Members of ZAKA rescuing a Torah from Congregation Beth Israel after Hurricane Katrina hit, August 2005. (Courtesy ZAKA) (JTA) — Seven years ago an iconic picture for many Jews of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was of men waist deep in a flooded synagogue carrying Torahs to safety. On Sunday, in a celebration of physical and spiritual unity, the Torahs of that congregation were carried into… Read more »
Portrait of Sir Ludwig Guttman, founder of the Paralympic Games (Photo via Stoke Mandeville) LONDON (JTA) — In 1917, Ludwig Guttmann, a young German Jew volunteering as an orderly in the local Accident Hospital for Coalminers, came across a strong miner with a broken back. The patient, he was told, would be dead within three months. In fact, he died after five weeks.… Read more »
(N.Y. Jewish Week) — They’ve moved beyond the chess games on Ocean Parkway and the Brighton Beach boardwalk strolls, those clichéd markers of the Russian immigration wave of the 1980s and ‘90s. “We’re night and day from our parents’ generation,” said Esther Lamm, a native of Lvov who leads… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Kim Drapkin says she has gunpowder in her blood. She loves to shoot, but you won’t find her on a range with goggles and a pistol, or out in a forest with a hunting rifle and a camouflage vest. A reproduction of an 1861 model Springfield,… Read more »
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (JTA) — In our busy lives, there are lots of decisions to make. Though we know that quick judgments made without all the facts can be faulty, we do not have the time to dwell on each decision, and we learn to live with a kind… Read more »
Rina Elchai, shown here in 1958, hopes to "close a circle" and reconnect with Aryeh "Leon" Sevilla, shown here in 1957 with a note he wrote in Hebrew reading "To the Beloved Rina." (Courtesy Rina Elchai) The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) – Rina Elchai’s first love was Aryeh “Leon” Sevilla. The two met in the early 1950s at the Youth Aliyah village of Kiryat Yearim, then dated as students attending the Ben-Shemen agricultural boarding school in… Read more »
Laurence Gavron, a French-born filmmaker whose film "Black Jews, Juifs noir en Afrique" tells the story of African tribes that claim to have Jewish ancestry. (Courtesy Laurence Gavron) PRETORIA, South Africa (JTA) – Filmmaker Laurence Gavron is on a journey to document lost Jewish tribes in Africa. The French-born Gavron, who has made Senegal her home since 1989, says she was immediately taken by the project, which she says combines her passion for Africa with the mystery… Read more »
A Haredi man and his son standing next to the army recruiting office in Jerusalem on August 1, 2012. (Noam Moskowitz/Flash 90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) – The controversy had sparked a national debate, raucous protests in the streets and the collapse of a historic government. That came in the months after the Israeli Supreme Court had nullified a law exempting haredi Orthodox Israelis from military service and given the government until… Read more »
Israeli-American men's basketball coach David Blatt led the Russian national team to the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. (Christopher Johnson via CC) (JTA) – The London Olympics may have “lit up the world,” as organizing committee head Sebastian Coe put it, but for Jews the 2 1/2 weeks offered healthy doses of frustration and glory. On the plus side, new medalists such as America’s Aly Raisman gained the spotlight with her… Read more »
Yeshayahu Karmiel, left, and Herbert "Chanoch" Kelman, will soon see one another for the first time since 1939. (Courtesy Yeshayahu Karmiel) The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — Robert Krempel and Chanoch Kelman were friends in late-1930s Vienna. They had met through the Zionist Orthodox youth movement Brit Hanoar (Youth Covenant), belonging to a chapter that gathered on Shabbat afternoons and Sunday… Read more »
The New York Post uses its Aug. 8, 2012 cover to shine a light on gymnast Aly Raisman after she told reporters that she would have taken part in a moment of silence in memory of the Israeli athletes and coaches killed at the Munich Olympics in 1972. (The New York Post) U.S. gymnast Aly Raisman confirmed her status as one of the stars of the London Olympics Tuesday, winning an individual gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a bronze on the balance beam after helping the U.S. women’s team take the gold last week. Raisman’s bronze came… Read more »
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — This week, the Deferral of Military Service for Yeshiva Students Law, better known as the Tal Law, expires. This law is the latest enactment of the so-called “status quo arrangement,” which frames the uneasy relationship between Israel’s Haredi and secular populations. As such, the expiration… Read more »
TEANECK, N.J. (JTA) — The man sitting on the commuter train focusing intently on his iPhone might be playing Angry Birds. Or he might be studying Talmud, Skyping with a chevruta partner in Israel or even teaching Hebrew school. “Mobile technologies could help people practice Judaism,” said Barry Schwartz,… Read more »
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Last Wednesday night, July 25, in the middle of a heat wave, a quarter of a million people flocked to the funeral of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. At the request of the deceased, no eulogies were delivered, but for the rest of the week, the… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Isaac Azose knew he had a treasure in his hands — a nearly century-old booklet for Ladino-speaking Jews immigrating to the United States that featured English, Ladino and Yiddish expressions to help them acculturate into their new communities. “I thought to myself, I’ve got a… Read more »
SAN FRANCISCO (j. weekly) — Toby Adelman loves to put people together; she has been doing so with gusto her entire life. But last month, the 54-year-old San Jose resident outdid herself with the most extraordinary — and personal — connection she’s ever made. Adelman donated one of her… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. State Department’s report on religious freedom described a “global increase” in anti-Semitism and said the “rising tide of anti-Semitism” was among the key trends of last year. The executive summary of the report for 2011, released July 30, also detailed the “impact of political… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Seven years on, many Jews still have lingering questions about the addition to the pro-Israel lobbying scene of Christians United for Israel, the project of evangelical leader the Rev. John Hagee. Hagee believes he has a biblical mandate to press on and is undeterred. “As Isaiah… Read more »
Mitchell Flint standing in front of his P51 Mustang fighter plane in Israel in 1948. (Courtesy Tom Tugend) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — After a 64-year detour, Mitchell Flint, a former fighter pilot for the United States and Israel, has finally landed for the London Olympic Games. In the summer of 1948, Flint, with a four-year wartime stint as a U.S. Navy fighter pilot in the Pacific under… Read more »
More than 90,000 people packed MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for the Siyum HaShas, celebrating the completion of the Daf Yomi page-a-day Talmud study cycle, Aug. 1, 2012. (Yisroel Golding/Siyumphotos) EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (JTA) – As a light drizzle tapered off over MetLife Stadium, more than 90,000 Jews packed into the home of the NFL’s Jets and Giants for an event quite unlike any the popular sports and concert venue had ever seen. They came dressed in black and… Read more »
