Britannia Radio

Daily Briefing

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

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Featured Story Barriers broken, female rabbis look to broader influence A recent event near Boston marked the first time that the first female rabbis in four major American Jewish religious denominations -- Reform, Modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist -- had ever appeared together. Read more » Editors' Picks Recognizing Palestine -- why now? Many in Latin America and around the world were left mulling the question following the news that Brazil and Argentina had recognized the state of Palestine in the West Bank. JTA's Ron Kampeas offers some answers. The Eulogizer: Soldier who found Hitler's will, Southern woman lawmaker, Israeli English broadcaster Remembering Arnold Weiss, Harriet Keyserling, Anita Davis Avital and Richard Holbrooke. Women lagging in the nonprofit world The Forward's second annual survey of 74 major Jewish national organizations found that women continued to lag behind their male counterparts in top positions and pay. Separation (wall) of the mind Israel's security fence has done more than keep out suicide bombers. Some of its consequences don't bode well for two peoples living as neighbors in peace, Time magazine reports. Bar mitzvah saves Christmas Through a service project for his bar mitzvah, a Jewish boy in Texas saves Christmas for Samaritan House, a low-income housing project for people with HIV/AIDS. See the video from the CBS affiliate in Dallas on Dallasvoice.com. Lefties demand rights Left-handed Israeli students are fighting for their right to sit in comfort in college classrooms, the Israeli daily Haaretz reports. Save the treif The New York Times reports on a kosher cook-off run by a kosher cooking school in Brooklyn. The grand prize: a scholarship for a training course that Breaking News The European Union will not recognize Palestinian statehood until an "appropriate" time, its Foreign Affairs Council said in a statement. More than 750 rabbis and cantors signed a letter urging their Israeli colleagues to speak out against a ruling by 39 municipal rabbis banning renting to non-Jews. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak predicted that comprehensive talks with the Palestinians on all final-status issues would begin within months. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. diplomat who brokered a Balkan peace and enjoyed talking about his Jewish roots, has died. U.S. envoy George Mitchell returned to the Middle East to relaunch his shuttle diplomacy between the Israelis and Palestinians. Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi fended off challenges from the left and the right to narrowly survive two no-confidence votes in Parliament. Plans to restructure some of Canada's Jewish advocacy groups have been delayed, granting a reprieve to the Canadian Jewish Congress. A group of Islamists have threatened to destroy the tomb of Queen Esther in western Iran if Israel damages the al-Aksa mosque in Jerusalem. Canada's passage of a bill calling for a national Holocaust monument in the capital has spurred a debate over who should pay for it. Major Jewish organizations headed by wealthy Jews in Ukraine and Russia have started campaigns to raise funds for the victims of the Carmel fire. A monument honoring a man who saved Jews during the Holocaust was vandalized in the capital of Latvia. Israel sent 150 Sudanese migrants back to their home country. The United States Agency for International Development completed its forest fire assistance to Israel. Two Jewish groups expressed regret at the U.S. Senate's failure to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. President Obama emphasized containing Iran's nuclear ambitions in a meeting with envoys to the United Nations Security Council. During street theater performances protesting Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, the Iran180 coalition arrested an effigy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In an unusual and highly symbolic move, the city of Turin formally returned to the local Jewish community an ornate Torah ark. Jewish groups urged the U.S. Senate to pass legislation that would legalize undocumented immigrants. Aaron Listhaus, the chief academic officer for New York City’s Office of Charter Schools, will take over as the head of the Hebrew Charter School Center.