http://www.ijn.com/wordpress the blog of denver's intermountain jewish news — talking about issues important to our community Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:50:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Holocaust. Economic growth. Hezbollah. Iran. Sanctions. UN. Settlement freeze. These were some of the topics discussed a roundtable event here in Zurich as part of a Keren Hayessod 90th anniversary celebration. The participants included former US ambassador Stuart Eizenstat and Ronen Bergmann, a Cambridge-educated Israeli journalist. Now Eizenstat is sort ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/03/sound-bytes/ Despite three Jewish-themed films being nominated for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards, we went home empty-handed. Oh, but you know who did win? "The Jew Hunter," or Christopher Waltz for his turn as Nazi officer Hans Landa in Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. The Israeli contingent was also dissed. Over the years ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/03/oscar-dud/ What's the biggest difference between a Swiss and American benefit dinner? Recently I saw an ad for an event honoring the 90th anniversary of Keren Hayesod/United Jewish Appeal. The event boasted a keynote address from Natan Sharansky and a roundtable discussion with participants such as Stuart Eizenstat. Of course I planned ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/03/benefit-dinners-and-natan-sharanksy-revisited/ It's that time of year again - spoofs, gags, jokes, all kinds of mischief. At the IJN we've published this week our annual Purim spoof, written by our very own "Over the Hill-El" - available for purchase along with our annual spring L'Chaim magazine by contacting Carol at (303) 861-2234 ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/02/links-topurim/ Rockies versus Alps. No, I'm not referring to the baseball team, but to two of the world's most famous and beautiful mountain ranges. A brief excursion to the Engadine valley in southeast Switzerland got me wondering: which range is more spectacular? This week saw me in Sils Maria, a small village ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/02/rockies-vs-alps/ Rumblings of a most strange kind of being heard across Europe. Italy's prime minister, the infamous Silvio Berlusconi, earlier this week called for Israel to join the European Union. Is this just a somewhat crazy man's fantasies, or is there some merit in his proposal? In certain areas, such as sports competitions, ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/02/israel-in-the-eu/ The latest release from filmmaking auters Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man, tells the story of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor living in 1967 Minneapolis. His story closely parallels that of the book of Job; a seemingly good person is afflicted by a deluge of misfortunes. His wife leaves ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/01/review-a-serious-man/ The catastrophic effects of the earthquake in Haiti on January 12 are being deeply and keenly felt. Something that makes this crisis so difficult to combat effectively is the instability of the Haiti prior to the earthquake. Despite it being the first independent state in the West Indies, Haiti has ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/01/jewish-efforts-for-haiti/ The world suffered a huge loss this week. Miep Gies, the righteous gentile who was pivotal in both hiding the Frank family and the safeguarding and subsequent publishing of Anne Frank's diary, died on Monday, at nearly 101 years of age. After decades of efforts by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/01/the-passing-of-miep-gies/ There's a theme running across the stories we've uploaded this week to the website: security, specifically airport security. After the Christmas Day attack, the American government is scrambling to shore up the many holes that were revealed within its airport security screening along with communication failures among intelligence outfits. One such ... http://www.ijn.com/wordpress/2010/01/the-question-of-airport-security/