NEW YORK (JTA) — It was said to be a finding of groundbreaking scholarly and historic significance, comparable in importance to the 19th-century discovery of the Cairo Geniza and rivaling the Dead Sea Scrolls for sheer drama. That, at any rate, was the buzz in scholarly circles when reports… Read more »
Posts By Jigsaw Digital
Baltimore area mourns Jewish airman killed in Afghanistan
BALTIMORE (Baltimore Jewish Times) — On his Facebook page, Airman 1st Class Matthew Ryan Seidler posted the lyrics to one of his favorite tunes, “Opportunity” by Australian singer-songwriter Pete Murray. “Your coffee’s warm but your milk is sour/Life is short but you’re here to flower,” the lyrics state. “Dream… Read more »
Suburban N.J. synagogue creates a big-city service
(New Jersey Jewish News) — It’s a familiar story: Kids grow up in a suburban synagogue, move to the big city and leave the synagogue behind. What’s a congregation to do? How about bring the synagogue to the big city? That’s the thinking behind the monthly Friday night services… Read more »
Exploiting the memory of child Holocaust victims is obscene
NEW YORK (JTA) — It is virtually impossible to imagine anything more reprehensible than the recent spectacle of haredi Orthodox Jewish boys wearing yellow stars of David and simulated striped black-and-white concentration camp uniforms at a demonstration in Jerusalem. Offended by the Israeli authorities’ efforts to curtail the verbal… Read more »
Unity is vital for harmony in Beit Shemesh, all of Israel
BEIT SHEMESH (JTA) — It’s raining as I write — a rare, cold, hard rain that is welcomed by Jerusalemites who know that it’s good for them and the country. Water, like patience, is a treasured commodity here in Israel: temporarily inconvenient, but better for you in the long… Read more »
Gift basket themes: tea time or movie time
NEW YORK (JTA) — So it’s nearly Purim and the excitement in my house is rising every day. I’m not a great one to fuss with costumes, but my mind is bubbling over with ideas for mishloach manot, the Purim gift baskets. It’s more than mere “tradition” to give… Read more »
With new restaurant at Canyons, kosher food debuts at U.S. ski resort
PARK CITY, Utah (JTA) – Kosher food isn’t something one generally associates with ski resorts, and Utah isn’t a place known for its Jewish population. But after Canyons, the state’s largest ski resort, opened the nation’s first ski-area, glatt kosher restaurant this season, the Jews came. And ate. And… Read more »
Jewish day schools putting Apple iPads to the test
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WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (JTA) — Toward the end of his life, Apple’s visionary leader, Steve Jobs, was visited by another computer innovator, Microsoft’s Bill Gates. The conversation turned to the future of education. As related in Walter Isaacson’s recent biography of Jobs, both men agreed that computers had made surprisingly… Read more »
Park City shul is popular venue for Sundance films — and ski-in Shabbat services
PARK CITY, Utah (JTA) – Call it the Sundance Synaplex. This week, crowds of people will be flocking several times a day to Temple Har Shalom in this picturesque ski town, but they won’t be coming for Shacharit, Mincha or Maariv services. Instead, for 10 days the synagogue is… Read more »
Republicans — and Democrats — pitch to Florida’s Jews
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Barack Obama won’t show up on the vote tallies after polls close in Florida’s Republican primary on Jan. 31, but the president’s supporters already are waging a fight for the Sunshine State. Democrats are rolling out a campaign to rival any of the GOP candidates, with… Read more »
Giffords resigns from Congress, is honored in emotional farewell
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U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was wounded in an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, announced Sunday that she would resign from Congress. In a dramatic two-minute video posted on her congressional website, Giffords said she will step down as she continues her recovery. “I have more work… Read more »
Young Filipinos integrating into Israeli society, but not without difficulties
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TEL AVIV (JTA) — With eyes closed, it would have been difficult to guess that the female voice with the amazing range singing a Hebrew classic was a shy-looking, 11-year-old Filipina. But there was Kathleen Eligado performing Miri Aloni’s “Ballad of Hedva and Shlomik” before a prime-time television audience… Read more »
After attacks on synagogues in New Jersey, heightened security — and anxiety
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NEW YORK (JTA) — As Jews in some northern New Jersey communities made their way to synagogue last Shabbat, the scene was slightly different from the typical day of rest. Extra police cars were on patrol near synagogues. At Bnei Yeshurun in Teaneck, a new buzzer system had been… Read more »
In entering Israeli politics, Yair Lapid eyes force of socioeconomic status
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JERUSALEM (JTA) — One of the big open questions after Israel’s social protests last summer was whether or not the one-time mass movement would be able to translate its newfound clout into lasting political power. During the weeks of protests and for months afterward, none of Israel’s political parties… Read more »
Delay of U.S.-Israel anti-missile exercise fuels speculation
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The decision by Israel and the United States to delay a massive joint anti-missile exercise set off a frenzy of speculation as to what the move says about relations between the two allies amid mounting tensions with Iran. U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed to JTA over… Read more »
Seeking Kin: Man hidden as baby hopes to honor rescuer-father
JTA’s new “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — Even after seven decades, Peter Nurnberger’s most basic biographical facts remain elusive. The Slovakian doesn’t know his birth date, his natural parents’ fate or whether they had any other children. Peter’s adoptive parents… Read more »
Ukrainian historian makes career in Jewish heritage travel
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LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) — Alex Dunai is not Jewish. But over 15 years of leading Jewish tourists searching for their roots in Ukraine, he’s built up a serviceable knowledge of Yiddish — though sometimes he has to make things up. “I make up sayings — you have highway roads, we… Read more »
In Budapest, corruption probe amplifies calls for reform of communal institutions
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BUDAPEST (JTA) — A whistle-blowing rabbi and a reform-minded lay leader are at the forefront of new efforts to shake up Hungary’s entrenched Jewish establishment. Late last year, Rabbi Zoltan Radnoti reportedly alerted authorities to complaints of embezzlement and tax fraud in the operation of Budapest’s main Jewish cemetery on Kozma… Read more »
Reporter’s Notebook: Return to shtetl gives texture to reporter’s family history
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LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) — The more I thought about it, the more it began to seem like a reasonable choice: I would roam around Europe for six months, visiting Jewish museums, talking to youth groups and covering various community happenings. I would travel from vibrant London to the post-Communist… Read more »
Clergy push Debbie Friedman song
(Forward) — About two weeks before she died, Debbie Friedman stood with Rabbi Joy Levitt at the piano in Levitt’s Manhattan apartment, and she shared with her friend a melody that the legendary singer and composer would never have the chance to record. It was a new version of… Read more »