'Jewish Clause' in Will Launches Lawsuits

No home country and an Americanized palate spell doom for brisket

(NEWSER) - The Jewish deli is dying, author David Sax tells New America Media , and there’s not much anyone, Jew or gentile, can do about it. In New York, for instance, there are about two dozen kosher and non-kosher establishments today, down from 1,500 in the 1930s. One of the problems is the rootlessness of the culture. “A Mexican restaurant always has a Mexico to go back to, for its source,” Sax says. With Jewish food, “there is no physical place that you can return to.” More»

If you watch White Christmas , be considerate: also watch Munich

(NEWSER) - "Just because anyone with half a brain celebrates Christmas," Paul Rudnick writes in that bastion of traditional Christianity, the New Yorker , that's no reason to alienate your yarmulke-wearing friends. Some tips:

• Calling Jesus "Our Savior" might seem gauche. Just call him "the Jew that got away."
• Gifting for a mixed couple made easy: The Christian wife gets a candle, the Jewish husband "a lovely framed portrait of his parents, rending their clothes and sobbing."

Portrays those assimilated outside Israel as missing

(NEWSER) - An Israeli outreach group has dumped an ad campaign that sparked controversy by portraying assimilated Diaspora Jews as “lost,” the Jerusalem Post reports. Prominent American Jewish voices slammed the campaign, which many took as a slight to intermarried Jews. An intermarried Israeli critic called it “racist,” pointing out that his children would be deemed “lost” even after serving in Israel’s army. More»

But for some, religious awakening looks a lot like exit strategy

(NEWSER) - Cuba's Jewish community is growing for the first time in decades, the Wall Street Journal reports. The country's Jewish population dwindled to 1,000 by the late 1980s but has now hit 1,500. Hundreds of other Cuban Jews have recently emigrated, landing in Israel, Canada, and the US. Many are rediscovering long-hidden Jewish roots, but the lure for some converts is a ticket off the island. More»

Construction continues amid financial impasse

(NEWSER) - Donald Trump is suing lenders for a $640 million loan extension on his mostly completed Trump Tower in Chicago, after sales of condos have fallen short, the Wall Street Journal reports. Trump is angling to apply a force majeure provision—normally triggered by acts of war or natural disasters—in the agreement with a group led by Deutsche Bank, citing the “unprecedented financial crisis in the credit markets now prevailing, in part due to acts Deutsche Bank itself participated in." More»