Franklin 'Smelled a Rat' in Chalabi
By Nathan Guttman
In the Forward’s interview with Larry Franklin, the man once accused of being an “Israeli mole,” Franklin speaks candidly of his five-year ordeal since he was named as a key suspect in what became known as the AIPAC case.
But Israel wasn’t the only issue on Franklin’s mind. In the interview he reveals that while working at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he did some serious investigations into the trustworthiness of Iraqi opposition figure Ahmed Chalabi, and reached the conclusion the man was a fraud. “I smelled a rat,” he said of Chalabi, who in the run-up to the Iraq war was a darling of many neoconservatives in Washington, including Franklin’s boss Doug Feith.
Franklin recalled meeting with Chalabi’s chief of operations at the Frankfurt, international airport in Germany and later at the Pentagon. He quizzed sources from third and forth countries and eventually, he said, “I received absolute proof from my two best sources on Iraq that he [Chalabi] betrayed us in spades.”
But Franklin admitted that he “didn’t try hard enough” to warn his bosses about Chalabi. He was more focused on the threat he saw emerging from Iran, and said he attempted to get the administration to pay attention to Iran’s possible role as a spoiler in Iraq.
Checking out Iraqi opposition leaders wasn’t Franklin’s only secret overseas mission. In December 2001, Franklin and his Pentagon colleague Harold Rhode joined Michael Ledeen, the former Reagan administration adviser, for a series of meeting with Iran-Contra affair figure Manucher Ghorbanifar.
For three days in Rome, they discussed possible cooperation with the exiled Iranian opposition figure in toppling the Islamic regime in Iran.
The CIA had placed Gorbanifar on its “do not meet” list because of his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, but Franklin and his partners received special authorization, presumably from the National Security Council, to hold the meeting. Franklin said he tried tirelessly to get representatives of the intelligence community to join the meeting, but they refused.
The Rome meetings yielded little results. Although Franklin said the information received from Gorbanifar saved American lives in Afghanistan, he believed that the plan to overthrow the ayatollahs in Iran was “amateurish” and that it would have “gotten Americans killed, would have embarrassed the United States and we would have been out of the money we would have given him.”
Upon returning to Washington, Franklin conveyed this message to “the vice president’s top aide at the time,” and said he encountered disappointment. “It didn’t make me popular, but I’m glad I did it,” he said.
The Gorbanifar track was not revisited since.
And one more Franklin tidbit:
In an interview he gave to Congressional Quarterly, Franklin identified one of the people who suggested he fake his suicide in order to avoid testifying in the espionage trial as “definitely a Zionist.”
Documents identifying the people involved in the event are still sealed as a result of a court order.
In other news from Washington, Jewish leaders have begun receiving invitations to a July 13 meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. This will be the first face-to-face meeting since Obama took office and it comes at a time when relations between the administration and Israel are shaky. Jewish groups have generally avoided criticizing Obama’s demand for an Israeli settlement freeze, but they have called for ensuring that Arab partners also live up to their commitments.
July 2, 2009, 9:15pm
Offbeat Israel: Iran Makeovers, Cable Price Wars
By Nathan Jeffay
Here’s an interesting take on the unrest in Iran. Chic clothing firm Daphna Levinson has placed an advertisement in several newspapers. It reads: “Iranians, good luck with your revolution to freedom.” The picture shows “before” and “after” pictures supposedly on this theme. The “before” picture features a woman covered up in a black burka-like robe; the “after” picture comes from the latest Daphna Levinson catalog.
Israel’s main cable TV companies, Hot and Yes, are engaged in a price war. This has seemingly caused the companies to give the third degree to any customer who dares to call up to cancel.
Hot customer services: Hello
Me: Hello, I would like to cancel my TV subscription.
Hot customer services: Why?
Me: (trying to avoid an inquisition) There isn’t much to watch.
Hot customer services: I don’t understand your reason. Me: Look, I simply don’t want Hot TV anymore.
Hot customer services: (long pause….) Have you become ultra-Orthodox?
July 2, 2009, 9:09pm
Israeli Diplomats Boycott Elaborate Fourth of July Celebration
By Nathan Jeffay
American diplomats in Israel held their July 4 celebration Wednesday. It took place at the Herzliya home of U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham and was, by all accounts, an elaborate affair. But at least one hawkish lawmaker — World Likud chairman Danny Danon — decided to boycott the event in protest of U.S. pressure on the issue of settlement building. See this Jerusalem Post report and video of one of the lawmakers justifying the boycott.
July 1, 2009, 1:21pm
Russian-American Lawyer, Imprisoned in Belarus, Pardoned
By Nathaniel Popper
A Russian-born Jewish lawyer who had been sitting in a prison hospital in Belarus was released from a penal colony yesterday after a lengthy guessing game about his fate and the reasons for his arrest.
Emanuel Zeltser, who moved to America during the Soviet Jewry movement, had been sentenced to three years in prison last summer after being charged with smuggling documents and narcotics into the country.
Zeltser’s case has largely been seen as a tactic in a broader diplomatic battle between the United States and Belarus, which has been referred to as the last dictatorship in Europe due to the authoritarian tactics of President Alexander Lukashenko. Indeed, it was Lukashenko who decided to pardon Zeltser. Lukashenko said he made the pardon in order to “help create a normalization of our relations” with the United States. Lukashenko has been cozying up to the West in recent months after years of being one of Russia’s staunchest allies.
But the Forward reported last year that the case also appeared to be linked to a feud between Russian oligarchs. Zeltser was a lawyer for relatives of Georgian tycoon Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili. Zeltser was arrested in Belarus just a month after Patarkatsishvili’s death — and was hit with additional charges of narcotics smuggling just two weeks after a Georgian court decided in favor of the side represented by Zeltser.
If that sounds confusing, it might be because oligarchs from the former Soviet Union don’t go out of their way to create transparency in their affairs. Firm explanations about what actually happened are unlikely anytime soon.
June 30, 2009, 9:03pm
Madoff Décor: 'Queens Baroque' at Home; Austere at the Office
By Nadja Spiegelman
Last week’s color photographs of Hitler’s home got us wondering: Do all dictators have awful taste? North Korea’s Kim Jong Il is well known for his gaudiness and these paintings from Saddam Hussein’s collection of fantasy art look like they’ve been rescued from beneath the bed of a teenage video game aficionado.
And now there’s a fourth man to add to our list: Bernie Madoff. Sure, he’s no dictator, but we wouldn’t be the first — or the second or third, for that matter — to compare him to Hitler. And, to be fair, his decorating skills are slightly better. But these New York Daily News photos of the inside of the Madoff’s Upper East Side duplex prove that while Bernie’s no Saddam, he’s definitely no Martha Stewart either (although they do have the jail thing in common).
Indeed, an article that ran in the Forward in December describes Michael Skakun and Ken Libo’s visit to the Madoff’s apartment five years ago. “Queens High Baroque,” they recalled whispering to each other as they stepped into the apartment, which they described like this:
The ample Madoff foyer and living room burst with what appeared to us as classical knockoffs, the regal effect spoiled by overexertion. Gold sconces lined the stenciled wallpaper, a Napoleonic-style desk stood to the side, and the Greek and Egyptian statues vied with each other to set a mood of antique decorum. Arabesque-styled Central Asian rugs beguiled our vision with looping patterns and impressive symmetries, further softening our footfalls.
It seems that, when it came to decorating, Madoff kept his home life separate from his work. An article in The Daily Mall describes his preferred office décor. The article quotes the manager of Madoff’s London office, Julia Fenwick, as saying:
The London office had to resemble as closely as possible the New York office — grey walls, grey carpets, black trim, black cupboards. Everything was grey and black. On the occasions he visited London, we’d spend days before his arrival leveling the blinds, making sure the computer screens were an identical height, lining every picture up straight. No paper was allowed on the desks.
Grey, black and austere is a far cry from the frilly and overwrought perfectionism of the Madoff’s New York penthouse. Perhaps Susan Blumenfeld, Madoff’s personal interior designer, is to thank for the disparate decorating styles. Writes the Daily Mail:
According to Mrs Fenwick, Madoff was often accompanied by his interior designer, Susan Blumenfeld, president of New York firm SBI Design, who even approved his wife’s clothes.
A quick Internet search for Susan Blumenfeld reveals the Edward and Susan Blumenfeld Foundation is on the long list of foundations that found themselves victims of Madoff’s scam. Their foundation’s estimated exposure: $2,539,993.
June 30, 2009, 5:31pm
Unrest on the Day of Rest: The Irony of the Haredi Parking Lot Protests
By Nathan Jeffay
Shabbat is known as the “day of rest,” and the etymology of Jerusalem is often said to be “city of peace.” But this Shabbat in Jerusalem was neither restful nor peaceful. Some 28 Haredi demonstrators were arrested during riots over the opening of a parking lot. Six people were wounded.
On Friday night, thousands of Haredim went out to the city thoroughfare of Bar Ilan Street for what was billed as a mass prayer rally to protest the opening of the facility. Secular residents asserting the right to open the car park held a counter demonstration.
Then on Saturday, there were riots. The organizers of the prayer rally are billing it as a success, while insisting that they are not responsible for the riots.
So what’s the struggle all about? It’s a rather odd fight to pick, at first glance. Driving on Shabbat is prohibited though, of course, roads rarely close. So people can drive, which as we’ve just established, is the act of Sabbath desecration. It’s ironic, therefore, that the Haredi leaders are against people stopping driving — by parking.
Maybe the secular counter-demonstrators got it wrong. Perhaps a more effective demonstration would have been to take, en masse, to the streets in their cars, and fill the holy city with the noise of Sabbath desecration all through Shabbat. They could have held placards out of their windows saying “less parking equals more Sabbath desecration, not less.”
But alas, the Haredi campaign does not seem to be about a devout desire to reduce the occurrence of Sabbath desecration. After all, if you think about it, the irony is that as a result of the protests and riots, there was probably more Sabbath desecration – among both Haredim and others – than there would be on a normal Saturday even if people were parking cars.
Here are a few examples of how:
1). Haredi rioters taking actions prohibited on Shabbat, such as throwing stones.
2). Hareim arrested. The policemen don’t say – “do you want to take a Sabbath stroll to the station?” They are hauled in to the back of a van and end up traveling on Sabbath.
3). Protests and riots necessitate breaking of Shabbat by police, for example by using vehicles, radios etc.
4). Cameramen and journalists flock to report on what is going on.
5). Thousands of news junkies turn on the television, log on to the web or turn on their radios to find out what is happening.
Instead of a real bid to reduce the occurrence of Sabbath desecration we have a turf war, and a very interesting one at that. Beyond the obvious religious-secular tensions coming to the surface, there’s something else going on – some internal Haredi politics – which are easy to miss.
The opposition to parking facilities being open on Shabbat has been drummed up by the hard-line body the Eida Haredit, backing more mainstream leaders into a corner. With the issue of parking forced on to the agenda, they had to come out for or against it, and could hardly come out in favor.
In short, what the Eida Haredit has done is to force more moderate elements in the Haredi community, most importantly the Haredi political parties, to get involved in a fight it is widely believed they wanted to keep out of. There was a strong indication of this process in play ahead of Friday’s “rally,” with top rabbis from the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Haredi sectors — Shalom Elyashiv and Ovadia Yosef respectively — joining the Eida in promoting the gathering.
June 30, 2009, 3:38pm
Minnesota Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Franken
By Allison Gaudet Yarrow
After a 7-month court battle, the Minnesota Supreme Court today ruled that Democrat (and Jew) Al Franken has won the Minnesota Senate seat formerly occupied by Republican (and fellow MOT) Norm Coleman. Read about it here. Both Franken’s and Coleman’s camps said they would hold press conferences later in the day.
June 30, 2009, 12:35pm
This Week in the World of Kosher
By Nathaniel Popper
What goes into making food kosher?
The debate over this question has recently raged in America after the poor working conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse were exposed. The new Magen Tzedek certification has proposed that kosher food follow certain labor and environmental standards, but many Orthodox rabbis have disputed whether kosher certification can encompass anything more than the strict rules of kashrut.
Israelis are having their own version of this debate, looking at whether kosher certification should look at more than how the food is prepared. The chief rabbinate in Israel, which provides most kosher certification in the country, wanted to pull its kosher certification of a bakery owned by a Messianic Jew — a Jew for Jesus. The Israeli Supreme Court said that the chief rabbinate could not hold this baker to a higher standard than any other baker: “The Kashrut Law states clearly that only legal deliberations directly related to what makes the food kosher are relevant, not wider concerns unrelated to food preparation.”
In making its decision, the court cited a famous previous decision about an American-émigré belly dancer. In that decision, the court had ruled that the performances of the belly dancer at a hotel or catering hall could not be used to disqualify the site for kosher supervision.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the debate over kashrut has taken a different form during a European Union session on creating unified standards for animal slaughter. Last month, the British Farm Animal Welfare Council released a report stating that kosher and halal slaughter did cause animals “significant pain and distress.” In the end, though, the European Union passed a regulation protecting kosher slaughter in all EU member states — thus exempting religious slaughter from a requirement that all animals be stunned before they are killed.
No word came from Brussels on the belly dancing issue.
June 30, 2009, 11:46am
The Gloved One's 'Jew Me, Sue Me' Moment
By Benjamin Ivry
Amid the media scandal-mongering over the untimely demise of Michael Jackson, only a few reports have zeroed in on the Gloved One’s infamous 1995 song “They Don’t Care About Us,” which “outraged” the Anti-Defamation League with its “antisemitic” lyrics: “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me.”
Jackson explained to The New York Times: “I am the voice of the accused and the attacked. I am the voice of everyone. I am the skinhead, I am the Jew, I am the black man, I am the white man.”
If Jackson was really the Jew, one wonders if he would have been welcomed later by members of the Nation of Islam movement quite so enthusiastically Whatever the rationalizations, there is really no sane reason for Jackson to be praised as he is in “TYPISCH!: Klischees von Juden und Anderen” (“TYPICAL!: Clichés of Jews and Others”) a current exhibit at Vienna’s Jewish Museum, for supposedly having “attempted to destroy stereotypes” by marring his face with multiple nose jobs.
Far from seeing the late singer as a breaker of stereotypes, readers might side instead with ADL National Director Abe Foxman, who castigated the Gloved One for making a “decision which reinforces intolerance” by releasing a video version of “They Don’t Care About Us” as well as for later manifestations of antisemitism.
Iranian Intelligence Ministry Thinks George Soros and John McCain Are Buddies
By Daniel Treiman
Here’s a video broadcast by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, subtitled by Memri. Very “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Very “Protocols.” Very creepy. (Though the production values are very lousy.)
Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan’s blog
June 29, 2009, 4:29pm
The Jewish Jackson Angle: King of Pop's Kids Are MOT's
By Daniel Treiman
The JTA has the following story: “Jackson kids’ Jewish mother could regain custody,” which notes:
Reports are conflicting over whether the Jewish mother of two of the late Michael Jackson’s children will seek custody.
Jackson, the “King of Pop” who died Friday of unspecified causes, and Debbie Rowe are the parents of Prince Michael I, 12, and Paris Michael Katherine, 11. By virtue of having a Jewish mother, they are considered Jewish.
According to London’s Sunday Times, sources close to Rowe said she will not fight Katherine Jackson, the pop star’s mother, for custody of the children, and that she would be satisfied with more access to them.
But Iris Finsilver, Rowe’s attorney, told the Associated Press that she was certain that Rowe would seek custody of the two children. Finsilver had previously confirmed that Rowe was Jewish.
June 29, 2009, 2:50pm
Ruthie Madoff Breaks Her Silence
By Alex Suskind
After Judge Denny Chin threw down a hefty 150 year sentence to Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff, his wife, Ruth, who has remained quiet in her posh Upper East Side penthouse throughout the entire situation (except when she made the mistake of leaving her home in March to buy cheese, finally broke her silence on the matter. Her statement follows:
I am breaking my silence now, because my reluctance to speak has been interpreted as indifference or lack of sympathy for the victims of my husband Bernie’s crime, which is exactly the opposite of the truth.
From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts — first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over. Many of my husband’s investors were my close friends and family. And in the days since December, I have read, with immense pain, the wrenching stories of people whose life savings have evaporated because of his crime.
My husband was the one we (and I include myself) respected and trusted with our lives and our livelihoods, often for many, many years, and who was respected in the securities industry as well. Then there is the other man who stunned us all with his confession and is responsible for this terrible situation in which so many now find themselves. Lives have been upended and futures have been taken away. All those touched by this fraud feel betrayed; disbelieving the nightmare they woke to. I am embarrassed and ashamed.
Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused. The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years.
In the end, to say that I feel devastated for the many whom my husband has destroyed is truly inadequate. Nothing I can say seems sufficient regarding the daily suffering that all those innocent people are enduring because of my husband. But if it matters to them at all, please know that not a day goes by when I don’t ache over the stories that I have heard and read.
June 29, 2009, 2:41pm
Jewish Labor Leader Comes Out, Promotes Gay Marriage Bill
By Nathaniel Popper
Just in time for New York’s gay pride events, the president of the Jewish Labor Committee, Stuart Appelbaum, announced publicly that he is gay.
Appelbaum is thought to be the first president of a major international union to come out. Appelbaum is the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents 100,000 workers — most famously, the clerks at Macy’s, Saks and other department stores.
Appelbaum is no stranger to representing minority communities within the labor movement. He is the current president of the Jewish Labor Committee, where he has led efforts to stop union boycotts of Israel.
Appelbaum told Gay City News that he came out in order to help support gay marriage legislation that is working its way through the New York state legislature: “Marriage equality is so important to me. I came out because of it.”
Until now the most famous labor leader to come out publicly is another Jewish labor leader, Randi Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers, which is not an international union. Together Weingarten and Appelbaum provide one more indication that Jews remain at the progressive edge of the American labor movement.
June 26, 2009, 5:49pm
On Madoff, Charity and Morality
By Anthony Weiss
More tawdry news on the Madoff front. Lawsuits have been filed against Stanley Chais and Jeffry Picower for receiving what appear to be suspiciously generous and apparently preferential returns for their investments. An investigative report by ProPublica documents that Picower and his family withdrew an astonishing $5.1 billion from Madoff — more, apparently, than Madoff himself. Chais and Picower had been two of the most generous donors to Jewish causes, as well as a number of non-Jewish causes. (Just four months ago, Israeli non-profits held an event to honor Chais for his generosity through the years).
What this means is that the damage to Jewish institutional life seems to be both deeper and more insidious than was first suspected when Madoff bomb first went off and vaporized endowments and fortunes. Jewish philanthropy was awash in fictional money; now, we learn, it may also have been steeped in dirty money — money that helped obtain awards, encomiums, board seats and status.
This is, of course, the currency of philanthropy. Donors give money, and in return they get recognition, respect, publicity, loyalty, and a good (or a least a better) name. There’s a certain logic in this, and even a certain social benefit: Many big donors wouldn’t give a penny, or certainly not as much as they do give, if they weren’t paid back in prestige. They buy a little prestige, and society gets money for good works.
Generosity is only truly generosity when the money is given for the sake of the giving, but life is imperfect, and such is the way of the world.
But let’s not fool ourselves about the devil’s side of this devil’s bargain. The Madoff affair isn’t the first time we’ve seen big Jewish donors turn out to be big Jewish crooks. When you use money as a gauge of character, you get what you pay for.
The Forward’s editorial director, J.J. Goldberg, recently examined what the Madoff scandal says about Jewish money, charity, and morality. It isn’t pretty. But it’s worth thinking about.
June 26, 2009, 5:12pm
Study: Children of Survivors Fare Better Than Expected
By Nathan Jeffay
It’s a story you hear time and time again in Israel and in the Diaspora. Somebody made it through the Nazi death camps and went on to lead a relatively normal life after the war, but for years, did not speak of their experiences to their nearest and dearest. In numerous cases, the survivor in question carried them to the grave.
For many years after the Holocaust, it was extremely common for survivors to keep silent about their experiences. Then in recent decades the prevailing opinion has been that it is good to talk — especially in a family setting. The survivor’s silence, goes the theory, results in a damaged relationship with his or her children, who often suffer effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
A new piece of Haifa University research takes issue with this now-mainstream view: Only 20% of survivors’ children suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and they don’t really have an emotional need to hear their parents’ experiences, according to Haifa sociologist Carol Kidron, whose research on the subject has just been published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Current Anthropology.
Kidron interviewed 55 children of Holocaust survivors, the vast majority of whom revealed that their only knowledge of their parents’ Holocaust experiences was transmitted to them via taken-for-granted everyday interpersonal interaction.
This, she found, leads to a “knowledge” and presence of the Holocaust that, despite remaining unspoken, contributes to the life experiences and shapes the personality of the person exposed to it.
The people interviewed were able to get a sense of their parents’ experiences through the unspoken. One recalled hearing a parent’s nightly cries; another remembered wondering about the numbers branded on a parent’s arm; several described watching their parents reminiscing or looking through old photographs or memorabilia.
The silent day-to-day presence of Holocaust memories that the descendents of Holocaust survivors gleaned sufficed, Kidron argued in her report: As children, they frequently felt no need to question their parents in depth. They had no desire to document their families’ Holocaust history. An overwhelming majority of interviewees — 95% — said that they were not interested in telling the story of their parents’ Holocaust experiences in the public domain, or their own.
In Kirdon’s words: “By forming an experiential matrix, these silent traces maintain an intimate and non-pathological presence of the Holocaust death-world in the everyday life-world.”
June 26, 2009, 2:08pm
Shmuley: I Foretold Jackson's Demise
By Gabrielle Birkner
In the wake of Michael Jackson’s death, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is, not surprisingly, all over the place — weighing in on the Gloved One’s decline and demise. In this opinion piece in today’s Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes that, back in 2004, he foretold Michael Jackson’s untimely death:
In the two years that I had attempted, ultimately unsuccessfully, to help Michael repair his life, what most frightened me was not that he would be arrested again for child molestation, although he later was. Rather it was that he would die. As I told CNN on April 22, 2004, “My great fear, and why I felt I had to be distanced from Michael … was that he would not live long. My fear was that Michael’s life would be cut short. When you have no ingredients of a healthy life, when you are totally detached from that which is normal, and when you are a super-celebrity you, God forbid, end up like Janis Joplin like Elvis… Michael is headed in that direction.”
June 26, 2009, 1:01pm
Finding Michael Jackson in Genesis
By Daniel Treiman
Even as we adjust to a world without Michael Jackson, we’re still left grappling with the question of how to understand the gifted and bizarre “King of Pop.” A few years back in the pages of the Forward, Ami Eden offered up some insights, drawing upon what might seem like an unlikely source: the Book of Genesis.
Eden wrote:
In many ways, both significant and superficial, Jackson resembles the biblical character of Joseph, interpreter of dreams, viceroy of Egypt and favorite son of the Israelite patriarch Jacob.
Like Jackson, who first achieved fame as the youngest and most talented member of The Jackson 5, Joseph was imbued with natural gifts that allowed him to tower over his older brothers. In both cases the golden child’s superiority was marked by the acquisition of a jacket. Jackson took to wearing his trademark red coat after the release of “Thriller,” the record-smashing 1982 solo album that propelled the performer into a stratosphere of superstardom beyond the reach of his siblings. Joseph’s father gave him a multi-colored tunic, underscoring his elevated status as Jacob’s favorite son and chosen successor.
And both fought famine in Africa. Jackson used his superstar power to line up dozens of celebrities to record the hit song “We Are the World,” a successful effort to raise millions of dollars to fight hunger. Joseph used his dream-reading power to warn Pharaoh of an impending famine, successfully fending off starvation in Egypt.
Despite their respective good works, both Jackson and Joseph were plagued by a rising insecurity over their personal appearance. For both men, physical change became a vehicle for assimilating into the wider culture.
The full article is well worth reading.
June 25, 2009, 6:49pm
Rabbi Shmuley on the Gloved One, z''l
By Gabrielle Birkner
As you’ve probably heard, pop superstar Michael Jackson died today at age 50.
The music icon had a short-lived, but well documented, friendship with Rabbi (and author and television star) Shmuley Boteach. In 2003, the British Web site “Something Jewish” published a Q&A with Rabbi Shmuley about his relationship with the King of Pop. Read it here.
June 25, 2009, 11:01am
Not To Brag But...
By Forward Staff
The Forward scooped up 10 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, it will be announced today at the annual conference of the American Jewish Press Association. A release on the honors is below:
The Forward, America’s most influential Jewish weekly newspaper, garnered ten 2009 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, the most prestigious accolades in Jewish media. It was a record number of Rockowers for the 19-year-old English-language Forward.
The Awards for editorial writing, investigative reporting, arts criticism, website and design were presented at the Annual American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) last night Chicago. On hand to receive the Awards, representing the Forward team were Publisher Samuel Norich and Editor Jane Eisner.
The Rockower Awards, known as the “Jewish Pulitzers,” offer Awards in 15 categories reflecting the breadth and diversity of Jewish Journalism today. This year, the Forward won six first place awards and four second, with honors in 10 of the 15 Award categories.
“We are honored to be judged so highly by our peers in the Jewish journalism community, and to have such a strong showing in so many different areas,” said Forward Editor Jane Eisner. “We have an extraordinary team of journalists who work hard to tell the Jewish story in print and online. I am so proud of their dedication, creativity and strong sense of mission that is reflected in these awards.”
The Forward First Place honors included:
• The Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary
“The Economic War Against the Palestinians has Failed,” “How Jimmy Carter Almost Derailed Peace with Egypt,” and “Accept that the Regime in Iran is here to Stay”
Yossi Alpher• Award for Excellence in Editorial Writing
“Judging Character—and Kashrut”
J.J. Goldberg• The Boris Smolar Award for Excellence in Comprehensive Coverage or Investigative Reporting
This Award reflects the Forward’s groundbreaking investigative reporting on Agriprocessors and the Kosher slaughterhouse industry. The Award was given to Nathaniel Popper, Anthony Weiss, Marissa Brostoff and Lana Gersten• Excellence in Arts and Criticism News and Features
“The Commentator: Is Adam Sandler Our Greatest Jewish Mind?”
Daniel Treiman• The David Frank Award for Excellence in Personality Profiles
“A Rabbi with a Knack for Publicity Wins Coveted and Historic Visit from the Pope”
Anthony Weiss• Outstanding Website
Forward.com
Gabrielle Birkner, Web editorThe Forward received second place awards for:
• Excellence in News Reporting
“Madoff Scandal Rips Apart Close World of Jewish Philanthropy”
Anthony Weiss• Excellence in Overall Graphic Design
• Excellence in Special Sections or Supplements “Giving” and “Forward 50”
• Award for Excellence in Writing about Women
“Female Torah Scribe Lives off the Land, Religiously”
Anthony WeissThe American Jewish Press Association was founded in 1944 as a voluntary not-for-profit professional association for the English-language Jewish Press in North America. Its membership currently consists of about 250 newspapers, magazines, individual journalists and affiliated organizations throughout the United States and Canada. AJPA member publications reach a combined readership of more than 2.5 million. The AJPA mission has remained constant over the years: to enhance the status of American Jewish journalism and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and cooperative activities among the American Jewish press. The Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism are given out at the AJPA’s annual conference at the end of June. Known to some as the ‘Jewish Pulitzers,’ the awards were initiated in 1980 to promote quality Jewish journalism. www.ajpa.org
June 24, 2009, 4:04pm
You Might Also Like ... Hitler Up Close
By Nadja Spiegelman
Photographs of Hitler that were literally buried underground are now available in snappy bright albums on Life Magazine’s Web site. Four themed Web galleries (intimate portraits, Hitler among the crowds, Hitler’s interiors, and Hitler’s childhood) contain images by Hitler’s personal photographer and close friend, Hugo Jaeger. The Web site is somewhat hard to navigate — reaching the end of one Web album prompts the disconcerting automated suggestion, “You might also like: Hitler, Up Close” — but the photographs themselves and the captions that accompany them are well worth the effort. Jaeger was among the first to pioneer the technology of color photography and Hitler once said, “The future belongs to color photography.” In this case, color photography owns the past as well. There’s something undeniably jarring about seeing Hitler’s ruddy pink cheeks rather than the usual grainy grey skin tone of the old textbook images.
The color also gives us unique insight into Hitler’s abysmal interior decorating skills. One image shows dining room tables piled high with sickly pick and green flowers and nearly every interior showcases floral patterns and gold chandeliers. A photograph of an indoor swimming pool on Hitler’s cruise ship shows a crudely painted mural of three naked women riding a grinning whale. It might just be the quality of the film, but everything looks sappy and sticky, even mawkish. It’s certainly not the harsh clean decorating you would expect from such a man.
The story of how the photographs surfaced is just as alluring as the pictures themselves. It was 1945 and the Allies were making their final push towards Munich. In a small town to the west of the city, Jaeger stood nervously by as six American soldiers searched the house in which he had been hiding. The soldiers found a leather suitcase and gathered round to open it.
Jaeger’s heart must have pounded as they undid the clasps: Inside the suitcase were hundreds of color transparencies that proved Jaeger’s close relationship to the dictator. The soldiers threw open the suitcase with a shout of surprise. They had discovered a bottle of cognac placed on top of the incriminating images. They forgot to keep searching and instead they shared the cognac with Jaeger and the owner of the house. His life narrowly saved by his alcohol, Jaeger didn’t risk getting caught again. He packed the photographs into 12 glass jars as soon as the soldiers departed and buried them on the outskirts of town. He came back to check on them several times after the war, digging them up and reburying them each time.
He finally brought them to America in 1955, where he placed them inside a bank vault. Ten years later, he sold them to Life magazine. Only a small fraction of the 2,000 photographs in his collection have since been published. Now, for the first time ever, 51 of those images are available online.
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