NEW YORK (JTA) — There was no Israeli-American real estate developer named Sam Bacile, and the 100 Jews he claimed had financed his anti-Islam film were fictitious as well. Both fabrications were offered to the media apparently to hide the true identity of the Egyptian Christian from Southern California… Read more »
Posts By Jigsaw Digital
SUKKOT FEATURE: Cooling the rhetoric in your sukkah of peace
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In an election year, a sukkah divided against itself cannot stand. Especially in the swing states, where each party is basically claiming that if the other wins we’ll all be living in sukkahs, political dinner conversation this Sukkot could really topple an already shaky house.… Read more »
Looking back at the highlights of 5772
NEW YORK (JTA) — JTA follows and updates some of the stories on which it reported during 5772. * Skeleton competitor Bradley Chalupski followed through on his plans to make aliyah, moving to Israel from Lake Placid, N.Y., where he had spent two years practicing on the bobsled… Read more »
Latin America’s Jewish communities grow, confront challenges
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — When the Sao Paulo Hebraica Sports Club and Community Center in Brazil opened the Aleph School earlier this month, it welcomed 450 students and had 120 more on the waiting list for next year. Hebraica, which is similar to an American Jewish community center,… Read more »
Your guide to a sweeter new year in 5773
CHICAGO (JUF News) — Ready for a clean slate? We Jews are lucky to get a chance to start over every fall as the shofar sounds a wake-up call in each of our lives. With the changing leaves, the crispness in the air and new Justin Bieber Trapper Keepers… Read more »
From under police protection, Europe’s Jewish gems try to shine
BRUSSELS (JTA) — Under the gaze of a dozen police officers, a single file of Belgians forms outside the Great Synagogue of Europe. Waiting to enter the shul on its annual “open day” — when the synagogue throws open its doors to the public — many on this Sunday… Read more »
Meir Soloveichik vs. David Wolpe: Two rabbis, two parties, two political philosophies
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — Republicans and Democrats may not have much common ground this election year, yet their national conventions shared one feature: Both gatherings were blessed from the podium by prominent American rabbis. The Democrats had Rabbi David Wolpe, a best-selling author and leader of a prominent (capital-c)… Read more »
Democrats return to the economy after Jerusalem detour
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — It was the nuts-and-bolts convention that nearly broke down over the most ethereal of issues: Jerusalem and God. But by its third and final night, the Democratic National Convention had gotten back on message: jobs, jobs, staying on course with getting the economy back on… Read more »
Europe’s Jewish and pro-Israel groups pushing EU to classify Hezbollah a terrorist group
THE HAGUE (JTA) — With little time to prepare his next move in trying to get the European Union to declare Hezbollah a terrorist group, Dutch lawmaker Wim Kortenoeven studies a copy of Lebanon’s trade agreement with Europe over a late-night dinner of Italian salad and German beer. The… Read more »
In Hollywood’s ‘The Possession,’ the dybbuk is back
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Thought your daughter’s odd behavior was just another preteen phase? There may be an alternate explanation: The dybbuk is back. The malevolent spirit from 16th-century Jewish mysticism and folklore reappears in “The Possession,” a Hollywood film featuring Matisyahu and Kyra Sedgwick now showing in Tucson.… Read more »
Push for recognition of Jewish refugees from Arab lands seeks to counterbalance Palestinian claims
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Naim Reuven was only 8 when he left Baghdad more than 50 years ago, but he still remembers going with his father to catch fish in the Tigris River. His dad worked in a laundromat, a middle-class father of six and one of Iraq’s more… Read more »
At Democratic convention, a focus on Jewish swing voters as key to election win
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — Jewish swing voters could make or break President Obama’s bid for reelection. At least that’s the case that Democratic Party leaders made in a training session that packed one of the larger halls at the convention center here on Monday, the day before the formal… Read more »
Keeping our word, improving the world
NEW YORK (JTA) — Children beginning to acquire language face some amusing obstacles. Confusing basic words is one of them. My son, for example, loved to stretch out his arms and tell me about something that was the biggest or the best “… in the whole wide word.”My heart… Read more »
Sign of the times: Menu inspired by ‘simanim’ brings meaning to Rosh Hashanah meal
(JTA) — So this is where it all comes together — all the thought, all the planning, the testing. And the tasting, the tasting and the tasting. (That’s the best part). A simanim-inspired menu brings added challenges, but also adds a level of meaning to your Rosh Hashanah meal. … Read more »
Putting the high back into the High Holidays
BOULDER, Colo. (JTA) — For many of us, let’s face it, the upcoming High Holidays will be anything but a high. Oh, we’ll pack every pew in the synagogues, dressed in our holiday best. We’ll be there for hours, rising when told to, sinking thankfully back into our seats,… Read more »
Jewish Values and Jewish Voting
Every four years, the intersection appears: the Days of Awe cross paths with the final weeks of the presidential campaign. The debate grows more heated. Talk of policy may dominate the conversation as we dip apples in honey on Rosh Hashanah or as we break the fast on Yom… Read more »
On Labor Day and Jewish values
NEW YORK (JTA) — When Congress declared Labor Day a public holiday in 1894, workers had more to lament than to celebrate: an economic depression, a growing concentration of corporate wealth and power, and the brutal suppression of their unions. A momentous national railroad strike to protest deep wage… Read more »
On Yom Kippur, secular Israelis pray with modern songs and bike on open roads
TEL AVIV (JTA) — With its lively beaches, all-night clubs and restaurants serving ham and shrimp, Tel Aviv is a city known more for its Speedos than its spirituality. And while the Orthodox may spend Yom Kippur praying in synagogues, secular Jews are more likely to spend the Day… Read more »
You ain’t heard Kol Nidre yet
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — On Kol Nidre, we sing for our lives. At the minyan where I pray, as a lay “shaliach tzibur,” or service leader, I was asked to lead the singing this year, and I was starting to wonder if I was up to it. I wasn’t… Read more »
Confessing our sins on Yom Kippur – and remembering to act nobly
NEW YORK (JTA) — Few prayers are as well known to Jews as Ashamnu (“We have sinned …”) and Al Chet (“For the sin …”), the twin confessions of Yom Kippur. Belief in human sinfulness is more central to Judaism than we think. Sin may not be “original,” as… Read more »