(JTA) — Toss the potato starch and matzah meal — serve delectable desserts this Passover made from chocolate. These desserts, especially if using fair trade or organic chocolate, further awareness of the themes of Passover. They remind us of the great poverty of many cacao farmers and of the… Read more »
Posts By Jigsaw Digital
An SOS from my OS Seder
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LOS ANGELES (JTA) — At future Passovers, if we consider the Jewish implications of the recent hit movie “Her,” we all could be using a talking computer operating system with artificial intelligence to lead our Seders. But I can’t wait that long. Tired of running my own Seders —… Read more »
From farm to Seder table: Locally grown matzah on the rise
NEW YORK (JTA) — In their small farmhouse bakery in Vermont, Doug Freilich and Julie Sperling work round the clock producing matzah in the period preceding Passover — a matzah that feels ancient and modern at once. Using a mix of grain they grow on their own farm and… Read more »
Contrite Bruce Pearl bringing his spirited style to Auburn basketball
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BALTIMORE (JTA) — Shortly after assembling the players trying out for the American squad he’d be coaching at the 2009 Maccabiah Games, Bruce Pearl brought them to Sabbath evening services at the Heska Amuna Synagogue in Knoxville, Tenn. The passionate and gregarious Pearl, a veteran of reading the haftarah… Read more »
In rural Uganda, small Jewish community splits over conversion
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NABUGOYE, Uganda (JTA) — On Fridays at sundown, the Jewish residents of this village set amid the lush hills of eastern Uganda gather in the synagogue to greet Shabbat. The room is bare, the light is dim and the Conservative prayer books are worn. But the spare surroundings do… Read more »
Kitniyot among few remaining strands of Ashkenazi-Sephardi difference in Israel
Israel is a country that has spent more than six decades weaving the two formerly disparate basic branches of the Jewish family, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, into one people. These days, nary an eyebrow is raised as they hang out, date, and marry in the Jewish state, and most of… Read more »
Stymied by Israeli bureaucracy, Ukrainian has been making aliyah for three years
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LOD, Israel (JTA) — Sitting in his sister’s living room in this town outside Tel Aviv, Yuriy Yukhatskov says he’s glad to be far from his home city of Kiev. Yukhatskov, 44, says that what he sees as the pervasive anti-Semitism in Ukraine’s capital would grow only worse with… Read more »
At new Anne Frank theater in Amsterdam, tragedy and fancy dinners
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AMSTERDAM (JTA) — To millions worldwide, she is a symbol of heroism and a haunting reminder of the dangers of discrimination. But for one Dutch entertainment firm, Anne Frank is a brand name powerful enough to merit millions of dollars of investment. Last week, the Amsterdam-based production company Imagine… Read more »
Post-army travelers or Dead Sea scammers? Congress and State Dept. at odds over Israeli visas
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WASHINGTON (JTA) – The battle between members of Congress and the State Department over tourist visas for Israelis features two competing archetypes of the young Israeli traveler. The lawmakers paint a picture of a world traveler, matured by service to country, who deserves a break from the stresses of the… Read more »
For Bibi, time for talk is past
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the AIPAC Policy Conference was another rhetorical tour-de-force by this most silvered-tongued of Israeli leaders. There were applause lines for almost everyone. Once again, Netanyahu promised to defend Israel against an Iranian nuclear threat and to be beholden to no other nation in… Read more »
The RCA breaks its word on conversion
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Questions of personal status are among the most sensitive issues in Judaism and thus require responsible rabbinic leadership. That is one reason why there was such an outcry last year when Israel’s Chief Rabbinate refused to allow my teacher, Rabbi Avi Weiss, to vouch for the… Read more »
So you’ve decided to become a rabbi…
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NEW YORK (JTA) — Dear Friend, I understand you’re thinking of becoming a rabbi. Mazel tov! Getting into a seminary shouldn’t be too hard. During the decade between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, four consequential new rabbinical schools opened in America: the liberal Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale, N.Y.; the Conservative movement’s… Read more »
Lies, silence surround flouting of Poland’s kosher slaughter ban
(JTA) — After a Polish court tossed out a government regulation permitting kosher slaughter in 2012, Poland’s $500 million ritual slaughter industry was expected to be brought to its knees. Evidence shows, however, that not only was kosher slaughter still being performed in Poland as recently as this month,… Read more »
A young artist’s ‘anti-Barbie’ is a runaway crowdfunding success
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NEW YORK (JTA) — Almost exactly 55 years after Barbie made her debut at the American International Toy Fair, a more realistically proportioned alternative to the iconic fashion doll has become a crowdfunding sensation, raising more than $400,000 in a week and a half to begin production. The Lammily doll,… Read more »
Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Cuban missile precedent
In light of a ship caught carrying aggressive weapons, aimed at terrorizing his fellow countrymen, the leader delivered a firm message, warning that neither his country “nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We… Read more »
The wisdom of a former Shin Bet Chief
Washington – In the past week, I had the honor of spending several days with Ami Ayalon, a decorated Israeli war hero and former commander of the Israeli navy and head of the Shin Bet security service from 1995 to 2000. Ayalon was in the United States to address… Read more »
Rings and things: Remembering loss, moving toward life
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — During shiva for my mother, my father gathered my brothers and me to share a letter in which she expressed some musings and last wishes. The letter also said that as the sole daughter, I had inherited her jewelry box. In the room in which… Read more »
Gary Shteyngart’s super sad true Schechter school story
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NEW YORK (JTA) — If it is true that there is no such thing as bad publicity, then Gary Shteyngart may be one of the best things to happen to the Conservative movement’s at-times-beleaguered Schechter Day School Network. Shteyngart, the Soviet Jewish immigrant writer known for acclaimed comic novels… Read more »
Philly historian scores in bid to have NBA pioneer Eddie Gottlieb honored
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PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Celeste Morello isn’t Jewish or a sports fan, and has never attended a professional basketball game. But a passion for history — particularly Philadelphia history — prompted her to seek recognition for the hoops pioneer Eddie Gottlieb. Morello succeeded last week when the Pennsylvania Historical and… Read more »
Partnership minyans grow among the Orthodox grassroots, despite leaders’ condemnations
NEW YORK (JTA) — If it wasn’t clear before, it should be abundantly clear now: The Orthodox establishment will not sanction so-called partnership minyans, and it’s willing to go to the mat to fight them. In recent weeks, a flurry of articles by leading Orthodox rabbis and scholars have… Read more »