Posts By Jigsaw Digital

Tel Aviv (N.Y. Jewish Week) — Israelis are watching elections in Egypt with the same ambivalence they have viewed the Arab Spring: historic images of Egyptians casting ballots for the first time were accompanied by troubling commentary by officials and analysts that the election is likely to empower an… Read more »

DETROIT (JTA) — Blair Nosan grew up in the Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield, attended the University of Michigan and then, like thousands of other young Jews from the beleaguered state, moved away. Though she grew up in a heavily Jewish area Nosan, 26, had felt disconnected both from… Read more »

LONDON (JTA) — Historically Jewish fraternities are leading the introduction of American Greek culture to the United Kingdom, but not everyone is throwing a toga party for England’s latest import. Over the past year, Zeta Beta Tau and Alpha Epsilon Pi — Jewish fraternities whose membership is open to… Read more »

Sixty-six years after they last saw one another, Mira Erlich, left, was reunited last week with Egle Bimbirine, who as a teenager rescued Erlich and her parents. (Hillel Kuttler)

Mira Erlich, sitting left, was reunited with Egle Bimbirine, sitting right, who as a teenager rescued Erlich and her parents. With them are their repsective daughters, cheryl Rosen, standing left, and Ida Juraitieme. (Hillel Kuttler) JTA’s new “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE… Read more »

The rise in the Republican presidential polls by Newt Gingrich, shown speaking at a GOP leadership conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 19, 2011, has refocused attention on his foreign policy statements. (Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — On the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich has given his fellow Republican presidential candidates a wide berth, often going out of his way to praise them. Instead of attacking his rivals, Gingrich has focused his fire on President Obama. The strategy appears to be paying off. The… Read more »

Janet Marcotte, left, photographer, signs copy of "Together We Thrive" for Julie Glaser Ray. (Sheila Wilensky)

The angst of the tragic shootings on Jan.8 that killed six people and wounded 13 others, and the  heartfelt responses of Tucsonans,were both present at the book launch of “Together We Thrive” at the YWCA Tucson on Nov. 30. The new book pairs the words of President Barack Obama… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The California race between Democratic congressional incumbents Howard Berman and Brad Sherman is seen as pitting experience against energy, compromise against confrontation and — painfully for many in the Jewish community — pro-Israel stalwart against pro-Israel stalwart. “These are two guys who are extraordinary leaders on… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Jordi Gendra feels fortunate that he found a full-time job at Temple Beth Shalom, a central Pennsylvania Reconstructionist synagogue, shortly before the recession hit. But now the 41-year-old spiritual leader is worried that the job he began in 2007 won’t last. The budget of… Read more »

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, shown addressing the World Economic Forum in Siwtzerland in January 2010, was influential in advancing gay rights and on economic reform. (World Economic Forum via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Barney Frank’s talk of retirement was anything but retiring. The veteran Jewish congressman’s announcement on Monday that he would not seek re-election was replete with the same caliber of verbal bombs — lobbed and received — that characterized much of his career. Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat,… Read more »

Six members of an El Al Airlines crew spoke with students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., as part of a new program, Nov. 28, 2011. Shown with the crew is Lehi Rothschild, third from right, the Jewish Agency fellow who organized the event. (Dan Klein)

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (JTA) — A good flight crew requires a certain amount of charm to keep passengers calm during turbulence, emergencies or pretzel shortages. Five El Al Airlines flight attendants and a pilot put those skills to the test Monday at Rutgers University in New Jersey as they… Read more »

Jerusalem Lions take on Tel Aviv Pioneers in an Israel Football League game at Kraft Family Stadium. (IFL File Photos)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It’s a cold Thursday night in Jerusalem and by the looks of it, you’d think there was a meeting of the United Nations under way. Men are carrying on in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian and French, but they’re not talking peace. They’re here to settle the… Read more »

Israeli designer Dorit Bar Or, center, acknowledging applause with models at the close of her show at Tel Aviv Fashion Week, Nov. 21, 2011. (Meir Partush/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For Israeli fashionistas, last week’s inaugural Tel Aviv Fashion Week proved what they’ve known for years: Israeli fashion is creative, current and worthy of worldwide attention — and, hopefully, sales. “I wanted to help my business and help my country,” said organizer Ofir Lev, deputy… Read more »

Jewish leaders who met with Vice President Joe Biden, shown here checking out an iPhone app in the White House with President Obama in July 2011, said in a statment that they had a "meaningful and productive" meeting the vice president about Jonathan Pollard. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Four drug dealers, a trafficker in stolen goods, a gambler and a turkey made President Obama’s Thanksgiving freedom list, but Israel’s best-known spy did not. But advocates of releasing Jonathan Pollard aren’t giving up hope. Seven Jewish leaders who met Nov. 21 with Vice President Joe… Read more »

Paul Ellbogen is the first name appearing on this monument to 23 soldiers killed in a battle near Modin on Sept. 24, 1948 during Israel's War of Independence. The death of his wife a few years later left their two children as orphans. (Avishai Teicher)

JTA’s new column, “Seeking Kin,” aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — The Ellbogen children, Edna and Michael, nearly became Mordechai “Moti” Malkin’s adopted siblings in early 1950s Israel. Six decades later, the 66-year-old Herzliya resident wants to know what’s become of them. When Paul… Read more »

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield recently spoke at a Jewish Federation of Greater Washington event. (Jewish Federation of greater Washington)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A scoop of Ben & Jerry’s may taste like heaven, and for company co-founder Jerry Greenfield, the business of making ice cream has a spiritual side as well. “There is a spiritual aspect to business, just as there is to people,” Greenfield told a crowd of… Read more »

Miriam Rosenbaum (Princeton University, Office of Communications)

NEW YORK (N.Y. Jewish Week) — In the fading November light of Shabbat, Miriam Rosenbaum walked from the West Side to the East Side, and then to a building on Park Avenue where she walked up 18 flights — Shabbat had more than an hour to go — to… Read more »

Alan and Judy Gross at the Western Wall in the spring of 2005. (Courtesy of the Gross family)

DENVER (JTA) — Alan Gross is a Jewish-American contractor who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba for “crimes against the state.” Gross, now 62 and in ill health, was arrested in 2009 as he was leaving Cuba. His family and U.S. State Department officials say that Gross… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (The Jewish Journal) — The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is home to more than 52,000 videotaped testimonies about the Holocaust, and people searching the archive’s index enter a single keyword into their queries more than any other: “Auschwitz.” “Auschwitz seems to be the one that people go… Read more »

Hillel Kuttler's great-great grandmother, Leah Eisen, sitting, poses in her native Lodz, Poland -- but who is standing behind her? (Courtesy Helen Markowitz)

JTA’s new column, “Seeking Kin,” aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) — Thanksgiving brings together families, and this November marked the first anniversary of a personal “Seeking Kin” success. Like all genealogy searches, it yielded ever-more mysteries to crack. I turn now to JTA’s readers… Read more »

Jenni Wolfson performing in her one-woman show, "Rash." (Melbourne Sibblies)

NEW YORK (JTA) — At the start of “Rash,” Jenni Wolfson appears onstage in a green peasant skirt and khaki top to the sound of cascading gunfire. Her long brown hair is unceremoniously pulled back with a black scrunchie. From a trunk she pulls out a flak jacket and puts it on.… Read more »