JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

The News Shticker: AJL folds, Gibson gets a wedgie, and the Bronfmans take Utah

By Daniel Sieradski · June 27, 2008

• American Jewish Life, one of the finer Jewish magazines in circulation, has folded citing economic woes. Editor-in-chief Benyamin Cohen, author of the forthcoming book My Jesus Year, will be moving on to greener pastures – and by that we truly mean "green:" Cohen will be assuming the role of editorial director at a soon-to-launch environmental news agency. We wish him much success in his new venture.
• The Guardian's film blog takes note of the proverbial "wedgie" delivered to Mel Gibson by Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess with the Zohan.
• Pratt's Chabad shaliach and Up, Up and Oy Vey! author Simcha Weinstein explores the Incredible Hulk's Jewish undertones in the Jewish Press. I wonder if he's seen Eli Valley's latest comic.
• Alec Baldwin dishes on "his true Jewish self" to the Jewish Channel.
• An Orthodox-run real estate agency in Brooklyn has been hit with a discrimination suit after investigators found the company engaged in "systematic" prejudice against black clientele.
• The Bronfman family will be taking over Park City, UT for a three-day conference called "Why Be Jewish" that sports an invite-only all-star guest list.
• The Vatican has responded to Jewish demands that they open the books on Pope Pius XII by insisting that the Jewish community opens up its own archives from the era. The Papacy, however, was hard pressed to name a single archive the Jews haven't already exhausted numerous times over.
• A Lebanese-born American man accused of providing material support to Hezbollah has insisted that the judge hearing his case recuse himself because, as a Jew, he cannot possibly be impartial.
• Daily Show contributor Lewis Black's new book Me of Little Faith explores the author's relationship to his Jewish identity as well as his feelings on religious matters in general.
• The other Telegraph reports that Jean Sarkozy, the 21-year-old son of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, is considering converting to Judaism after his upcoming marriage.