"The Goldbergs" premiered Sept. 24 on ABC. (ABC/Bob D'Amico) HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) — Some were psyched for the nostalgia of “The Goldbergs,” a new ABC sitcom about a boisterous, outspoken American family set in the 1980s. But Wednesday’s premiere was a little too loaded with references to that neon-colored, big-haired decade — think REO Speedwagon, Sam Goody, hair… Read more »
Mayim Bialik NEW YORK (6NoBacon) — Sarah Silverman revealed in a recent appearance on W. Kamau Bell’s show “Totally Biased” that she was hurt by the jokes made about her age at the Comedy Central roast of James Franco. It was somewhat surprising — not because the jokes weren’t offensive, but… Read more »
Once a symbol of the promise of Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Oasis Casino in Jericho has been shuttered for 13 years. (David Silverman/Newsmakers) JERICHO, West Bank (JTA) — The Intercontinental Hotel Jericho’s towering brick palazzo, flanked by a row of palm trees leading to an ornate archway entrance, seems the very epitome of desert luxury. But inside, the hotel lobby — replete with marble floors and plush armchairs — stands empty on… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The story that this year’s J Street conference schedule tells is, typically enough, about getting Israel and the Palestinians to a two-state solution. Between the lines is another narrative as urgent as peacekeeping to the liberal pro-Israel group: getting J Street into the establishment. The second… Read more »
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) — The photograph shows a lighthearted moment at the end of a war that four decades later still prompts analysis and evokes somber reflections. Snapped just after Israel and Egypt had signed an agreement ending… Read more »
Former Baptist Sunday school teacher designing for the frum fashionista. (JTA) — Just before Maria Patricia de Sousa set out for a yearlong stint at a seminary in Jerusalem seven years ago, she stopped by the house of an Orthodox Jewish woman in her home city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She wanted to find out about life in Jerusalem… Read more »
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, left, meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the presidential palace in Baku, June 28, 2009. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images) BAKU, Azerbaijan (JTA) — With less than a month to go until presidential elections, the moustachioed smile of Ilham Aliyev stares down at his countrymen from giant posters scattered around this bustling metropolis on the Caspian Sea. The Azerbaijani president has been in office since 2003 and is widely… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The reader opened with a recitation of Psalm 48 followed by a contemporary poem before yielding the floor to five male dancers, all wearing the standard haredi Orthodox uniform of black pants and white button-down shirt. One had bushy earlocks but no yarmulke. So began the… Read more »
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, Aug. 9, 2013. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pro-Israel groups suspended their high-profile lobbying effort for a strike on Syria now that the United States and Russia have struck a deal to strip the Assad regime of its chemical weapons. A spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which organized a Capitol Hill… Read more »
A Chabad volunteer helps people clear damaged goods from their homes in Colorado. (Courtesy of Chabad) DENVER (IJN) — Before the start of Yom Kippur, a flood of historic proportions swallowed Boulder, Colo., and surrounding areas, displacing families, damaging synagogues and threatening services on the holiest day of the Jewish year — until determination came to the rescue. Orthodox Boulder Aish Kodesh hit the Internet… Read more »
Devorah Blachor wondered whether staying home after the birth of her daughter Mari was just a convenient way of surrendering to her fears and not facing the world. JERUSALEM (JTA) — At a recent kids-included party in Jerusalem, I spent much of the time either on the floor with my daughter Mari or trailing her around to make sure she didn’t eat anything toxic. A successful American journalist living here chatted with me for a few minutes,… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s not that often that Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah fall so close together on the calendar. This year they are but three days apart, providing an opportunity for some introspection on an issue that should be of concern to the entire American Jewish community:… Read more »
NEW YORK (6NoBacon Staff) — From Shanah Tovah shoutouts to on-set shofar blowing, here’s how some of the more famous and attractive among us recognized the new year. 1. What to do when filming your Kickstarter-funded project gets in the way of Rosh Hashanah? Celebrate at work, of course!… Read more »
NEW YORK (Forward) — Does Jewish culture need a central address in order to thrive? Not according to the people who work there. The Foundation for Jewish Culture, a New York-based organization that has given more than $50 million to Jewish scholars and artists since 1960, will cease its… Read more »
A week before Yom Kippur 1973, I moved from Hazerim air force base to Jerusalem to study history at Hebrew University. Yet it was life, not university, which actually taught me a history lesson. Early in the morning of Yom Kippur, I woke up amid the half-opened boxes to… Read more »
"Awaken the Spirit Within," by Rebecca Rosen. (Harmony) (JTA) — Many Jews feel a connection with their ancestors, but how many have regular conversations with them? Rebecca Rosen, a 36-year-old mother of two, is one who does. Rosen lists her profession as “psychic medium,” and her specialty is communing with the dead, acting as “the bridge between… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The scene is familiar to us all. Women of the Wall come to the Kotel to worship in the shadow of the Temple Mount. Haredi Orthodox worshippers respond by disrupting their prayers, sometimes pelting them with eggs and other objects. Underlying these clashes are distinctly modern… Read more »
Seth Pope is a fifth-grader at the Lippman School in Akron, Ohio, which began admitting non-Jewish students in response to declining enrollment. (Uriel Heilman) AKRON, Ohio (JTA) — During a High Holidays discussion about repentance in Sarah Greenblatt’s Jewish values class, not all the students are listening. One girl stares out the window at the azure sky. Another sits in the back doodling. But a boy in the front row wearing a creased… Read more »
The graduation of the Torah School at the revitalized Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park and Eagle Rock, May 19, 2013. (Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park and Eagle Rock) The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) – When Henry Leventon, his wife and three daughters attended their first Sabbath service at Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park and Eagle Rock in 1976, the gabbai at the Los Angeles synagogue immediately approached.… Read more »
Syrian refugees living in camps and tens in northern Jordan are receiving aid from Jewish and Israeli groups. (Courtesy IsraAid) NEW YORK (JTA) — When Georgette Bennett decided a few months ago to help refugees from Syria’s civil war, she wanted to do it in a Jewish way. Citing a passage from Leviticus she said her late husband often quoted, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of… Read more »
