Goldstone To Be Feted

SAN FRANCISCO — Tikkun magazine will give its 25th annual ethics award next year to Richard Goldstone, author of the UN report on the Gaza war. The announcement came amid controversy over Goldstone’s attendance of his grandson’s bar mitzvah in South Africa. Goldstone initially said he would skip the simchah to avoid planned protests by Zionist groups in South Africa, but an agreement was reached to allow him to attend the bar mitzvah without protest. Goldstone, a respected jurist in South Africa, has been persona non grata in pro-Israel circles since the publication last year of his UN-sponsored report on the 2009 war that said both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. Israel denounced the report as biased and inaccurate. Tikkun’s founder and editor, Rabbi Michael Lerner, said the decision was made prior to the bar mitzvah issue and that the timing of the announcement was the result of his “outrageous” treatment by fellow South African Jews.

Google Buys Start-up

JERUSALEM — Google bought its first Israeli firm. Google said April 27 that it’s buying privately backed start-up Labpixies, which develops personalized  web gadgets for Google’s personalized search page iGoogle and mobile devices. The $25-million deal is the first for Google in Israel since launching a research and development centre there in 2005. Labpixies’ 10 staffers will be integrated into Google Israel’s Tel Aviv office.

Orthodox Groups Opposes Female Rabbis

NEW YORK — The leading modern Orthodox rabbinic association has adopted an official position against the ordination of women while also encouraging the creation of “halachically and communally appropriate professional opportunities” for female scholars.
Members of the Rabbinical Council of America adopted the resolution during their three-day conference last week in Scarsdale, N.Y. The resolution came just months after the near ordination of a female rabbi by one of the RCA’s highest-profile members drew a sharp rebuke from the haredi Orthodox leadership of Agudath Israel of America.
The resolution cites “commitment to sacred continuity” in saying that the group “cannot accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.” But it stops short of sanctioning or expelling members who violate the policy, a move urged by some rabbis upset over the recent actions of RCA member Rabbi Avi Weiss.
Rabbi Weiss sparked outrage in January when he conferred the title of “rabba” – a feminized version of rabbi – on Sara Hurwitz, staff member at his New York synagogue, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. After the Agudah condemnation and talks with RCA officials, Rabbi Weiss said he didn’t intend to confer the title on anyone else, saying Orthodox unity was of more pressing importance.