TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Magda Haroun was out on the streets during the unrest now rocking Egypt’s capital, she saw someone standing over the body of a dead soldier. “Not even a Jew would do this,” she heard him say. Haroun, the president of the Egyptian Jewish community, doesn’t… Read more »
Posts By Jigsaw Digital
Dallas teen’s Bar Mitzvah video sparks debate over culture of excess
(JTA) — For some boys reaching the age of Bar Mitzvah, donning a prayer shawl and reading from the Torah is exciting enough. But Sam Horowitz knew he wanted more. The Dallas teen is the star of a Bar Mitzvah video that has gone viral in the past two… Read more »
Seeking Kin: Following a father’s footsteps back to Prague
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) – As a girl in Seattle, Anne Bush evinced little interest in the Holocaust, even though her father, Harry, was a survivor whose mother, sister and brother-in-law had been murdered. But as a mother in… Read more »
Rep. Ron Barber: Israel trip ‘a life-changing experience’
Israel and Southern Arizona have ties that bind — in both the economic and national security realms. U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, who describes himself as “a strong supporter of Israel,” participated in a fact-finding trip to Israel from Aug. 5 to 11. Barber is a Tucson Democrat and a… Read more »
In Kiev, a website reconnects young Jews one post at a time
KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Hours after assailants shot Rabbi Artur Ovadia Isakov on a street in the Russian republic of Dagestan last month, mainstream Russian media were still scrambling to ascertain his identity. But Isakov’s name and condition already were known to the readers of Jewishnet.ru, a growing social… Read more »
The shanda factor: What makes Jewish sex scandals different?
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The guy with the socks up. The guy with the pants down. The guy with the headlocks. The guy who tweets and deletes. What is it with these male politicos? And why are they all Jewish? The cloistered community that is Washington’s Jewish elite collectively choked… Read more »
Advocacy effort has Jewish schools reaping hundreds of millions in gov’t money
NEW YORK (JTA) — Each year, when Frank Halper is faced with the state tax bill for his accounting business in Providence, R.I., he has a choice. He can write a check for the amount owed by his company or, as part of a state tax credit program, he… Read more »
Traditional and modern tastes have a place at New Year’s tables
NEW YORK (JTA) — Nearly 30 years ago, when my first cookbook was published, I wrote that kosher cooking wasn’t just about traditional recipes like gefilte fish and chopped liver, that you could make gourmet meals and international dishes using kosher ingredients. Since then, many new kosher ingredients… Read more »
The war over intermarriage has been lost. Now what?
NEW YORK (JTA) — When the nation’s largest Jewish federation convened its first-ever conference recently on engaging interfaith families, perhaps the most notable thing about it was the utter lack of controversy that greeted the event. There was a time when the stereotypical Jewish approach to intermarriage was to… Read more »
In Mass. governor’s race packed with Jewish candidates, much talk of repairing the world
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The election for Massachusetts governor is still 16 months away — too soon to know what the issues are or who the viable candidates will be. But apparently it’s never too soon for tikkun olam. Four of the declared candidates are Jewish, and all are grounding… Read more »
For the New Year, children’s books opening new worlds
(JTA) — Shofars, apples and honey, make room for pomegranates, couscous and pumpkins. The new crop of children’s books for the High Holidays opens a world beyond the beloved traditional symbols of the New Year (Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sept. 4). From ancient times to today, the savory,… Read more »
Op-Ed: Israel must grant equality to women
Reform leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs, shown speaking at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Baltimore, November 2012. (Robert A. Cumins/JFNANEW YORK (JTA) Try telling agunot, women who are chained to their husbands unable to obtain a get, a religious divorce, that they are equal… Read more »
With few Jews left to save, immigrant aid group HIAS searches for relevance
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (JTA) — The new HIAS is not your grandmother’s Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and it’s certainly not the one that brought her mother over from the Pale of Settlement. After decades as the Jewish community’s foremost voice on immigration — first in leading the resettlement of Jews… Read more »
Hadassa Margolese, fighter for religious tolerance, quits Beit Shemesh
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Two years ago, Hadassa Margolese became a symbol of resistance to haredi Orthodox domination after she allowed her 8-year-old daughter to tell an Israeli reporter how religious men had spit on her as she walked to school. The report made headlines around the world and… Read more »
Despite Netanyahu’s pleas, top House Dems open to testing Iran’s new leader
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In increasingly strident tones, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been telling his American friends that the purported moderation of Iran’s new president is a ploy aimed at relieving international pressure and buying the Islamic Republic more time to cross the nuclear threshold. But in ways… Read more »
ESSAY: At a Muslim-Jewish conference, dialogue and hope
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (JTA) — Sarajevo is a city with a rich multicultural past, but it also bears the scars of war. Take a short walk through the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina and you will see the many cemeteries and bullet-riddled walls, which are undergoing restoration. These lay side by side… Read more »
The wonderful visit of Oz
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Dr. Mehmet Oz sat down to talk with JTA on the Tel Aviv coast last week, but what he really wanted to do was go to the beach. Oz, the surgeon and well-known TV personality, was in Israel for the first time and had a… Read more »
As peace talks kick off, right wing intensifies efforts to influence their outcome
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli settler leader Dani Dayan has made it his mission over the years to warn members of Congress, particularly Republicans, of the perils of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Dayan has been a regular visitor to Washington, his trips often coinciding with developments in the peace process. During… Read more »
Heads up: Jewish brewer thriving amid craft beer boom
NEW YORK (JTA) — With the creation of David’s Slingshot Hoppy Summer Lager, beer maker Jeremy Cowan is evoking the image of the legendary battle between David and Goliath — a match-up that’s also apt for Cowan himself. Though still a small player in the world of craft beers,… Read more »
Coming out, a young gay man finds self-acceptance
NEW YORK (JTA) — For my Bar Mitzvah, my parents got me a laptop. For what I searched for on it, they got me a shrink. CyberSitter informed my computer-savvy parents that their son was searching gay porn. On the ride to my first therapy session, I stuck my… Read more »