During his 36-year career in the Senate, the Indiana Republican had a reputation for getting both parties to work together

By RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Richard Lugar was never considered to be one of Israel’s leading advocates on Capitol Hill.

The veteran Republican senator from Indiana, who suffered a primary defeat last week after 35 years in office, is famously his own man.

Lugar, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, consistently backed defense assistance for Israel and in the 1980s championed freedom for Soviet Jews. But he was also known for pushing a more active U.S. approach to brokering Middle East peace than that favored by much of the pro-Israel lobby, and he preferred to move ahead cautiously on Iran sanctions.

Yet pro-Israel groups ponied up when Lugar came calling as it became clear that a Tea Party candidate was threatening to unseat him, lending logistical and financial support.

Israel advocates and GOP insiders explained that Lugar represented a breed of lawmaker who pro-Israel groups see as valuable to their cause and disappearing: One who reaches across the aisle.

“Lugar wasn’t actively pro-Israel, but he wasn’t anti either,” said Mike Kraft, a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 1970s and 1980s who now is a consultant on counterterrorism and writes for a number of pro-Israel Web sites and think tanks. “But generally losing a good, balanced, thoughtful guy on foreign policy is a real tragedy. It weakens the American political system.”

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(JTA) — Iran executed a man convicted of spying for Israel and of assassinating an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, was hanged early Tuesday morning, according to Iranian news reports. He was sentenced to death in August 2010 for the murder of Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at Tehran University killed by a remote-controlled bomb in a January 2010 attack.

Mohammadi is one of four scientists that Iran has accused Israel and the United States of assassinating in the last two years.

Fashi was accused of traveling outside of Iran to receive special training by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

In April, more than 15 Iranian and foreign nationals reportedly were arrested for carrying out alleged terrorist missions for Israel in Iran, according to IRNA, Iran’s official news agency. The group was accused of spying for Israel, the attempted assassination of an Iranian expert and sabotage.

Anxiety over anti-Semitism is only one toxic element of a broader and much more complex national crisis

By RUTH ELLEN GRUBER

BUDAPEST (JTA) — The debate over anti-Semitism in Hungary has sharpened since the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-Roma (Gypsy) Jobbik movement entered Parliament two years ago as the country’s third largest party.

Seeking scapegoats and channeling paranoia at a time of severe economic, social and political woes, Jobbik’s lawmakers regularly — and loudly — spout xenophobic, anti-Roma, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Outbursts in Parliament, in local councils and in the media have demolished taboos and increasingly serve to legitimize hate speech in both private conversation and public discourse.

But for the Jewish community, anxiety over anti-Semitism is only one toxic element of a broader and much more complex national crisis that touches all parts of society two years after the 2010 elections swept the conservative Fidesz party to power.

“The danger is about Hungarian democracy, not about anti-Semitism,” Rabbi Istvan Darvas told JTA.

“Everybody feels the crisis,” said Mircea Cernov, CEO of Haver, a foundation that fights anti-Semitism and teaches schoolchildren about Judaism and the Jewish people. “The financial and economic challenges, unemployment and poverty, social, education and health system crisis, democratic system in turbulence — there is no difference between people influenced by all this.”

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Question One, a compelling documentary, explores a pitched battle in Maine over legalizing same-sex marriage — the same issue that Minnesotans will vote on in November

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

On May 6, 2009, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill making same-sex marriage legal in the state. However, opponents of the law petitioned to stop its implementation and forced a statewide referendum on the measure, which was dubbed “Question One.” Less than six months later, the opponents of same-sex marriage prevailed — by a vote of 300,848 to 267,828 — and the law was overturned.

The dramatic events in Maine, which pitted gays and lesbians and their supporters against the Catholic Church and evangelical Christians, are depicted in Question One, an entirely fascinating, 95-minute documentary that will have its first theatrical release May 14-19 at Theatres at Mall of America.

Joe Fox, director, writer and producer of Question One, talked to the AJW last week about the film, marriage equality and Minnesota’s upcoming vote on a ballot measure to chisel a definition of traditional marriage into the state constitution.

Fox, 51, is the gay son of an Orthodox rabbi and an accomplished journalist. His series for USA Today, “Voices of Peace,” which investigated the peace process in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Israel, was the paper’s submission for the Pulitzer Prize.

Previously, Fox and James Nubile, the associate director, editor and producer of Question One, made the documentary Passing Poston, about a Japanese internment camp during World War II. That film aired on PBS affiliates across the United States.

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St. Louis Park native Peter Himmelman has been booked for a May 24 return engagement at Minneapolis’ premier jazz club

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

Peter Himmelman has made his home in southern California for many years, but his hometown gigs, an annual affair for many years, are eagerly anticipated. The St. Louis Park native played his first date at the Dakota Jazz Club last August; and the renowned Minneapolis jazz joint will welcome him back on May 24.

The popular singer-songwriter spoke with the AJW last week about his Dakota gig, a new record ready for release and his Big Muse songwriting workshops for business people.

Himmelman’s 2011 show at the Dakota had the feeling of a Bar Mitzva reception, with a big crowd comprised of many friends and relatives. “There’s a nervous aspect to that,” Himmelman allows, but adds, regarding the intimate music room: “I loved the place, absolutely loved it… It works really well for my style.”

He’s still working on the lineup for his May 24 show. Jeff Victor, his longtime musical collaborator, will play keyboards. The rhythm section is to be determined.

Himmelman’s next LP will hit the record bins this summer. The album will be “under a band moniker, the band’s name is Minnesota.” The follow-up to The Mystery and the Hum was recorded in Minneapolis, with the help of producer David Hollander. As I wrote last year, the sessions included Victor on Hammond organ; Noah Levy, drums; Jim Anton, bass; Jake Hanson, of the band Halloween, Alaska, on guitar; and Kristin Mooney and Claire Holley on vocals.

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, by Nathan Englander, Knopf, 224 pages, $24.95.

Reviewed by NEAL GENDLER

Nathan Englander continues to go from strength to strength, packing new proof of his distinctive talent into this slender package of eight short stories.

Englander burst to stardom in 1999, with a short-story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. The title story, about an Orthodox man who seeks rabbinical approval to go to a prostitute because his wife denies him sex, has an ending worthy of O. Henry, famed since the first decade of the last century for witty short stories with a twist at the end.

The stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank are equally unusual and sprinkled with humor, irony, absurdity and surprises. Englander, who was raised Orthodox and became secular while living in Jerusalem, either sees people, life and the world rather differently than do the rest of us, or he sees more deeply — often darkly — and finds unusual ways of communicating his vision.

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This week’s editorial deals with recent event in Europe — a subject that’s usually not as touchy, in terms of vituperative feedback from readers, as, say, Israel. The big news this week was about the victory of French Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande, who edged out Nicholas Sarkozy — and ended a 17-year reign by French conservatives.

However, the more ominous election results were in Greece, where Golden Dawn entered the Hellenic Parliament for the first time, with seven percent of the vote (in the last general election they gained a fifth of one percent of the vote). This far-right faction is referred to as “ultra-nationalist” in some press accounts; but with their stylized swastika logo and outstretched arm salutes, Golden Dawn is clearly a neo-Nazi group.

The mainstream Greek parties, New Democracy and PASOK, the Socialists, which both backed the agreement to refinance the nation’s sovereign debt, failed to gain a majority of seats in the parliament. Along with Golden Dawn, a party called Syriza, a coalition of the radical left, made significant electoral gains. This all renders the Greek political situation more unstable — on top of the ongoing economic crisis, which includes a looming debt default later this summer.

Golden Dawn’s anti-immigrant agenda apparently struck a chord with a significant minority of Greek voters. The online version of the Mail, the London newspaper, reported that the party’s leader, Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, when asked what Golden Dawn’s first action in parliament would be, responded: “All the illegal immigration out! Out of my country, out of my home!”

Asked how that would be accomplished, he angrily said, “Use your imagination.”

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Jewish Family Service of St. Paul’s Senior Advocacy Services offers a variety of resources and support to older adults, their caregivers and all members of the family

By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN / Community News Editor

If you live out of state and your aging parents require additional services, where do you turn? If there is dissension among family members about healthcare roles and responsibilities, who can you talk to?

Jewish Family Service of St. Paul’s Senior Advocacy Services is a program that helps older adults and their families make the important decisions that accompany the aging process. A dedicated team of nurses, social workers and mental health professionals — some of whom are bilingual — are available to consult with families and provide ongoing care management.

“Because families used to live closer together, there wasn’t as much need for this type of services as there is now,” said social worker Chris Rosenthal, the director of senior services for JFS. “And for adult children who live right here by their parents, they’re often overwhelmed, too. They may be taking care of their own kids, their parents have needs, the system seems very confusing and complex. That’s where we can help.”

JFS’ Senior Advocacy Services provides assistance in two different ways. Both are available on a sliding fee scale, though no one will be turned away for inability to pay.

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More than 35 photographs representing the theme of ‘community’ were displayed at the Yom Ha’atzmaut event on April 29

By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN / Community News Editor

To conclude the first year of the Jewish Lens program, a community-wide curriculum that encourages participants to connect with their Judaism through photography, six organizations from Minneapolis and St. Paul — Bet Shalom Congregation, Beth Jacob Congregation, the Amos and Celia Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School, St. Paul JCC, Mount Zion Temple and the Talmud Torah of St. Paul — had samples of their work displayed at the Yom Ha’atzmaut event on April 29 in the auditorium at the Sabes JCC.

According to the exhibit program, the Jewish Lens invites participants to focus on their individual communities by taking photographs of their families, neighborhoods and synagogues. The participants then create captions for their work that pair images with traditional Jewish texts and personal commentaries.

Each organization submitted up to seven images and a design team chose the final group of 35 to 37 images to be exhibited. All of the photographs depicted the overall theme of “community,” but they were displayed according to the categories of kehila (community), mishpacha (family), spirit and tradition. Photographers ranged in age from sixth grade to adult.

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