Sima Auerbach, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Broome County, announced that The PJ Library: Jewish Bedtime Stories and Songs for Families program is coming to Broome County. The program sends free Jewish books and CDs to children between the ages of 6 months and 8 years. Currently serving more than 100 communities nationwide, more than 48,000 children receive a mailing each month. The program is being sponsored by the Federation with gifts from donors who prefer to remain anonymous.

TEL AVIV (JTA) – The sun was just beginning to sink into the Mediterranean as the couples took their places under the fluttering wedding canopy: three sets of brides and two sets of grooms. In a nod to Jewish wedding tradition, a member of each couple stepped on a glass to seal the deal. Except in this wedding the centuries-old words that finalize the Jewish marriage contract were uttered with a twist: "If I forget thee, O Tel Aviv, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Tel Aviv above my highest joy."

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Like the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago, the outcome of the post-election unrest in Iran could be of major strategic significance for the Middle East and for Israel. Israeli analysts see three possible scenarios:President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the ruling ayatollahs use force to reassert the authority of their regime. Ahmadinejad’s presidential rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, sweeps to power on a wave of popular support and reforms what still remains an essentially clerical regime. The unrest takes on a dynamic of its own, driving the ayatollahs from power.

PHILADELPHIA – Jonathan and his wife have lived overseas for more than a decade. But now that they have young children, they are considering moving back to the United States and particularly looking closely at Austin, TX, as a place to call home. That’s where Lisa Apfelberg comes in.

When opening my copy of "New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future" edited by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein (Jewish Lights Publishing), I wondered how it could be possible to find enough new and interesting material to fill its 400 pages. It was a very pleasant surprise, then, to find my initial impression was so mistaken: "New Jewish Feminism" is filled with exciting essays that not only challenged my thinking about Jewish issues, but gave me insights into how women across the Jewish spectrum combine feminism and Judaism, in addition to learning the creative ways they are reshaping their religious practice.

John Irvin’s recent, little-known drama "The Moon and the Stars" was painted using the whole palette, blending history, romance, comedy and war into a poignant story of devotion to one’s raison d’être, as well as one’s very identity.

(JTA) – Eighty-five years ago, in 1924, two wealthy and accomplished Jewish college students, Nathan F. Leopold and Richard A. Loeb, motivated by Nietzchean philosophy and determined to commit the "perfect crime," brutally murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago. Shocked B’nai B’rith leaders in Mobile, AL, wrote to the national secretary of B’nai B’rith, Leon Lewis, expressing interest in the case and wondering what the Jewish organization’s response would be. The answer, in one word, was "Hillel."

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Red, white and bluish, and Jewish, the Fourth of July this year falls on Shabbat. Whether you spend the day in synagogue, at the park, with your feet up on a recliner or barbecuing in the yard, you can bring a Jewish spark or two to the day.