Posts By Jigsaw Digital

We are still reeling from the horrible terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue in which five people were killed during morning prayers, leaving four widows and 24 fatherless children on a single street in the neighborhood of Har Nof. What is the correct response to such an outrage, and… Read more »

Cindy Sher

CHICAGO (JTA) — Last year, for a month before Thanksgiving I jotted down one thing for which I was grateful every night before I went to bed. Here are some of the 30 blessings I recorded: • A warm bed. • Airplanes that fly me to visit my family… Read more »

Hundreds of Israelis mourn at the funeral of three of the victims killed earlier today when two Palestinian terrorists from East Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Jewish orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, with pistols and axes, and began attacking Jewish worshippers. Four orthodox Jewish men were killed and several more injured. The attackers were shot and killed at the scene. November 18, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — They all lived on the same street. They had all moved there from abroad. They were all rabbis. They all prayed at the same synagogue. And it was at that Jerusalem synagogue that they were all murdered on Tuesday morning. Mosheh Twersky, 59; Kalman Levine,… Read more »

From left, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton of the European Union, Omani foreign Minister Yusaf bin Alawi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at three-way negotiations about the future of Iran's nuclear program in Muscat, Oman, Nov. 9, 2014. (U.S. State Department)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the Nov. 24 deadline for an Iran deal looming, there’s no guarantee that the Obama administration will achieve its long-sought goal of an agreement over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. But there’s at least one outcome that is a virtual certainty: Obama will face a… Read more »

Food samples were a big part of the draw at Kosherfest, held Nov. 11-12 in Secaucus, N.J. (Jeff Cohn/BaltimoreJewishLife.com)

SECAUCUS, N.J. (JTA) – Gefilte fish? Check. Pastrami? Check. Kosher-for-Passover anti-constipation pills? Edible spoons for Bar Mitzvah appetizers? A cholov Yisroel-certified alternative to the nutritional supplement drink Ensure? Check, check, check. Welcome to Kosherfest, the annual kosher food trade show where hundreds of kosher food companies come together to… Read more »

PARIS (JTA) — Shadowed by two bodyguards, Hassen Chalghoumi — a target of numerous anti-Semitic attacks in recent years — mingled with friends and colleagues at the fifth national convention of France’s Jewish community umbrella group, CRIF. But Chalghoumi is not a member of the Jewish community. Rather he… Read more »

Aftermath of deadly attack on the Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov synagogue

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Four Israelis were killed in a terror attack during morning prayers at a Jerusalem synagogue. Two Palestinian assailants entered the synagogue and rabbinical seminary in the Har Nof neighborhood of western Jerusalem and attacked worshippers on Tuesday with a gun, axes and knives. Three of those killed… Read more »

A U.S. Marine in Vietnam featuring a Magen David on his helmet, circa 1968 (Courtesy National Museum of American Jewish Military History)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Mementos of Jacob Goldstein slide across the 3-foot-by-4-foot horizontal screen like cards being dealt at a casino: his photograph, his name, an Operation Urgent Fury headline denoting the 1983 military campaign in Grenada, Goldstein’s explanatory text summarizing his role during the invasion. Even more striking than… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — As we prepare for our Thanksgiving feasts, a 90-year-old Jewish man named Arnold Abbott is stirring the pot in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., about hunger and homelessness in America. Or is it that Abbott, who in defiance of a controversial new city ordinance has been cited… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Devorah Brous’ San Fernando Valley home is shaded by green trees, studded with 19 fruit trees and patrolled by a pair of affable chickens that strut around the backyard. But at the moment, she is eager to show a visitor her dying lawn. Comparing the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – There was the convert who was barred from a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Jamaican convert whose boyfriend’s rabbi offered him a coveted synagogue honor if only he’d dump her, the grandmother who told her granddaughter she’d be going to hell because she became a… Read more »

Some of the hundreds of Palestinians who work at SodaStream's West Bank factory that will be shit down. They could be put out of work with the facility's relocation to southern Israel. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — SodaStream, the Israeli at-home seltzer machine company, announced last month that it would be closing its West Bank factory and moving the facility’s operations to southern Israel next year. Here’s what you need to know about SodaStream, the controversy that has bubbled up in its… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Members of the American Studies Association gathered last year for their annual meeting and a vociferous debate on the wisdom of initiating an academic boycott of Israel. One year later, the debate is over and the boycott resolution has long since passed — but the… Read more »

A Torah reading at Adas Israel Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Washington. (Courtesy Adas Israel)

NEW YORK (JTA) — As the Jewish Federations of North America held its annual General Assembly this week, newly emerging evidence from the Pew Research Center’s 2013 “Portrait of American Jewry” points to enormous challenges facing federations, Jewish philanthropy and organized Jewish life, more generally. Virtually every Jewish institution… Read more »

BALTIMORE (JTA) – Beyond the rusty orange leaves, the sky hugging the orchard flourished in pastel blue – a hue that surprisingly didn’t define my mood while stretched out upon the grass, head nestled in interlocked palms that sweet October day. Surprisingly because the Sunday afternoon outing marked a… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joe and Bibi? Still buddies. U.S. and Israel? Still allies. Agreement on Iran and the Palestinians? Well. The governments of President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were back on joshing terms this week, but the deep differences that led to recent name-calling exchanges still… Read more »

A concrete security barrier at a light rail station in Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2014. Four people have been killed at light rail stations in two separate attacks in recent weeks. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday and the Jerusalem light rail is packed with secular and religious, Jew and Arab, as it heads east from the city’s Central Bus Station. From there it passes some of the city’s most crowded venues, stopping at the Mahane Yehuda… Read more »

IsraAid psychosocial trauma specialists Hela Yaniv, left, and Sheri Oz leading a counseling and training session for service providers in Sierra Leone, Oct. 27, 2014. (Courtesy IsraAid)

(JTA) – Even amid the unceasing horrors of Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic, it was a case that stood out. A 5-year-old boy had been found in his home in a remote village, the lone survivor in a house riddled with the corpses of family members. He needed to be… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Each year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we recall the opening salvo of the violent assault on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust and ask ourselves what should have been done at that moment. In thinking about Kristallnacht, we should also consider the outpouring of violence… Read more »

Lee Zeldin, pictured, defeated Democrat Tim Bishop in New York's 3rd District to become the sole Jewish Republican in Congress.

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Results late Tuesday showed Republicans winning control of the United States Senate as well as wins for fresh faces with close Jewish and pro-Israel ties. In Long Island, Lee Zeldin, a state senator, was set to become the sole Jewish Republican in Congress, ending a short… Read more »