Lazar Wall, left, wrote a song for Holocaust survivor Freddy Glatt. (Marcus Gilban)
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – Freddy was 5 years old when he saw a paving stone shatter his dad’s storefront in Berlin. Later, while his family watched, Nazis beat up his father. In 1933, Adolf Hitler had already made life unbearable for the Glatts, forcing them to scramble to… Read more »
(Kveller via JTA) – I was deep in my third trimester and sweating through the Tel Aviv heat when I thought to myself “Never again.” Seven years into my life in Israel, I just couldn’t spend another hot, intense and chaotic summer there. It’s not just the… Read more »
A view of the Ilan Ramon Day School in Agoura, Calif., after the fire. (Courtesy of Yuri Hronsky)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The Woolsey Fire, which began two weeks ago and engulfed a massive swath of Southern California, has killed at least two people, burned nearly 100,000 acres and ravaged hundreds of structures — including several touchstones of Jewish life in this city. Three historic Jewish sleepaway… Read more »
The Shabbat dinner was meant to reflect the life and customs of Jewish and Polish communities, and honor the ways the cultures have coexisted. (Meg Jones)
NEW YORK — The bialy challah practically glowed, swirls of caramelized onion peeking out between its braided, poppy-dusted strands. In a charming red-and-white tiled kitchen at the back of a Brooklyn bookstore, some 50 people gathered around a long table to watch a trio of chefs prepare an unusual… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A couple of months ago I was waiting to use an ATM near my house, flicking through Twitter as the line inched its way forward. Finally, after about 10 minutes and several tweets, I reached the machine and was getting ready to insert my card when… Read more »
Lior Gross, a student at the University of Colorado Boulder, created a Hebrew grammar that lets speakers avoid identifying as male or female. (Patrick Campbell)
(JTA) — Some college students who think about becoming rabbis aren’t sure whether they will want to work in a synagogue or school. Others get hung up on which seminary to attend or denomination to join. Lior Gross had a different dilemma: How to speak Hebrew in the first… Read more »
An El Al plane at Ben Gurion International Airport, Aug. 5, 2013. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An El Al plane bound for Israel that was delayed from taking off in New York was diverted to Athens on Friday to allow Sabbath-observant passengers to disembark. That’s what we know for sure. What happened on the plane? That’s another story. The flight, which had… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Knesset in Jerusalem for a faction meeting, Nov. 19, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — “It’s Hard to Say Goodbye If You Won’t Leave” was the title of an old episode of “Frasier.” It could also describe the latest chapter in a coalition crisis that threatens to bring down Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The Israeli prime minister narrowly avoided… Read more »
Moshe Holtzberg with his nanny Sandra Samuel in 2010. She rescued the boy from the Chabad House attack in Mumbai and followed him to Israel. (Abir Sultan/Flash 90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — “Everything is good.” Sandra Samuel is riding on a bus from Afula in northern Israel to the city apartment in Jerusalem that she shares with four other women from India and has agreed to talk to a reporter. She is coming from a weekly visit with… Read more »
Alan Arkin, left, and Michael Douglas star in "The Kominsky Method," the latest from "Big Bang Theory" creator Chuck Lorre. (Mike Yarish/Netflix)
(JTA) — “The Kominsky Method” is the wisest and saddest new comedy on television. That might be its biggest problem. The protagonist of the eight-episode Netflix series that debuts Friday is Sandy Kominsky (played by Michael Douglas), a Jewish Tony Award-winning actor who landed with a thud in Hollywood.… Read more »
Mischael Modrikamen at his home near Brussels holds up an anti-Semitic caricature favored by anti-Israel circles in Belgium, Oct. 26, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
BRUSSELS (JTA) — Europe has pro-Trump populists far more powerful and better known than Mischael Modrikamen, the leader of Belgium’s small People’s Party. There is Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front, who clinched more than a third of the votes – about 10 million of them — in… Read more »
Marvel Comics Publisher, Stan Lee, poses with a book of "Spider Man" comics which he created along with comics on the "Hulk" and others. Photo from Washington Post Archive scanned on 2/17/2009. (Photo by Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(JTA) — When Stan Lee died on Nov. 12 at 95, he left behind a vast legacy. Between 1961 and 1969, his greatest sustained burst of creative activity, he co-created a vast array of iconic characters, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk, Thor,… Read more »
Rabbi Hara Person says "it's hugely historic, and also it's time" for a woman to be heading the Central Conference of American Rabbis. (Courtesy of CCAR) NEW YORK (JTA) — The Reform movement’s rabbinical wing has appointed Rabbi Hara Person as its first female chief executive. The Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents 2,100 Reform rabbis around the world, made the announcement on Thursday. Person succeeds Rabbi Steven Fox, who is retiring in June… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the decision to reach a cease-fire with Gaza terror groups during his address at a state memorial ceremony for David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister. “In normal times, a leader must be attentive to the hearts of the people,… Read more »
Despite its humble appearance, The Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum's Nieuwenhuys menorah costs more than many of the city's houses. (Courtesy of the the Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Nothing about the appearance of object MB02280 at this city’s Jewish Historical Museum suggests it is the capital’s priciest Hanukkah menorah, worth more than the average local price of a duplex home. Shaped like the body of a violin, it is only 16 inches… Read more »
A police officer stands guard outside Temple Sinai in Pittsburgh, Nov. 2, 2018. The synagogue is a half mile away from the Tree of Life Congregation, which was attacked by a lone gunman less than a week earlier. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — After a mass shooting in a heavily Jewish area shocked the nation, Rabbi Yakov Saacks felt like his Long Island congregation was at risk. So the rabbi installed 17 cameras on the synagogue’s exterior that can zoom in to read numbers on license plates, as… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian terror groups in Gaza reportedly have agreed to commit to a cease-fire of hostilities that have seen more than 400 rockets bombard southern Israel and Israeli retaliation in a 25-hour period. Four mediators — Egypt, the United Nations, Norway and Switzerland — helped achieve the… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — One person was killed and two seriously injured after a rocket fired from Gaza landed on an apartment building in southern Israel as the country remained under siege from rocket fire for a second day. The rocket hit the upper floors of a four-story apartment in… Read more »
Firefighters battle a blaze at the Salvation Army Camp on November in Malibu, Calif., Nov. 10, 2018. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The death toll and damage continue to rise in California in the wildfires ravaging the state. More than 6,400 homes have been damaged and at least 31 people have been killed, according to CNN. Like other Californians, Jewish residents are evacuating their homes and dealing with the… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 200 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza rained down Monday evening on southern Israel, including one that hit a bus, seriously injuring a young man. The Israel Defense Forces responded by launching attacks on Hamas sites in Gaza. The man, 19, was on the… Read more »
