Congregants praying at the Kadoorie Synagogue in Porto, Portugal, May 2014. (Courtesy of the Jewish community of Porto)
(JTA) — Hunched over a monument for thousands of Jews killed in a 1506 massacre in Lisbon, Danielle Karo (not her real name) felt a swelling in her eyes. To Karo, an American poet and business analyst who is descended from one of Sephardic Jewry’s greatest sages, the massacre… Read more »
LaurenElieCropped: Elie Greenberg and Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt co-created the popular instrumental Shabbat evening service ast Adas Israel Congregation in Washington. (David Polonsky)
NEW YORK (JTA) – When Rabbi Bruce Dollin first talked to the board at his Conservative synagogue about launching an alternative, singing-centered Shabbat morning service that would use musical instruments, he didn’t encounter much resistance. Over the two decades he had led the Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver, attendance… Read more »
(JTA) – Israel and the Obama administration have stepped up their war of words over the framework agreement that aims to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a gradual rollback of sanctions. President Barack Obama made his most detailed effort yet to persuade skeptics of the accord reached… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the conclusion of a framework agreement over Iran’s nuclear agreement last week, many remain profoundly unsure whether the deal will successfully prevent Tehran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Under the terms of the agreement, much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain in place. Its Shahab-3… Read more »
Naomi Firestone-Teeter (Courtesy Jewish Book Council)
(JTA) — On April 1, Naomi Firestone-Teeter became executive director of the Jewish Book Council, which promotes the reading, writing, publishing and distribution of English-language Jewish books. Firestone-Teeter, whose predecessor Carolyn Hessel has been called “the Jewish Oprah” for her success at promoting books, has been working her way up in the organization since graduating from… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference. “Obviously, I’m not the sexiest man alive,” Schoenberg acknowledged in an interview at his West Los Angeles… Read more »
(JTA) — For President Obama, the framework agreement reached Thursday with Iran is a “historic understanding” that does more to roll back Tehran’s nuclear program than any possible alternative and avoids the risk of a destructive war in the Middle East. But to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s… Read more »
American Muslims are expected to be more numerous than American Jews by the year 2035, according to a new study. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) – In 20 years, there will be more Muslims in North America than Jews, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The report, which was released Thursday, also found that more American Jews are leaving Judaism than non-Jews are joining the Jewish people. According to… Read more »
Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons (JTA) — Last summer our family went to southern Europe on holiday. During our stay at a hotel, our son Dylan went to the swimming pool. A short time later he came running back to the room, upset. A man at the pool had started hurling insults at him.… Read more »
Masha Shumatskaya fled Donetsk, Ukraine, in June 2014. (Uriel Heilman)
(JTA) — Masha Shumatskaya never imagined she would be a war refugee, even after that first night last spring when she dragged the mattress off her bed and into her windowless hallway to protect herself from flying glass in the event a bomb shattered her windows. But after weeks… Read more »
Craig Taubman has opened the Pico Union Project in a historic synagogue building in downtown Los Angeles as a home for culutral, religious and community events. (Anthony Weiss)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — On the first floor of the Pico Union Project, members of the Women’s Mosque of America are preparing the historic sanctuary for prayers, spreading long bolts of cloth on the floor, hanging a banner from the organ loft and placing an open copy of the… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has compared Iran to the biblical Persia, the ancient kingdom where the Jewish people were nearly annihilated through the evil designs of the arch-villain Haman. But when an American-born rabbi, widely seen as a religious moderate who… Read more »
Mark Halter, second from right, and Hassen Chalghoumi, in white cap, at a mass rally in Paris following the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Hyper Cacher supermarket, Jan. 11, 2015. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
PARIS (JTA) — A burst of applause greeted Holocaust survivor Marek Halter and his close friend, Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, as they entered the Synagogue de la Victoire together in January. Halter, a celebrated author and friend of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, is known for his outreach to moderate… Read more »
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, thir from left, in Lausanne, Switzerland, with his counterparts from the other world powers negotiating with Iran before the nuclear talks resumed, March 30, 2015. (U.S. State Department/Flickr)
(JTA) – Diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, have extended their deadline on a framework accord on Iran’s nuclear program. But even if an agreement is reached this week, it’s merely a way station toward a comprehensive deal that is due by June 30. If a deal is reached, who needs to approve… Read more »
Amy Klein: A strong support system is vital for those going through infertility, IVF, miscarriage, egg freezing, surrogacy and adoption. (Michal Solomon)
(JTA) — I recently attended the bris of my friend’s son and it was the first such occasion at which I was not crying tears of sadness for myself. Two years ago I was at her older son’s bris, and I remember pretending my copious tears were of joy. In reality, all I could think was:… Read more »
A Ukrainian couple at pre-flight briefing for immigrants to Israel in Kiev, March 23, 2015. (Ben Sales)
KIEV (JTA) — Tatyana Orul would have moved to Israel years ago if not for her job as a television journalist in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which interested her too much to give up. But when bombs started falling next to her house last year, she reconsidered.… Read more »
(JTA) — Ayelet Tsabari acted as a child and teen, appearing in Habima’s youth performances in Israel, a commercial and some student films. Although Tsabari no longer acts, the author of the award-winning “The Best Place on Earth” feels that the experience of fiction writing is not entirely unlike… Read more »
Participants at one of Michael Hebb's "test" seders use the resources from Seder2015.org. (Scott Macklin)
An appreciation for classics and architecture does not necessarily foster interest in the Passover seder. However, those interests are what have led Michael Hebb, a former restaurateur and the founder of meal-related projects such as Death Over Dinner and Drugs Over Dinner, to adapt Passover to the digital age.… Read more »
Ilya and Luba Tolkachov and their 22-month-old son in the tiny one-room apartment they share with Ilya's mother. (Ben Sales/JTA)
KIEV (JTA) — In a crowded room of the Tolkachov family’s tiny apartment here, a couch and twin bed sit kitty-corner from each other, sandwiching a small crib. In another corner, a wooden table is cluttered with a computer and some toys. Since October, three generations of the Tolkachov… Read more »
A homeless man in Jerusalem. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has emerged as one of the developed world's most economically unequal countries. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel got his wish in last week’s elections: a larger and more stable right-wing government marching in lockstep on security and diplomacy. But while the coming coalition may be more unified when it comes to the conflict with the Palestinians, it… Read more »
