Ira Sheskin, a professor of geography at the University of Miami, has conducted 43 Jewish federation population surveys since 1982. His most recent began in mid-January in Miami. (Uriel Heilman) MIAMI (JTA) — Fueled by KitKats and Cherry Coke, some two dozen people sit hunched over stacks of questionnaires in a windowless conference room in Miami, a phalanx of 1980s-era push-button telephones in front of them. It’s the first day of work on a new survey of Miami Jews,… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s back In the months since the Pew Research Center’s survey of American Jews renewed communal concern about assimilation, the intermarriage debate is flaring up again. Jewish religious and communal institutions had been shifting away from seeing intermarriage as a problem to be combated and… Read more »
Anabella Mandelblum, a kindergarten student at Jacobson Sinai Academy in North Miami Beach, is a recent immigrant from Venezuela. (Uriel Heilman) MIAMI (JTA) — When Alejandra Schatzky-Cohen and her husband decided to enroll their children in a Reform Jewish day school in North Miami Beach five years ago, they had more on their minds than the average prospective day school parent. The family was living in Caracas at the time… Read more »
Stosh Cotler, right, is taking over as CEO of Bend the Arc from alan van Capelle, left. They are pictured here outside the White House. (Courtesy of Bend the Arc) NEW YORK (JTA) — When Stosh Cotler takes over as CEO of Bend the Arc, a Jewish group that fights for immigration reform, workers’ rights and other domestic liberal causes, she will be one of the few women leading a national Jewish group of its size. But Cotler’s gender… Read more »
BUCHAREST, Romania (JTA) — Touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005, Romanian President Traian Basescu was unprepared to confront some painful truths. Facing a photograph showing pro-Nazi Romanian troops offloading their Jewish countrymen from cargo trains, Basescu was shocked and saddened. For decades, his country’s educational system had… Read more »
Denver Academy of Torah teacher Benjamin Levy, center, is rooting for his hometown Seattle Seahawks, but is mindful of his students' passion for their native Denver Broncos. (Courtesy Benjamin Levy) BALTIMORE (JTA) — Rabbi Daniel Alter expects some added fervency during daily prayer services at the Denver Academy of Torah in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. Alter, the academy’s head of school, recalls that when the Colorado Rockies faced the Boston Red Sox in the 2007… Read more »
An enthusiastic London Fletcher being introduced as a starter for the Washington Redskins. He holds the NFL record for consecutive starts by a linebacker with 216 while playing for three teams. (Courtesy Washington Redskins) BALTIMORE (JTA) — The rain dripping from his uniform provided an unceremonious end to London Fletcher’s career as the Washington Redskins linebacker headed to the locker room following a recent road loss to the New York Giants. His team’s last-place finish was hardly the idealized final walk off the… Read more »
Gavin Cohen watches a shot. Tucson is a golfer’s paradise — and not just for retirees and sun-seeking vacationers. Many Tucsonans develop a love of the game at an early age, including several teens in the Jewish community, such as 15-year-old Gavin Cohen. “Gavin Cohen is a pretty good stick,” says Scott Gregoire, general… Read more »
Harvey Pollack Fittingly, Harvey Pollack was the one who scribbled the number 100 on the most famous photograph in basketball history: Wilt Chamberlain holding the piece of paper signifying his astounding point total in a 1962 game for the then Philadelphia Warriors. After all, Pollack is basketball’s ultimate numbers and public… Read more »
Food writer Mark Bittman wants you to eat more plants. (Courtesy photo) NEW YORK (JTA) — Mark Bittman is not a religious man by any stretch of the imagination, least of all his own. A longtime food writer for The New York Times who three years ago shifted from cooking to food policy columnist, Bittman has made a living eating the… Read more »
An angel's trumpet is the tree of choice for a planting by Edmon J. Rodman at an impromptu backyard service for Tu b'Shvat. (Edmon J. Rodman) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — While my neighbors were putting their Christmas trees to the curb, in what seems like a ritual of replacement, I was preparing to plant for Tu b’Shvat. My friend Freda recently presented me a cutting from an Angel’s trumpet — a small tree with beautiful,… Read more »
Rabbi Lody van de Kamp THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — On a busy street near the Dutch Parliament, three white musicians in blackface regale passersby with holiday tunes about the Dutch Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, and his slave, Black Pete. Many native Dutchmen view dressing up as Black Pete in December as a venerable tradition,… Read more »
Edgar Bronfman, philthropist and Jewish communal leader, dies at 84. NEW YORK (JTA) — Edgar Bronfman, the billionaire former beverage magnate and leading Jewish philanthropist, died Saturday at the age of 84. As the longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman fought for Jewish rights worldwide and led the successful fight to secure more than a billion dollars… Read more »
A section of New York's Bayside Cemetery in Queens after the UJA-Federation-funded cleanup. (Courtesy of the Community Association for Jewish At-Risk Cemeteries) NEW YORK (JTA) — For years, the historic Jewish cemetery was so overgrown with weeds, plagued by toppled headstones, and littered with fallen branches, beer cans and snack-food wrappers that at least a quarter of its graves were impossible to reach. Even now, after a $140,000 cleanup and improved… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – Last spring, I found myself averting my eyes when my 4-year-old mentioned something about the Easter bunny in front of my dad. We were at my parents’ home in Michigan for Passover and my son said, “When I get back to Brooklyn, the Easter bunny… Read more »
Samuel Asher Sommer In March, dozens of rabbis will shave their heads at the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis gathering in Chicago. But the 8-year-old boy whose struggle with cancer inspired the rabbis’ campaign will not be there to witness their act of solidarity. Samuel Asher Sommer, the son of… Read more »
Neshama Carlebach onstage at the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial in San Diego, Dec. 14 2013. (URJ) (JTA) — I grew up Jewish. Simply Jewish. My late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, raised us in an observant Orthodox household. Our lives were filled with beautiful ritual and we celebrated the wonder of a familial spiritual connection. That said, we also danced along the fine line of progressive… Read more »
A group of women hold hands around the Torah during the Shabbat morning service at the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial conference in San Diego, Dec. 14, 2013. (URJ) SAN DIEGO (JTA) – What do you get when you bring together 5,000 of the Reform movement’s faithful for a conference in sunny San Diego in mid-December? Four days of singing, learning, schmoozing and worrying at a gathering that seemed equal parts pep rally and intervention session. For pep,… Read more »
The board at the Hillel chapter of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania is openly rejecting quidelines on Israel debate adopted by the international umbrella group. (Wikicommons) NEW YORK (JTA) — With an estimated Jewish population of 275 undergraduates, the Quaker-founded Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia is home to one of the smaller Hillel chapters in the country. But that hasn’t stopped student activists at the small suburban school from picking a fight of potentially epic proportions with… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Before Sacha Litman shares his data analysis with his synagogue clients, he likes to have the board members and staff guess the contents. Which programs are most expensive and most popular? Who is more satisfied, senior citizens or nursery school parents? How many Hebrew school… Read more »
