Chloe Valdary called her AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel "life changing." (Lauren Clarice Cross) (JTA) — Growing up in New Orleans, Chloe Valdary kept kosher, studied the Jewish Bible and celebrated Jewish holidays with festive meals. In recent years she has become an outspoken pro-Israel campus activist, contributing regularly to the Jewish press, and speaking and posting widely about the merits of the… Read more »
Jacqui Dauphinais, second from left, was an assistant coach last season for the Yeshiva University men's volleyball team that won its conference championship. (Adena Stevens/Yeshiva University) (JTA) – Having been a standout player in high school and college, and an assistant coach, new Yeshiva University men’s volleyball coach Jacqui Dauphinais has plenty of knowledge about the sport. And in her one season as an assistant for the Maccabees, she showed she wasn’t afraid to speak… Read more »
(JTA) – A prominent rabbi whose outspoken criticism of Israel became too divisive for his congregation announced this week that he is resigning his pulpit. Brant Rosen, rabbi at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill., made the announcement Tuesday. Aside from his pulpit position, which he has held… Read more »
Erik Lorig, in his fifth NFL season, has moved to the New Orleans Saints after playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (Courtesy New Orleans Saints) BALTIMORE (JTA) – Blocking brothers, a college star seeking success in the pros, a fullback who hasn’t had a carry in four seasons and a couple of ace special teamers are among the Jewish players on NFL rosters as the league kicks off this week. A punter may join… Read more »
Rabbi Karol Sidon stepped down as Prague's chief rabbi amid reports about his love life. (Petr Balajka/Prague Jewish Community) PRAGUE (JTA) — When the novel “Altschul’s Method” hit the shelves in Czech bookstores this March, it was hailed as a brilliant political and psychological thriller combining elements of science fiction, alternate history and Jewish mysticism. But it became a true literary sensation when it was revealed a week… Read more »
The Kosovo Jewish community's president, Votim Demiri with his daughter Ines, a foreign ministry official, in Prizren. (Ron Kampeas/JTA) PRISTINA, Kosovo (JTA) – Boxing Club Prishtina is a squat building on a narrow street around the corner from the parliament in the heart of Kosovo’s capital city. Around the corner, a popular Italian restaurant draws the young Western Europeans and Americans in button-down shirts and open-toed heels who… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — In II Samuel, Chapter 1, when David learns of the death of Abner, he proclaims to his soldiers and all of Israel, “You well know that a prince, a great man in Israel, has died this day.” When I learned of the death of my… Read more »
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, left, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, meets with Jews who fled eastern Ukraine, July 2014. (Olivier Fitoussi) (JTA) — Each time he dispatches a car into Lugansk, Rabbi Shalom Gopin readies himself for hours of anxious anticipation. The scene of brutal urban warfare between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists, this eastern Ukrainian city now has no regular power supply, running water or cell phone reception. Mortar… Read more »
Lacey Schwartz's film 'Little White Lie' tells of her discovery in adulthood that her father was black. SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — When Lacey Schwartz celebrated her Bat Mitzvah more than two decades ago in her hometown of Woodstock, N.Y., a synagogue-goer turned to her and said, “It’s so nice to have an Ethiopian Jew in our midst.” Never mind that Schwartz, a striking 37-year-old with long… Read more »
The davening room at Havurat Shalom, virtually unchanged since the early 1970s. (Jesse Edsell-Vetter) SOMERVILLE, Mass. (JTA) — To certain first-time visitors to Havurat Shalom, the congregation’s prayer room may look remarkably familiar. From the macrame Jewish star adorning the ark and the Middle Eastern-style lamp serving as a ner tamid to the pillows on a bare floor and the sparely decorated walls,… Read more »
At a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles, the author began to find new meanings for why we mourn on Tisha b’Av. (Edmon J. Rodman) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — After weeks of missiles falling on Israel and bombs dropping on Gaza, we land on Tisha b’Av. With the day-to-day images of explosions and tunnels so fresh, I wondered how they might connect to my mid-summer night’s struggle with the somber holiday’s relevance. Tisha b’Av,… Read more »
Jeff Idelson, director of the the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, holding a bat used by Jewish Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame) BALTIMORE (JTA) – For Jeff Idelson, the director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., induction weekend is all about teamwork. “When you get to signature events you’re in a small community, all the pieces have to come together effectively for it to be a… Read more »
The Saint Petersburg company Tzar Caviar used molecular engineering to produce a kosher caviar substitute now available in New York and Paris. (Courtesy Tzar Caviar) PARIS (JTA) — In a penthouse office with a view of the Eiffel Tower, Olivier Kassabi uses a ceramic spoon to extract a small scoop from a jar labeled as Russian caviar. Placing a clutch of black globules on the base of his thumb, Kassabi licks it off, savoring… Read more »
Andrew Goldstein, a member of Israel’s national lacrosse team, says “the landscape has really changed” for gay athletes since he came out in 2005. (Larry Palumbo) BALTIMORE (JTA) — In the years after coming out as gay, lacrosse player Andrew Goldstein recalls being asked on panel discussions whether major American professional sports leagues would include openly gay athletes. It’s a question, Goldstein said, that is no longer relevant with Jason Collins in the National Basketball… Read more »
A memorial display paying tribute to the three murdered Israeli teens at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash. (Josh Niehaus) (JTA) — On the morning of June 30, the children began arriving at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash., ready for a fun-filled summer. But shortly before the first little feet descended the bus steps, the sleepaway camp’s Israeli counselors learned from back home about the discovery of the… Read more »
After coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv to a European Championship, David Blatt appears headed to the NBA. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In 1981, David Blatt moved to Israel in pursuit of a path of lifelong worship — to play professional basketball.Now, more than 30 years later, Blatt is leaving Israel to make a different, and totally unprecedented, form of aliyah — to leave the ranks of Israeli basketball to… Read more »
Members of the Aitz Hayim Center for Jewish Living in Glencoe, Ill., show U.S. and Israeli colors at the 2012 Fourth of July parade in nearby Highland Park. (Todd Jacobs) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Part “God Bless America,” part “Shabbat Shalom,” the Fourth of July this year falls on a Friday. In this land of religious freedom, how do we plan to observe both? As the sun sets over the “fruited plain,” will we be lighting Shabbat candles and… Read more »
"America's Got Talent" contestant Josh Orlian cracked up the show's judges with raunchy jokes. (Via YouTube) NEW YORK (JTA) — Josh Orlian cracked up the judges on “America’s Got Talent,” but his Orthodox day school wasn’t laughing. The 12-year-old kippah-wearing comic made his national television debut with a raunchyroutine packed with sexual innuendo. The show’s celebrity judges and studio audience seemed both stunned and entertained by… Read more »
Bride Katka Reszke and groom Slawomir Grunberg, made their wedding a celebration of Polish Jewish revival, June 22, 2014. (Ruth Ellen Gruber) WROCLAW, Poland (JTA) — When Katka Reszke and Slawomir Grunberg tied the knot at the historic White Stork synagogue in this southwestern Polish city, they were determined that the occasion would be more than just a wedding. They wanted it to be a symbol of how thousands of Polish… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — At 3:30 Shavuot morning, more than 100 people are seated on folding chairs singing in Yiddish as men walk around with shots of vodka and cups of coffee. Up front, a man in a black frock coat and black hat is belting out the notes,… Read more »
