INTERVIEWS

While his buddies basked in the Mediterranean sun frolicking on Tel Aviv’s beautiful beach and playing Israeli racketball, Shlomo Eplboim did not join in. What he saw when he looked at the blue ocean, the beige sand and the yellow sun was the color of money.

I once called Joseph Farah an “Arabian Knight.” For, I had rarely come across anyone who would risk his life and well-being to defend someone else's country--especially when that country is the State of Israel. But Joseph Farah, an Arab-American, has done just that.

It is not long after he walks into the posh, dimly lit New York restaurant that the whispering and elbow jabs begin. Patrons failing in their efforts at being discreet turn their heads to look. The maître d’ ushers over two complimentary drinks. Do they know him from TV? Do they know him personally?

To begin to unravel the mystery of Yuri Foreman, you’d have to pull at two strings, two strings which seem as incompatible as barbwire and silk that it’s hard to believe they can weave into one consistent story. But they do, and it’s an invigorating, inspiring, and sometimes bloody story where long-held dreams come true and new ones are being spun.

When one thinks of leaders of Jewish organizations, the picture that tends to come to mind is that of a male who is over 60 and has a furrowed, worried brow. They worry about Israel, the next generation, Jewish continuity, anti-Semitism and other relevant issues that affect Jewish well-being and perpetuity. And though driven with the best of intentions, often their solutions and approaches are wrinkled and stodgy too. [read more]

Behind nine-foot door steel doors in " Hell-Chel," as the artist calls the area where her studio is located--below New York City's Hell's Kitchen and above Chelsea--the magical and exciting sounds of Phillip Glass' "Glass Pieces" fill the spacious large-windowed art studio. The large bright green plants seem nurtured by the musical splendor.

When he was gored by a bull in his rear-end, it was not the worst thing that ever happened to NYPD Lieutenant Robert Barone. There was also the time when Barone, the single 40-something, walked into his parents’ home only to find his mother hosting a lunch for three of his peeved ex-girlfriends to discuss his character flaws.

As Mickey Mantle batted balls out of the stadium and Neil Armstrong launched into space, young boys watched starry-eyed, longing to one day emulate their heroes. Dan Gillerman was no different. As a child he too had a hero, but not one that inspired him to fall asleep wearing his baseball mitt or to hang mobiles of Apollo 11 over his bed.

No song better exemplifies Ira's desire to relate to the audience than his enchanting
song "My Little One," inspired by his daughter Tehila, who was born with numerous
medical challenges. Ira asserts, "With this song, I had the opportunity to take a difficult personal experience and communicate a universal message, universal enough
that everyone could personally relate."

Now we come to the Fox News years, all 13, or as I like to think of 2009 as my bar mitzvah year-
-today I am a (news) man.

Having worked in the organizational world for 38 years, the 63-year-old leader says that what unites the Jews far outweighs what divides them. “We can almost always find common ground where the vast
majority can stand,” he affirms. “Therein lies our strength.”

Is it any surprise that the Jewish person Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) admires most is physicist Albert Einstein? Holt, the eight-term congressman who is now running for the U.S. Senate, is himself a brilliant scientist and one of only two physicists in Congress.