Digesting the Jewish news: IDT faces layoffs in Israel, Baltimore prisons seek religion and interns

I read ’em so you don’t have to… but these stories in the Jewish newspapers are worth checking out:

• The New York Jewish Week has two economy-related stories: Synagogues in New York are mulling a fuel tax for their congregants to offset rising energy prices, and the falling dollar has hit Israeli non-profits hard.
• Chicago Jewish News… JEWISH DRUNK: How journalist Neil Steinberg became the best known alcoholic in Chicago.” If that won’t make you read it, I sure can’t.
• Kosher consumers in Massachusetts feel the financial sting of the immigration raid at Agriprocessors says the Jewish Journal Boston North.
• The Cleveland Jewish News profiles “The Shul,” a synagogue-without-walls that is is an informal, nondenominational, home-based program “for anyone who wants to show up.”
• The falling dollar is forcing IDT, the Newark-based phone company owned by an Orthodox Jew, to lay off employees at its Jerusalem call center, which employs hundreds of American immigrants to Israel, reports the Forward.
• If you’re in Los Angeles you might want to read this for tourist tips, as the LA Jewish Journal lists its Best of Jewish LA.
• The San Francisco Giants have demoted Jewish outfielder Brian Horwitz, a.k.a. “The Rabbi,” to their Triple-A team in Fresno.
• Prisons in Baltimore are thinking about increasing their religious services, reports the Baltimore Jewish Times.
• Chess mania hits yeshivas in New Jersey, says the Jewish Standard’s Josh Lipowsky.
• Jewish interns flock to D.C. for the summer reports the Washington Jewish Week. There’s got to be a Lewinsky joke in there somewhere. A Fundermentalist shout out to the person that sends in the best one.