Rabbi Bob Alper The Pope has a new comedic advisor… and he’s a rabbi. Rabbi Robert Alper, who prefers to go by Bob, is 70 years old and lives with his wife in the rural town East Dorset, Vermont. “It used to be Alpert, but we dropped the T at a party… Read more »
(JTA) — “In the United States, ‘Conservative Judaism’ is a synonym for failure.” So writes the Israeli journalist Yair Ettinger after interviewing a spectrum of American Jewish religious leaders. If, as it seems, this judgment has become the new conventional wisdom, we reject it as both inaccurate and destructive.… Read more »
(JTA) — As Hurricane Joaquin gained steam off the southeastern coast of the United States, the question has begun to circulate online: Are Jews allowed to take down their sukkahs in the case of a storm? Sukkot, which began Sunday, runs through this Sunday evening. Hurricane Joaquin, the first… Read more »
Boxer Dustin Fleischer hopes to be the first world champion who is the descendant of a Holocaust survivor. (Rich Kane/Roc Nation Sports)
Editor’s note: this article was written before Dustin Fleischer’s bout on Sept. 26, which he won with a first round knockout. (JTA) – When welterweight Dustin Fleischer enters the ring on Saturday evening, he’ll will be wearing his late grandfather’s gold Star of David necklace with a red jewel… Read more »
Curry Pumpkin Corn Soup (Shannon Sarna)
(The Nosher via JTA) — When you think of pumpkin and spices, your mind likely jumps to pumpkin pie spices like ginger, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. But did you know that pumpkin and curry also pair perfectly? A quick Google search for pumpkin curry will reveal an array of recipes… Read more »
Joc Pederson taking a swing against the Washington Nationals, Aug. 12, 2015. (Hillel Kuttler)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ask Los Angeles Dodgers’ rookie outfielder Joc Pederson how his season is going, and he’ll talk about the team. “We’re playing great baseball, and that’s something we’re looking to continue to do,” a shy and wary Pederson told JTA recently following a spirited game of dice with… Read more »
Rabbi Barry Freundel exits the courthouse after entering his guilty plea, Feb. 19, 2015. (Dmitriy Shapiro)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Writing from his jail cell last week, just days before the Jewish New Year, Rabbi Barry Freundel said he was sorry. It was the rabbi’s first public statement since his arrest almost a year ago and his subsequent sentencing to 6-and-1/2 years behind bars for secretly filming women undressing in… Read more »
The driver, Mohammed, holding an etrog. (Ben Sales)
ASSADS, Morocco (JTA) — We had to cross the gorge, and the only way was to walk single file on a narrow concrete gutter, maybe a foot wide, that bridged the two cliffs. Below us was a long, perilous drop onto the rocky depths. I was traveling deep into the rural communities of… Read more »
(JTA) – Several years ago, Jessica Berman and her husband, Brad, bumped into her high school boyfriend. “If you aren’t working as a lawyer in hockey, I’d be amazed,” Berman recalled him saying. The ex had her pegged. Berman, 37, has been employed by the National Hockey League for… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — To Jewish parents of young children on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Karina Zilberman is something of a celebrity. She is the tall, blonde, guitar-strumming founder of the 92nd Street Y’s Shababa, a multigenerational musical celebration of Shabbat whose name is a mash-up of the modern… Read more »
Rabbi Francine Roston: Rabbi Francine Green Roston and her family fell in love with Whitefish, Mont., on their first visit in the summer of 2010. (Uriel Heilman)
WHITEFISH, Mont. (JTA) – Until last year, Rabbi Francine Green Roston was among the Conservative movement’s rising stars. The first woman in the movement to head a congregation with more than 500 members, Roston, the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey, also published Op-Eds… Read more »
Over 70,000 fans packing Chicago's Soldier Field for the finale of the Grateful Dead's three-concert Fare Thee Well Tour, July 5, 2015. (Howard Blas)
CHICAGO (JTA) — What a long, strange trip it’s been for Shu Eliovson. The American-born resident of Kfar Maimon, a religious moshav in southern Israel, Eliovson is CEO and co-founder of the tech start-up Likeminder, an anonymous social networking site for “authentic conversation” with “likeminded” people. He is also an ordained rabbi,… Read more »
Debbie Friedman singing at Kutz camp in 1969 (Rabbi Jeffrey Klepper)
(JTA) — Whether it’s first love or night swimming, many American Jews have nostalgic memories from Jewish summer camp. For the first class of campers to attend the Union for Reform Judaism’s flagship camp in Warwick, New York, those memories just turned 50 years old. The URJ’s Kutz Camp, known… Read more »
The Rabbinical Council of America found that 78 percent of those who convert through its system are women. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) – After facing criticism for its handling of inappropriate behavior by a convert-supervising rabbi who turned out to be a mikvah-peeping voyeur, the country’s main centrist Orthodox rabbinical group has released key guidelines aimed at preventing abuses during the conversion process. The Rabbinical Council of America is recommending that would-be… Read more »
Jewish gay rights activist Frank Kameny shaking hands with President Barack Obama after the president signed a memorandum extending federal benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, June 2009. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — On July 4, 1965, 40 people gathered outside this city’s Independence Hall for the first Annual Reminder demonstration on behalf of civil rights for gays. For this weekend’s 50-year commemoration, thousands attended a ceremony that included a reenactment of the initial protest. The milestone, which comes… Read more »
Alex Swieca, a former quarterback at the University of Michigan, throws a pass in a scrimmage at Jerusalem's Kraft Stadium, June 21, 2015. (Ben Sales)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The scent of hamburgers and beer wafted over the field. The fans were bathed in barbecue smoke.The bleachers were cut out of Jerusalem stone, the field was made of artificial turf. The spectators who had come to greet a tour of Pro Football Hall of Famers… Read more »
The new English translation of "The Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook," from 1938. (Schocken Books)
(Jewniverse via JTA) — “It has long been established by the highest medical authorities that food made from fruits and vegetables is far healthier and more suitable for the human organism than food made from meat,” Fania Lewando wrote in 1938. With that Austen-like pronouncement and the publication of… Read more »
People celebrate the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage on June 26, 2015 in West Hollywood, California. The Supreme Court ruled today that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry nationwide without regard to their state's laws. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — My father passed away nearly 13 years ago, and while I think about him daily, every so often there are moments when I especially miss him. Last week’s Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage was one of those moments. You see, my father, Rabbi Steven… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — You may have seen them scanning the terminal, eyes wide with disbelief, on their first visit to Israel. In my family we call their condition, which afflicts mostly young Jews from small Jewish communities, the Ben Gurion Syndrome — a sense of shock induced by encountering… Read more »
A same-sex marriage supporter waves a pride flag next to an altered street sign that reads "case closed!' while celebrating the U.S Supreme Court ruling regarding same-sex marriage on June 26, 2015 in San Francisco.(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
BOSTON (JTA) — Four years ago, I stood under a chuppah with the woman I was about to marry overlooking a valley in Massachusetts. I have an emotional memory of sweetness and joy from my wedding day, but I can’t recall many specific moments. What I do remember vividly… Read more »
