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Daily Briefing

Monday, December 20, 2010 Donate Now | Share This Email

Today's Daily Briefing Sponsored by: You! For only $180, you can use this prominent spot to announce an honor or celebrate a milestone. To make your announcement, click here. FEATURED STORY Greece-Israel relations soar as ties with Turkey fade As two Mediterranean democracies in a region dominated by Islamic countries, Greece and Israel have become close over the past six months, ever since ties between Israel and Turkey, Greece's chief rival, took a nosedive. Until 18 years ago, Greece and Israel didn't even have diplomatic ties.Read more » EDITORS' PICKS Twinning social justice and Israel Nancy Kaufman, the incoming CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, plans on replicating the model that made her so successful as head of the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council, JTA's Ron Kampeas reports. Kosher and ethical seal After more than a year of fine tuning, the criteria for earning a Magen Tzedek, the "seal of justice" to be awarded to kosher food producers that meet a detailed set of ethical standards, are about to be tested by American food companies, the Forward reports. Santa pause What are Jewish parents to do when every show on television drips with Christmas cheer? Tablet magazine offers strategies for managing children's expectations in this most un-Jewish time of year. The Eulogizer: Holocaust survivor, Florida businessman, Moroccan dissident, Israeli firefighter JTA's Appreciation column remembers Heda Kovaly, Paul Barrow, Abraham Serfaty and Danny Hayat. Top 10 slurs for '10 Helen Thomas heads the list of The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs for 2010. Britain's chief rabbi search on Writing in The Guardian, Alexander Goldberg wonders how Britain's next chief rabbi will handle the country's polarized Jewish community. What the rabbi said Amy Klein, a single woman nearing 40, writes in The New York Times of her encounter with a rabbi and his assurances about her bashert. Dancing honors In an international dance competition, Canadian Jewish teen Sara Thompson won the silver for her piece about teenage bullying, The Jerusalem Post reports. BREAKING NEWS Buses in downtown Seattle will carry advertisements about "Israeli war crimes" to mark the second year since the Gaza war. An elected official in Quebec has joined a boycott of a Montreal shoe store because it sells Israeli-made products. A new "kosher ethics" label will be tested on the first companies in January. Orthodox Jewish boxer Dmitriy Salita scored a knockout in the third round to take the vacant New York State welterweight title. The death of a firefighter who tried to save passengers on a burning bus raised the toll from the Carmel Forest fire to 44. The Arab League boycotted the films of Steven Spielberg after the director made a $1 million donation to Israel, according to a memo released by WikiLeaks. Members of the Rubashkin family, who operated the now-defunct Agriprocessers kosher meatpacking plant, must pay a total of more than $2 million after defaulting on loans. The body of an American tourist was found near Jerusalem a day after she was attacked and kidnapped, allegedly by Arab assailants. Bolivia became the third country in recent weeks to recognize a state of Palestine. An Egyptian official said the country's state security service has uncovered an Israeli spy ring. Up to 200 headstones were toppled at a Jewish cemetery in Brooklyn. Southern Israel was pounded by rockets fired from Gaza. The British government is refusing to release documents that could shed light on the fate of three missing Israeli soldiers, the Jewish Chronicle reported. Israel deprives Palestinian residents of the West Bank of basic necessities while Jewish settlements flourish, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. A university employee identified as a suspect in one attack in a series on Jewish targets at Indiana University turned himself in to police. A Nazi memorabilia collector was sentenced to seven years in prison for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery. Israel's Cabinet approved a plan to limit the number of years that full-time yeshiva students can receive government support payments. The Holocaust for the first time will be included in the national education curriculum in Australia. Jewish groups called on the United Nations General Assembly not to mark the 10th anniversary of the Durban conference on racism. The images of former Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin will appear on new Israeli currency. Jewish groups praised the U.S. Senate's passage of a law allowing gays to serve openly in the military and lamented its failure to legalize undocumented migrants who arrived as minors. The brother of the author of a thesis accepted by the University of Toronto that calls Holocaust education programs "racist" slammed her for invoking their Holocaust survivor grandmother in her defense.