JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Getting fired over treif chicken

By Ami Eden · May 9, 2008

Remember all the hoopla about two Orthodox Jews being on the Apprentice a few years back? Well, recently, BBC reports, one team lost a competition in the British version of the show because it failed in its quest to buy a kosher chicken:

As insults were traded among contestants on the losing team in this week's Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar berated the contestants for not knowing what a kosher chicken was.

It had to rank as one of the most peculiar spectacles in the history of the BBC reality game show, The Apprentice - a full-blown barney about what is and isn't kosher. Contestants in this week's episode had been flown to Marrakech in Morocco and instructed to bargain for a number of items on a shopping list, including a kosher chicken.

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Tailing Talansky

By Ben Harris · May 9, 2008

The media has been hungry for details about Long Island businessman Morris Talansky, the man whose questioning by Israeli police this week may bring down the Israeli prime minister. In case you've missed anything, here's some highlights:

When the PM met Talansky: Olmert aides referred to him as "Mr. T."

New details emerge about Talansky: The N.Y. Times reports that Talansky was twice accused of resorting to force to collect debts. Caught unshaven on a Jerusalem street (religious Jews don't shave in the weeks after Passover), he denied being involved in politics. U.S. financier at centre of Olmert case: Talansky flashes the thumbs-up sign, saying "I don't understand what's the big deal."

Man in the mirror: A registered Democrat, Talansky is twice married and the father of three. One of his sons lives in Jerusalem, in the same neighborhood as former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

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The prime minister’s defeat

By Uriel Heilman · May 9, 2008

In his Ehud Olmert analysis today, Ha'aretz writer Yossi Verter cites an Israeli government minister as saying the Israeli prime minister's handwriting in recent days betrays that of a "battered, haunted man."

But you don't need to read the prime minister's notes to see that Olmert appears weighed down by defeat. In video greetings to New York's Israel 60 celebration Wednesday night at Radio City Music Hall, Olmert looked lost and confused, staring vapidly at the camera and muttering something about a Jewish state for the Jewish people. Looking gaunt and sitting somewhat slumped over, Olmert seemed to be speaking without notes – or deliberation – and the video editing made clear that the prime minister couldn't even get it all in one take. It was painful to watch.

By contrast, in the video greeting President Bush sent to the Radio City event, he managed – despite a host of problems and historically low poll numbers – to look like he did a decade ago, albeit with more gray hair. He had an impish grin, spoke of the similarities between Israel and America and the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and concluded his little speech with a hearty "Mazal toff!" Audience members burst into applause several times during Bush's recorded greeting.

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