JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

The News Shticker

By Uriel Heilman · August 19, 2008

• Kenneth Cole features what is probably the first hasidic Jew in a Kenneth Cole ad:
• Oy gevalt, you should only know how many Yiddish and Hebrew influences have found their way into American English already, writes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a piece on the upcoming Survey of North American Jewish Language by linguist Sarah Bunin Benor sociologist Steven M. Cohen, faculty members at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
• On JTA Election Central, Eric Fingerhut asks whether a typo in an Associated Press report on vice presidential speculation unconsciously channels the feelings of many Democrats about Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic VP pick.
• Australia's The Age newspaper discovers the "double mitzvah" of Friday night.
• The Jerusalem Post ran a story about how the haredi followers of Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman say the fighting in Georgia stopped as soon as Georgia's prime minister got a blessing by phone from the rabbi.
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice wants to see Saudi women compete in the Olympic Games. Those burkas might make it a bit difficult in the pool and on the uneven bars, however.
• Linday Lohan's dad confirmed his daughter is considering converting to Judaism. "She's exploring right now. She's explored the Church of Scientology, she tried Kabbalah, and now this," said Michael Lohan. "I think it's just another phase. But either way, she's involving God in her life, and I'm happy about that."
• The Press-Enterprise of San Bernardino, Calif., reports on the uncertain future of a local synagogue.