WASHINGTON — If you tell the rabbis, they will spread the word. That was the thinking behind two intimate White House meetings — the second of which took place on May 13— with a carefully selected slate of 15 rabbis from across the country and representing the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams. More...

NEW YORK — Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, wanted a Bat Mitzvah when she turned 12. But that simply was not done in May 1973 at Lincoln Square Synagogue, the Orthodox congregation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to which the Kagan family belonged. More...