal courts. But one of...

In the fall of 1968, Tzvia Greenfield, an intense 19-yearold philosophy student, stood on the lawn of the Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus warning her peers that it would be a big mistake to keep the newly conquered territories. Most, intoxicated by the miraculous victory and dreaming of the fulfillment of ancient biblical promises, resisted Greenfield's passionate arguments, which seemed incongruous with her appearance. Greenfield wore a long, dark skirt, modest, loose-fitting blouse and shoulder-length hair. She looked like what she was: a left-wing firebrand straight out of the haredi Beit Ya'acov seminary. "I told whoever would listen that God...

(12/30/2005) Paying The Price For Idealism Sari Bashi’s legal work on behalf of Palestinians is putting a strain on the ex-New Jerseyan. Michele Chabin - Israel Correspondent Jerusalem Sari Bashi often takes the road less traveled, even though the ride can be bumpy and the path puts her on a collision course with her own family. When she was graduated from the Yale Law School in 2003, Bashi could have landed a job at a major American law firm at a starting salary of $125,000. Instead, the New Jersey native accepted an $800-a-month clerkship/internship with Israel’s Supreme Court, where she...

HOUSTON - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said "religious right" leaders believe "unless you attend my church, accept my God and study my sacred text you cannot be a moral person." "What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God?" he said during the movement's national assembly in Houston, which runs through Sunday. The...

HOUSTON -- About 2,000 representatives of the Union for Reform Judaism asked the Bush administration Friday to provide a clear exit strategy for the war in Iraq and begin to bring some soldiers home in mid-December. The 1.5-million member organization of the most liberal of the three major branches of Judaism voted almost unanimously for the resolution at its Houston convention, spokeswoman Emily Grotta said.

Poland’s foreign minister is Jewish, but most people say it’s no big deal by Carolyn Slutsky, the JTA Adam Daniel Rotfeld, who replaced Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz as Poland’s foreign minister earlier this year, was born to a large Jewish family in the eastern part of the country, near what is now the Ukrainian city of Lvov. JTA was unable to obtain an interview with Rotfeld, but in an interview he gave to Polityka, a Polish magazine, he spent the years between 1941 and 1948 hiding in a monastery, and then he lived in a children’s home in Krakow. He was one...

RJC Analysis of 2004 Jewish Vote Shows Unmistakable Shift Toward Republicans Washington, DC... Based on several exit polls recently released, it is clear that President Bush did substantially better among Jewish voters this year than he did in 2000. From 1992 to today we've seen more than a 100% increase in the Jewish Republican vote. The trend is unmistakable: · In 1992, President Bush (41) won 11% of the Jewish vote · In 1996, Senator Dole won 16% of the Jewish vote · In 2000, President Bush (43) won 19% of the Jewish vote · In 2004, preliminary results indicate...

Police and Shin Bet officers on Monday arrested Tali Fahima, the left-wing activist and reported lover of Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades Jenin leader Zakariya Zubeidi, the man she lived with for two weeks in the West Bank city. Her remand was extended by nine days at the Petah Tikva Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. Fahima is suspected of assisting Palestinian terrorists in planning a terrorist attack and committing serious security breaches. Security officials believe Fahima to be in constant contact with Zubeidi, who is the most wanted terrorist in the Jenin area. Fahima, a resident of Tel Aviv's Jaffa neighborhood, was driving...