Senior Writer Allison Hoffman thinks being a journalist is the best job in the world. As the New York correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, she went to the Oscars, watched Bernard Madoff get handcuffed, and talked to David Lynch about how transcendental meditation can solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She’s also worked for the Associated Press, in its San Diego bureau, and The New Yorker, as a fact-checker. She began her career at the Los Angeles Times, where she contributed to the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the 2003 wildfires. Allison earned her undergraduate degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from Balliol College, Oxford, and graduated from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2003.
As part of organization-wide layoffs
| 3:15 PM Nov 19, 2009
Among the layoffs this week at the Associated Press: One reporter in Jerusalem and another in the West Bank, we’re told. The news service is cutting dozens of positions in an effort to cut staffing costs by 10 percent worldwide. Rumor is that reporter Steve Weizman has been let go from the AP’s Jerusalem bureau ...
The end of Jewish-Dem alliance? Not so fast, notes JTA.
| 12:00 PM Nov 18, 2009
The single best predictor of how a person will vote is how their parents voted, according to Poli-Sci 101. Sure, there’s some give at the margins—and sometimes quite a lot of give, which can produce a permanent realignment—but, for the most part, people stick to the allegiances they learned early on. So we’re a little ...
According to British TV investigation
| 3:25 PM Nov 17, 2009
Last night, Britain’s equivalent of Frontline—a Channel 4 news show called Dispatches—aired an investigation into Britain’s Israel lobby, which host Peter Oborne argued is as powerful in Westminster as the American equivalent is in Washington, but much less well known. The bulk of the program appears to have focused on one group in particular, the ...
A New York exhibition celebrates three generations of Morgenthaus
| 7:00 AM Nov 17, 2009
Usually, when people talk about establishing Holocaust memorials, they talk about commemorating the victims, or honoring their sacrifice by educating future generations about tolerance. But ask Robert Morgenthau, scion of one of New York’s most powerful Jewish families, why he decided to commit his time and energy nearly three decades ago to the establishment of ...
Just in time for Hanukkah, or Christmas
| 2:00 PM Nov 16, 2009
Hey, you know what you shouldn’t be paying retail for this holiday season? Torahs. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, discount giant Costco is going to start selling a special edition at select stores later this month. The distributor told the news service that The Illustrated Torah, published by Gefen Publishing House of Jerusalem in ...
Israel rejects unilateral move; analysts argue peace process is dead
| 10:00 AM Nov 16, 2009
It hasn’t been a good few days for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Over the weekend, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat announced he would force the whole issue by going to the U.N. Security Council and demanding recognition of a Palestinian state covering the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by ...
Focus on needs, not college applications, says former NYC pol
| 2:00 PM Nov 12, 2009
Ruth Messinger, the former Manhattan borough president and Democratic mayoral challenger to Rudy Giuliani, had the good fortune of going to an elite private school (Brearley) and an even more elite college (Radcliffe) but she credits a much humbler venue with giving her the earthy edge she needed to become a New York City pol: ...
Freebies for prospective immigrants lure cash-strapped Americans, Reuters says
| 2:00 PM Nov 11, 2009
Being Jewish occasionally has its privileges, and today Reuters uncovers a lesser-known one: subsidized living in Israel. According to the news service, increasing numbers of unemployed American Jews are traveling to the Jewish state to take advantage of government-backed and private programs designed to assist prospective new immigrants, many of which offer free housing, Hebrew ...
Talk comes after Netanyahu, Emanuel comments at G.A.
| 1:02 PM Nov 11, 2009
The Israeli government is ready to talk peace with the Palestinians but not to make any concessions ahead of time in order to get everyone to the table, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in addressing the General Assembly meeting of the Jewish federation system on Monday. Yesterday, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, ...
Speaking in lieu of his boss; audience reaction is mixed
| 3:00 PM Nov 10, 2009
Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, addressed the General Assembly of the Jewish federations today, and the first thing he did when he took the podium was apologize for not being Obama, who canceled his scheduled appearance in order to attend a memorial for the victims of last week’s shooting at Fort Hood. ...