LOS ANGELES (The Jewish Journal) — Located in the northern part of Santa Barbara County, but as distant from chic Santa Barbara as one can imagine, Santa Maria is a blue-collar town dotted with fast-food and barbecue joints. In recent years its population, at least half of which is… Read more »
Posts By Jigsaw Digital
With debt crisis looming, Jewish service groups are on alert
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish service groups are telling their constituents to be on guard for a possible government shutdown or slowdown after Aug. 2, when the United States is scheduled to hit its debt ceiling. What that means is not yet clear: The government isn’t saying what it will… Read more »
Meshugah for Zumba
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PHILADELPHIA (Jewish Exponent) — At age 54, Esther Goldberg has danced in front of 46,000 people at a sold-out Phillies game and behind a casino bar wearing little more than a see-through mesh shirt over a sparkly bra. This is what Zumba can do to an otherwise mild-mannered masseuse… Read more »
Oswiecim, the city of Auschwitz, wrestles with whether the past must be part of its future
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OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) — Can a town that exists in the shadow of death transform itself into a place of normalcy? The question long has vexed Oswiecim, the town of 40,000 in southern Poland where the notorious Auschwitz death camp is located. For decades, residents and city leaders have… Read more »
Jewish Dems aim to give Obama more leeway on aid to Arabs
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In the face of growing congressional concern over Middle Eastern extremism, some key Jewish Democrats are working to make sure President Obama has the leeway to dole out aid to Arab entities. The issue came to a head last week in the form of a State… Read more »
Norway attacks spotlight far-right outreach to Jews, Israel
(JTA) — For decades after World War II, far-right political movements in Europe stirred up for Jews images of skinheads and Nazi storm troopers marching across the continent. But in recent years, as European xenophobia has focused on the exploding growth of Muslims on the continent, right-wing anti-Semitism has… Read more »
Norway killer espoused right-wing philosophy
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BERLIN (JTA) — The confessed perpetrator in the attack in Norway that killed at least 76 people espoused a right-wing philosophy against Islam that also purports to be pro-Zionist. Anders Behring Breivik is charged with detonating a car bomb outside Oslo’s government headquarters, which houses the office of Norwegian… Read more »
Chabad royal wedding in Moscow
MOSCOW (Tablet) — Blumi Lazar’s wedding was not an intimate affair. A thick white dek tichel completely covering her face, Blumi stood under a massive raised chuppah of indigo velvet and gold fringe, swaying ever so slightly next to her groom, Isaac Rosenfeld, before some 1,500 invited guests. Among… Read more »
Op-Ed: Implementing a historic mandate for deaf Jews
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Conservative movement, through its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, has taken a historic step in acknowledging that deaf and hard-of-hearing people are entitled to stand with the Jewish community as equals. Not only did the law committee vote to recognize the users of… Read more »
Cottage cheese becomes symbol of Israeli frustration with rising food prices
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TEL AVIV (JTA) — For Israelis, cottage cheese is no mere dairy product. Whipped to exceptional creamy and airy perfection, it is a coveted staple of tables across the country. Israelis spend $440 million per year on cottage cheese. But now, with the price of a 9-ounce container climbing… Read more »
Supreme Court to consider Jerusalem passport question, minister exception cases
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Among the issues the U.S. Supreme Court will consider when it reconvenes next October is whether an American born in Jerusalem may list his birthplace as Israel in his passport. That case probably will garner the most Jewish attention in a fall docket that includes several… Read more »
As Moishe Houses catch on, Jewish orgs see new model for engaging 20-somethings
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SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Ben Levinson, 28, was born and raised in St. Louis. He returned after college to find most of the Jewish friends he grew up with had moved away. That’s not unusual: St. Louis is one of many U.S. cities with shrinking Jewish populations and, as… Read more »
Jews on motorcycles? Yes, and they’re Ridin’ Chai!
SAN FRANCISCO (j weekly) — It’s a warm Sunday afternoon in the Berkeley hills, and if you look west from the road that abuts Tilden Park, the San Francisco skyline is about as clear as it gets. As with most nice days, the park is full of people —… Read more »
Study: Young Jews volunteer, but don’t connect to Judaism
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SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Most young Jews do some kind of volunteer service, but few do it through Jewish agencies or connect it to Jewish values. Poverty, the environment, education and illiteracy are the areas that draw most young Jewish volunteers, with Israel-related work at the bottom of the… Read more »
In helping Palestinians, IDF paramedics defy sterotypes
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CARMEI TZUR, West Bank (JTA) — Yana Kisluk tosses her long ponytail over one shoulder and adjusts her M-16 over the other. The pretty 21-year-old, who wears diamond stud earrings and perfect eye makeup, looks like any other young Israeli doing her compulsory military service. As a paramedic in… Read more »
With the Center for Jewish history debt free, its founding chairman steps down
NEW YORK (JTA) — One night back in 1985, businessman Bruce Slovin was walking home from a corporate board meeting with a lawyer named Joe Greenberger when Greenberger asked him about his involvement in the Jewish world. Slovin responded that he wasn’t at all active, so Greenberger invited him… Read more »
‘Never Better’ in Krakow?
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KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) — Jews in Krakow have a new slogan — “Never Better.” The catchphrase is deliberately provocative, a blatant rejoinder to “Never Again,” the slogan long associated with Holocaust memory and the fight against anti-Semitic prejudice. It may be counterintuitive, acknowledges Jonathan Ornstein, the American-born director of… Read more »
A new generation of Jewish delis embraces sustainability
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BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — Can a Jewish deli be a Jewish deli without pastrami? That’s the question Saul’s Restaurant and Deli in Berkeley is facing after refusing the delivery of a truckload of pastrami because it did not meet the deli’s sustainability standards. “We found out it is no… Read more »
Meet Australia’s Aborigine who is president of her Orthodox shul
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SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — Lisa Jackson Pulver is not your average Australian Jew. Yes, she is one of this country’s 110,000 or so Members of the Tribe, but she is also a member of another tribe: an Aboriginal clan called the Wiradjuri. Jackson Pulver says she’s not the only… Read more »
Delta Saudi flap leaves questions of openness to Jewish flyers
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WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Saudi government wants you to know: It doesn’t ban visits by Jews. Whether the Saudis make travel difficult for Jews, particularly when it comes to those who have Israel stamps on their passports or come carrying religious items like tefillin, is another question entirely. The… Read more »