In this video, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken endorses marriage eqaulity. He notes that he and his wife, Franni, have been married for 36 years — “many of them happy.”
“I think everyone should be able to marry the person they love,” says Franken:
The video appears on the Web site of the Human Rights Campaign.
The Sabes JCC will host the eighth annual Celebration Showcase 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29 at the Marriott Minneapolis West, 9960 Wayzata Blvd., Minnetonka. Attendees can find everything needed to plan a special celebration.
There will be a wide selection of invitations, entertainment, photographers, DJs, caterers, venues and more. The event will include food samples from local caterers and prizes in the free raffle. (The Sabes JCC does not endorse any exhibitors.)
This event is free and open to the public. For information, contact Jen Abzug Zaligson at 952-381-3454.
For a complete list of vendors, click here.
The American Jewish World is a participant in the Celebration Showcase.
By DIETER GRAUMANN
(JTA) — It has taken decades for the international community to deal with the Holocaust in a really serious way. Perhaps a new generation first had to emerge with sufficient courage to ask about the causes of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe” and to look into the abyss of its inconceivable barbarity.
OPINION
Today, Holocaust commemorations have become an integral part of political culture, at least in Western democracies. In November 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations established the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and fixed its date on Jan. 27 — the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This year marks its sixth commemoration.
Remembering the victims of the Shoah will remain of paramount importance. However, it should not become a frozen ritual. The authors of the U.N. resolution recognized that, too. Remembering the victims of the Holocaust, according to the decision of the world organization, should also prevent the recurrence of genocide in the future.
For that reason, Jan. 27 is a suitable time to ask the question: How far has this idea been internalized?
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators leading to full peace talks have ended with no progress, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said.
Abbas, following a fifth meeting between the sides, met Wednesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah before announcing that the exploratory talks were concluded.
He said he would discuss Feb. 4 with the Arab League whether or not to hold additional talks.
The Palestinians had said that they would not meet past Thursday, the date of a deadline set months ago by the Mideast Quartet of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations for the resumption of direct peace talks, without more concessions from Israel.
Direct peace talks stopped in late 2010 after Israel refused to extend a 10-month freeze on building in the settlements.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times apologized for an opinion column in which he counted President Obama’s assassination as among Israel’s options in heading off a nuclear Iran.
“I very much regret it, I wish I hadn’t made reference to it at all,” Andrew Adler told JTA on Friday.
He said he would publish an apology in his next edition, and that reaction from readers had been overwhelmingly negative.
Fox News reported late Friday on its website that the Secret Service was investigating the column. In his interview with JTA, Adler said he had not been approached by the Secret Service.
In a Jan. 13 column, Adler, who is also the paper’s publisher, outlined what he said were three possible responses by Israel to Iran’s acquiring a nuclear weapon: A preemptive strike against Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist groups that he said would be emboldened by a nuclear Iran; a direct strike on Iran; and “three, give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”
He continued: “Yes, you read ‘three’ correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles?”
Gawker, the gossip and media news website, first reported on the column Friday.
Ophir Aviran, the Israeli consul-general in Atlanta, condemned the column “in the strongest possible terms.”
By MORDECAI SPECKTOR
Marv Davidov, the most prominent face of the local peace movement, began his decades-long career as an activist for peace and social justice in 1961. He was part of a group of six young Minnesotans (including three Jews) who took part in the first Freedom Rides, which sought to integrate public facilities in the South.
Davidov was arrested at a blacks-only lunch counter in Jackson, Miss., and imprisoned for 40 days at the notorious Parchman Farm prison. The experience of what Davidov called “blessed human solidarity” in the Mississippi state prison set him on a life course dedicated to struggling against social injustice in the United States and around the world.
In recent years Davidov himself struggled with kidney failure and other illnesses. He died on Saturday, Jan. 14, at the age of 80.
Davidov was originally from Detroit, Mich. His early years, and his recruitment by the late Zev Aelony into the civil rights movement, are chronicled in the 2009 memoir, You Can’t Do That: Marv Davidov, Non-violent Revolutionary (Nodin Press), written with Carol Masters (12-25-09 AJW).
Marv Davidov was the face of protests against Minneapolis-based Honeywell’s weapons production. (Photo: Media Mike Hazard)
Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate, was in the news last week. Adelson, a billionaire who is the largest donor to Birthright Israel and a prominent contributor to other Jewish causes, reportedly contributed $5 million to Winning Our Future, the pro-Newt Gingrich “super PAC.”
The super PAC, a new breed of political action committee, is also known as an “independent expenditure-only committee.” While individuals are limited to giving $5,000 to a candidate for elective office, no such limits apply to donations to super PACs, which can campaign on behalf of a candidate, but not coordinate directly with the candidate’s election campaign. In 2012, national politics is awash in super PAC cash, after the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the “Citizens United” case, which held that corporations and unions could contribute unlimited amounts to these independent PACs. Individuals of great wealth also are free to contribute mightily to super PACs.
In this new political landscape, a billionaire like Sheldon Adelson has an outsize influence on the electoral process. You and I can vote, but most of us don’t have millions of dollars to subsidize the purchase of TV air time to tilt an election in favor of one candidate or another.
Why is Adelson handing over $5 million to help his old pal Newt?
“He knows I’m very pro-Israel,” Gingrich told Ted Koppel Monday night on Rock Center, the NBC news show. “And that’s the central value of his life. I mean, he is very worried that Israel is not going to survive.”
The Sabes JCC will present the third annual Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival Jan. 14-28. The two-week Fringe-like festival of one-person shows, stand-up comedy, improv, workshops, storytelling, film and special events — featuring local and national talent — will celebrate the Jewish contribution to the world of humor.
Opening night will feature award-winning comedian Julie Goldman with special guest Laura Thorne 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14 at the JCC, 4330 Cedar Lake Rd. S., St. Louis Park.
Goldman, star of three seasons of LOGO’s Big Gay Sketch Show, “glides effortlessly between hilarious folk singer and stand-up comedienne extraordinaire.” She recently launched a live monthly all-female comedy line-up titled Julie Goldman’s Offensive Women in Los Angeles, where she has enlisted the best and most outrageous female comics in the world.
Julie GoldmanThorne is a rising star on the Minneapolis comedy scene and regularly performs stand-up and improvisational comedy for corporate events, charities and comedy clubs.
The show is recommended for ages 18 and older due to language and content. Tickets are $18 for general admission, and $15 for JCC premium/community members and students (tickets include entry to the private opening night party with the comedians at Cooper Irish Pub at the Shops at West End following the performance).
Click “Keep Reading” for the rest of the festival’s schedule. All events will take place at the Sabes JCC.
© 2009 American Jewish World.
