CARMEL FOREST, Israel — The rabbi’s yarmulke fluttered in the wind, his hand holding it to his head, as he recited E-l Malei Rachamim, the traditional prayer for the deceased.
In front of him were 50 guards from a nearby prison. Behind him, a wall displayed the names of 44 prison service cadets, teachers, police and firefighters — including Denver’s Rabbi Uriel Malka —who died when a bus carrying the cadets was engulfed by the largest fire in Israel’s history.
The Carmel Fire started on Dec. 2, 2010 and burned for five days, destroying 6,000 acres of northern Israel’s expansive Carmel Forest.
Last June, the government released a harsh report in criticizing the conduct of its agencies during the fire.
Even as the country continues to mourn the fire’s dead, the forest is being reborn. Trees are regenerating on their own, new species are being planted, protection against future fires is expanding and hikers are returning to once-charred trails.
WHEN Betty Lehman’s infant son Eli was diagnosed with autism 24 years ago, dreams of a normal life shattered into a million pieces — and she’s still putting them back together.
“One of the things that really made me grow up was having a child with extreme needs and a potentially terminal condition,” Lehman, former executive director of the Autism Society of Colorado, tells the Intermountain Jewish News.
“The level of responsibility is tremendous — and I had taken on a responsibil...
It used to be that when Denver Jews wanted to do business with each other, the contacts and deals were often made in the comfort of a deli or country club dining room, at a community event, perhaps even in a synagogue lobby.
It was an informal, friendly and heimische way of doing business, a fraternal practice that more often than not need nothing more than a firm handshake to seal the deal.
Business is still done that way, of course, but at least in the mind of one Denver businessman, not nea...
THE storied passenger trains of five major railroads passed in and out of its platforms every day, loading and unloading thousands of passengers.
Massing beneath the soaring arches of the depot’s Great Hall, and sitting on its seemingly endless oaken benches, hurried crowds seemed part of its very fabric.
Then things changed.
Airlines gradually took almost all of those passengers away. The railroads gave up the passenger train business, leaving Amtrak to take over the trade which, by the 19...
There once was a dream called retirement. After 40-odd years of work, Americans would live nicely off the principle of their savings, see the world and visit their grandchildren without worrying about the price of airfare.
While many are still able to enter this rewarding stage of life, an increasing number of Americans are opting for a dream indefinitely delayed.
According to USA Today’s recent Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll, 73% of American boomers plan to work past retirement ag...