Last weekend’s Forward noted that Agriprocessors — the kosher slaughterhouse that was raided by federal agents last month — has hired a big-time PR company to handle allegations of major labor infractions. This comes as some Jewish groups are calling for a boycott of the company, a move being championed by Uri L’Tzedek, a group [...]

Eli Gonen says, Israel has not maximized its tourism potential, in large part because of only fitful attention from the government (Haaretz). The European Union has decided unanimously to upgrade relations with Israel in commerce, the economy, academic ties and diplomatic areas (Haaretz). Zvi Bar’el reports that officials in Hamas and the PA believe that [...]

The new Contemporary Jewish Museum, seeks to present “a contemporary perspective on Jewish art, culture and historyâ€?, without functioning as a collection museum. Daniel Libeskind’s trademark off-kilter style is put to surprisingly effective use at the museum. As Libeskind explains in his architect’s statement, “No Jewish museum can ignore the darkness of the Holocaust,” but [...]

This week our homepage features articles about what makes meat kosher. But lately, the focus has been on what makes the treatment of workers kosher due to, in part, the crisis at Agriprocessors. To shed light on the matter, JTA’s Ben Harris, who was on the ground in Iowa, interviewed both Aaron Rubaskhin, the owner [...]

Jeffrey Goldberg reports that one source of tension between Ehud Olmert and some Jewish leaders is that the latter “loathe the idea that Mr. Olmert, or a prime minister yet elected, might one day cede the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem to the latent state of Palestine.� Says Joshua Katzen, of the Jewish Institute for [...]

Over at the Fundermentalist, Jacob Berkman and the JTA staff have come up with a list of Jewish organizations that can merge in order to save precious resources. Their ideas so far include: The orgs:The American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress. The reason: We all think the Jewish alphabet soup would be better [...]

Recently I attended a fundraiser for a Jewish organization. After the speaker I went to get a bite to eat and began speaking with the head of the organization. He began to recount the politics that go on in his office and also told me that there were mainly women in the office, which caused [...]

I haven’t seen the Colbert Report in a while. That is a mistake on my part. Shabbat Shalom:

Last year, I blogged about the closing of the Ziv Tzedakah Fund, and I received a letter from one of the people involved insuring that the legacy of the fund would continue. Well now I received the following notice about the creation of Ziv’s offspring, the Good People Fund: We are proud to announce the [...]

From our friends at Jspot.org: Just in time for Shavuot, Jewish Funds for Justice has released a study guide on the concept of tikkun olam– click here to download. On the holiday of Shavuot (Monday/Tuesday next week), it’s traditional to stay up all night studying in what’s called a “tikkun l’eil Shavuot.” Through this learning, [...]