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Sundown: DA Requests Judge Drop DSK Case

Plus, Abbas delays elections (again), BHL’s best week ever, and more

by
Stephanie Butnick
August 22, 2011
Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn (right) and his wife Anne Sinclair leave a hearing where he was released on his own recognizance at New York State Supreme Court on July 1, 2011 in New York City.(Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn (right) and his wife Anne Sinclair leave a hearing where he was released on his own recognizance at New York State Supreme Court on July 1, 2011 in New York City.(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

• Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has filed papers asking the judge to dismiss the rape and assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn and drop the case. [City Room]

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has delayed local elections for the third time. The elections, which were first supposed to take place July 2010, have no scheduled date yet. [Ynet]

Foreign Policy checks in on Bernard Henri Lévy, who, for what its worth, might just be having the best week ever. [Foreign Policy]

• Jewish parents are foregoing the traditional bris, electing instead to hold what are called peaceful convenant ceremonies. Parental testimony abounds. [Salem-News]

• Joshua Cohen reviews Hungarian Péter Nádas’ latest work, Parallel Stories—which, at 1,000 pages, Cohen calls an ungodly work “not just aware of but positively evangelical about its own timelessness.” [NYMag]

• Jewish leaders in Berlin have asked local metal dealers to look out for suspicious wrought iron objects after vandals struck the Weissensee Cemetery, stealing $16,000 worth of items and damaging 16 gravesites at Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery. [Jewish Journal]

• A new documentary spotlights Hans Litten, the principled Jewish lawyer who drew charges against Hitler in 1931, questioned him brilliantly on the witness stand, and completely ticked him off. [BBC]

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.