JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Lost in translation

By Ami Eden · July 14, 2008

I've heard of niche publishing, but a kosher Japanese cookbook aimed at people who don't keep Shabbos?

Kinue Imai Weinstein, the author of Japanese Kosher Cooking – With Ingredients From Your Refrigerator - will talk how easy it is to cook Japanese food kosher at Kinokuniya Bookstore located at 1073 Avenue of the Americas (between 40th and 41st St.) New York, NY (Tel: 212-869-1700) at 3 pm on Saturday, July 19. She will also talk about Jews in Japan with slide presentation followed by a book signing session until 4 pm.

The first Jewish merchant arrived in Japan in 1861, two years after Japan opened the country. Despite Japan allied to Germany during WWII and many anti-Semitic works were translated into Japanese from German, the Japanese did not adopt the anti-Semitic attitude of the Nazis. Today, there are about 1,000 Jews living in Japan .

The cookbook, the first of its kind, was published in English by KTAV Publishing House last November. "Making Japanese food kosher is easier than you think. All you need is kosher soy sauce, which is readily available," says Kinue. Among the 107 kosher Japanese recipes, 46 of them can be easily modified for vegetarians.

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President Katsav

By Uriel Heilman · July 14, 2008

According to the English-language Web site of the president of the State of Israel, Moshe Katsav is still president. The Hebrew site, however, features the current president, Shimon Peres. Oversight or conspiracy?

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The anti-Bush world view

By Ami Eden · July 14, 2008

The New York Times has three opinions pieces today calling for a reversal in various elements of the Bush administration's Middle East policy.

1) Barack Obama reaffirms his commitment to pulling out U.S troops from Iraq:

The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States.

2) James Rubin argues that the United States should open a diplomatic post in Iran:

America has not sent diplomats to Iran since the 1979 hostage crisis. Washington's interests are managed by the Swiss government in Tehran. But as in other hostile countries, like Cuba, Washington could set up an interests section in Tehran even while formal diplomatic relations are suspended. Housed in the Swiss Embassy, this post would process visa requests and handle other consular matters.

Such an outpost should not be seen as or used for an intelligence operation. Rather, it would give American diplomats an opportunity to observe the country's complex politics firsthand. There are no current American foreign service officers who have ever been posted there. Setting up an interests section should help ensure that American policy is not born of ignorance.

3) Roger Cohen explores (online) the Scandinavian view that the Unite States and the West have made a big mistake by shunning engagement with enemies and failing to keep channels open to Hamas and Syria:

Norway's message to the United States is blunt: the next administration, whether headed by Barack Obama or John McCain, should pronounce the war on terror over. Because it has tended to isolate the United States, polarize the world, inflate the enemy, conflate diverse movements and limit scope for dialogue, its time has passed.

0 Comments | Share This | International, Iran, Iraq, Israel, syria |

Last week in Postville

By Ben Harris · July 14, 2008

Another week of stunning revelations out of Postville. Let's recap:

• The PR firm Agri hired to help revive its image, 5WPR, ran into some image problems of its own when evidence emerged connecting the publicity company to comments to various Web sites in the name of Rabbi Morris Allen, an advocate for ethical kashrut standards who has been one of Agri's fiercest critics. So far Agri has been mum on the issue, but a blogger at PRBlogNews says the company is making publicists look bad and the executive responsible should be fired.
• The Des Moines Register ran a lengthy piece reviewing worker injury claims at Agriprocessors going back several years and found that state inspectors were routinely denied access to the plant to investigate complaints. Three amputations at the plant within five weeks of each other in 2005 resulted in state fines of $7,500. The Register followed with a scathing editorial calling such incidents "unconscionable."
• The New York Times also had a good original story followed by an editorial. The story was about a Spanish language translator who worked on the judicial proceedings against the detained Postville workers who wrote an essay criticizing the process. In the editorial, the Times argues that Agri's workers charged with identity theft weren't looking to steal, only to get jobs, and shouldn't be treated like criminals.
• Also in the Times, journalist Sam Freedman traveled to Postville to write about Father Paul Ouderkirk, a Catholic priest who came out of retirement to help parishioners coping with the aftermath of the federal raid.

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The third grade

By Uriel Heilman · July 14, 2008

It's difficult to decide if the efforts Syrian President Bashar Assad made to avoid a face-to-face meeting with the Israeli prime minister on Sunday are more reminiscent of the third grade, or of a guy steering clear of his ex at a party. In any case, at the Union for the Mediterranean summit in Paris the dictator from Damascus managed to spend a whole day near, but not with, Ehud Olmert.

Assad slipped out of the room when Olmert got up to speak. When Olmert made the rounds shaking hands, Assad turned around to talk to his interpreter. And at the Bastille Day parade, Olmert managed to get within a few feet of Assad, but there was no eye contact.

"We are not seeking symbols," Assad told French TV.

I guess flowers and chocolate wouldn't have been enough.

Ha'aretz shows in pictures how it all went down.

2 Comments | Share This | Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, syria |

The News Shticker

By Daniel Sieradski · July 14, 2008

• boingboing issues challenge to Iran: "You suck at Photoshop." Readers respond with their own Photoshoppery. Hilarity ensues.
• A haredi man who, in 2006, killed his three month old by throwing him against a wall, and whose arrest sparked riots in Mea Shearim and drew accusations that "the Zionists" were "blood libeling" the ultra-Orthodox community, was found guilty of manslaughter.
• The Wall Street Journal's law blog looks at a recent Chicago court ruling which states that condominium associations that bar Jewish tenants from hanging mezuzahs on their doorposts are engaged in religious discrimination.
• A guest blogger at Feministe ponders the ethnic component of her Jewish identity, revisiting the age-old question, should Ahskenazim be considered white?
• An Australian rabbi contends that kosher eating makes you fat.
• Check out Noiz in Zion, the relatively new Israeli music blog that focuses on the Jewish state's urban music scene, for new tracks from some of Israel's up-and-coming hip-hop artists.
• Jewish continuity advocates take heed: An Oklahoma church has come up with a new way to get unaffiliated youth religiously engaged. Or not.
• British graffiti artist Banksy, best known to Jews and Israelis for his profound if unsettling work upon Israel's West Bank security barrier, has been unmasked after several years of operating in full anonymity.

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