At the Bonnyton Gold Club restaurant, "pies and mince" have replaced traidtional Jewish staples. (Ben Sales) EAGLESHAM, Scotland (JTA) — As teenagers in the 1960s, Lewis Geneen and Colin Black liked to spend their summer Sundays playing rounds at the Bonnyton Golf Club course, breaking only for a lunch of fish and borscht. Sitting atop a hill on the outskirts of Glasgow, Bonnyton was then… Read more »
Israel's Andy Ram sprawled on the court following his five-set doubles victory with partner Yoni Erlich, holding racket, against Argentina in a Davis Cup match in Sunrise, Fla., Sept. 13, 2014. (Andrea Eidman) SUNRISE, Fla. (JTA) – It wasn’t Tel Aviv, but thousands of people chanting his name at a Davis Cup match following a grueling victory was a pretty good way for Israel’s Andy Ram to leave the game oftennis to which he had devoted more than half his life. Ram, 34,… Read more »
Exterior shot of the $351 million Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. (Flickr) TORONTO (JTA) — On the fourth floor of the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, visitors will find a gallery called “Examining the Holocaust,” which is devoted entirely to the story and lessons of the Shoah. On the same floor, in a smaller, adjacent space, a gallery called “Breaking… Read more »
A U.S. Army casket team lays to rest Pfc. Bernard Gavrin at Arlington National Cemetery while Rabbi Marvin Bash looks on, Sept. 12, 2014. (Ron Kampeas) ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — The scene at Arlington National Cemetery last Friday was not quite routine, but nor was it unusual: A clergyman said a prayer, an army NCO handed Bernard Gavrin’s closest living relative a folded U.S. flag, and a volunteer — one of the “Arlington Ladies” who… Read more »
Joe Goldblatt, a Texan who gained Scottish citizenship in July, campaigns for Scottish independence in Edinburgh, September 2014. (Ben Sales) GLASGOW (JTA) — Bright blue signs scream “Yes” while red ones urge “No, thanks” in the streets of Scotland’s largest city just days before a vote on whether to secede from the United Kingdom. But at Frank Angell’s house, his windows are empty and his yard is bare. A… Read more »
A Thai worker picking decorative flower leaves on the Kibbutz Sde Nitzan flower farm, near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, July 20, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Rosh Hashanah comes later this month, Israel’s Jewish farmers won’t just be celebrating the start of a new year. They’ll be marking a year in which they are prohibited from doing their jobs. Called Shmita, the Torah-mandated, yearlong farming hiatus is felt across Israel,… Read more »
Chloe Valdary called her AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel "life changing." (Lauren Clarice Cross) (JTA) — Growing up in New Orleans, Chloe Valdary kept kosher, studied the Jewish Bible and celebrated Jewish holidays with festive meals. In recent years she has become an outspoken pro-Israel campus activist, contributing regularly to the Jewish press, and speaking and posting widely about the merits of the… Read more »
Jacqui Dauphinais, second from left, was an assistant coach last season for the Yeshiva University men's volleyball team that won its conference championship. (Adena Stevens/Yeshiva University) (JTA) – Having been a standout player in high school and college, and an assistant coach, new Yeshiva University men’s volleyball coach Jacqui Dauphinais has plenty of knowledge about the sport. And in her one season as an assistant for the Maccabees, she showed she wasn’t afraid to speak… Read more »
(JTA) – A prominent rabbi whose outspoken criticism of Israel became too divisive for his congregation announced this week that he is resigning his pulpit. Brant Rosen, rabbi at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill., made the announcement Tuesday. Aside from his pulpit position, which he has held… Read more »
Erik Lorig, in his fifth NFL season, has moved to the New Orleans Saints after playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (Courtesy New Orleans Saints) BALTIMORE (JTA) – Blocking brothers, a college star seeking success in the pros, a fullback who hasn’t had a carry in four seasons and a couple of ace special teamers are among the Jewish players on NFL rosters as the league kicks off this week. A punter may join… Read more »
Rabbi Karol Sidon stepped down as Prague's chief rabbi amid reports about his love life. (Petr Balajka/Prague Jewish Community) PRAGUE (JTA) — When the novel “Altschul’s Method” hit the shelves in Czech bookstores this March, it was hailed as a brilliant political and psychological thriller combining elements of science fiction, alternate history and Jewish mysticism. But it became a true literary sensation when it was revealed a week… Read more »
The Kosovo Jewish community's president, Votim Demiri with his daughter Ines, a foreign ministry official, in Prizren. (Ron Kampeas/JTA) PRISTINA, Kosovo (JTA) – Boxing Club Prishtina is a squat building on a narrow street around the corner from the parliament in the heart of Kosovo’s capital city. Around the corner, a popular Italian restaurant draws the young Western Europeans and Americans in button-down shirts and open-toed heels who… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — In II Samuel, Chapter 1, when David learns of the death of Abner, he proclaims to his soldiers and all of Israel, “You well know that a prince, a great man in Israel, has died this day.” When I learned of the death of my… Read more »
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, left, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, meets with Jews who fled eastern Ukraine, July 2014. (Olivier Fitoussi) (JTA) — Each time he dispatches a car into Lugansk, Rabbi Shalom Gopin readies himself for hours of anxious anticipation. The scene of brutal urban warfare between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists, this eastern Ukrainian city now has no regular power supply, running water or cell phone reception. Mortar… Read more »
Lacey Schwartz's film 'Little White Lie' tells of her discovery in adulthood that her father was black. SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — When Lacey Schwartz celebrated her Bat Mitzvah more than two decades ago in her hometown of Woodstock, N.Y., a synagogue-goer turned to her and said, “It’s so nice to have an Ethiopian Jew in our midst.” Never mind that Schwartz, a striking 37-year-old with long… Read more »
The davening room at Havurat Shalom, virtually unchanged since the early 1970s. (Jesse Edsell-Vetter) SOMERVILLE, Mass. (JTA) — To certain first-time visitors to Havurat Shalom, the congregation’s prayer room may look remarkably familiar. From the macrame Jewish star adorning the ark and the Middle Eastern-style lamp serving as a ner tamid to the pillows on a bare floor and the sparely decorated walls,… Read more »
At a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles, the author began to find new meanings for why we mourn on Tisha b’Av. (Edmon J. Rodman) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — After weeks of missiles falling on Israel and bombs dropping on Gaza, we land on Tisha b’Av. With the day-to-day images of explosions and tunnels so fresh, I wondered how they might connect to my mid-summer night’s struggle with the somber holiday’s relevance. Tisha b’Av,… Read more »
Jeff Idelson, director of the the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, holding a bat used by Jewish Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame) BALTIMORE (JTA) – For Jeff Idelson, the director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., induction weekend is all about teamwork. “When you get to signature events you’re in a small community, all the pieces have to come together effectively for it to be a… Read more »
The Saint Petersburg company Tzar Caviar used molecular engineering to produce a kosher caviar substitute now available in New York and Paris. (Courtesy Tzar Caviar) PARIS (JTA) — In a penthouse office with a view of the Eiffel Tower, Olivier Kassabi uses a ceramic spoon to extract a small scoop from a jar labeled as Russian caviar. Placing a clutch of black globules on the base of his thumb, Kassabi licks it off, savoring… Read more »
Andrew Goldstein, a member of Israel’s national lacrosse team, says “the landscape has really changed” for gay athletes since he came out in 2005. (Larry Palumbo) BALTIMORE (JTA) — In the years after coming out as gay, lacrosse player Andrew Goldstein recalls being asked on panel discussions whether major American professional sports leagues would include openly gay athletes. It’s a question, Goldstein said, that is no longer relevant with Jason Collins in the National Basketball… Read more »
