Britannia Radio

Daily Briefing

Monday, April 16, 2012

FEATURED STORY With Sacks retiring, British Jews mixed on relevancy of chief rabbi As Britain's Jews fragment, there is debate over what the office of chief rabbi means today. Read more » EDITORS' PICKS BBYO embraces anti-bullying documentary As part of anti-bullying efforts, BBYO has partnered with The Bully Project to bring the film "Bully" to Jewish teens. Debra Rubin reports for JTA. Painting lives: Artist helps clients mark pivot points Lori Loebelsohn enters other people's lives at pivotal moments -- a marriage, a milestone birthday, a bar mitzvah -- to create what she calls "life-cycle portraits." Lisa Keys profiles the artist for JTA. Embrace legal protection for Jewish college students The Jewish community should embrace the use of Title VI to protect students from campus anti-Semitism, write leaders of the Zionist Organization of America in a JTA Op-Ed. Do Jews need God? (N.Y. Jewish Week) Jewish thinkers debate just how essential belief in God is to Jewish life. Playing 'Violins of Hope' (NPR) "All Things Considered" looks at a concert series featuring violins that were used by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. Growing up patrilineal (Forward) David A.M. Wilensky, editor of the national Jewish student magazine New Voices, talks about why he decided to undergo a conversion to Judaism as an adult, even though he had already had his bar mitzvah. Cuba, please let my husband visit his dying mother (Washington Post) Judith Gross appeals to Cuban authorities to let her imprisoned husband, USAID contractor Alan Gross, visit his terminally ill mother. BREAKING NEWS President Obama, responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that more nuclear talks amounts to a "freebie" for Iran, emphasized the stringent sanctions facing Iran. A Ponzi scheme targeting the Persian-Jewish community in Los Angeles was shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Jonathan Pollard was transferred from a federal hospital to his prison cell. Attorneys for convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk have asked a U.S. appeals court to restore his citizenship posthumously. An Ohio Graduation Test question that draws a direct correlation between the Holocaust and Arab resentment over the formation of the State of Israel was withdrawn for future tests. American Jewish billionaire Irving Moskowitz, a financial backer of the pro-settlement movement, has donated $1 million to a conservative super PAC. The Beastie Boys were among several bands and performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its 27th induction ceremony. At least 43 foreign pro-Palestinian activists who arrived in Israel for a "fly-in" protest were detained at Ben Gurion Airport. Jewish leaders in Hebron have called for international intervention to help the Palestinian man sentenced to death for selling a home near the Cave of the Patriarchs to Jews. Four Arab teenagers from eastern Jerusalem were arrested for attacking a Jewish man at the Mount of Olives cemetery, where he had gone to visit his mother's grave before his wedding. Fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team marched through Jerusalem chanting racist slogans and reportedly beat a woman a month after allegedly attacking Arab workers at a shopping mall. A senior Israeli military officer caught on tape hitting an activist in the face with the butt of his rifle was suspended pending the results of an investigation. More than 1,600 Palestinians in Israeli jails reportedly are set to launch a hunger strike on what is called Palestinian Prisoners Day. A Reform congregation in Omaha, Neb., has broken ground on a new synagogue building as part of a tri-faith campus. The former Brown’s Hotel, once a popular resort in the Catskill Mountains, has burned down. Vandals broke into several Jewish-owned summer cottages in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal, defacing at least two with anti-Jewish hate messages and swastikas. Israel must protect Jews around the world in addition to its own borders, said the army's chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz. A former school nurse at the Ramaz School in New York who says she was fired for reporting a possible case of child abuse can sue the school under the state's whistleblower law. The head of Australia’s Catholic Church apologized for what Jewish leaders described as “deeply problematical” comments he made about Jews during a public debate.