San Diego Jewish Academy helmets feature the Hebrew letter lamed-shaped L for Lions. (Edmon J. Rodman) SAN DIEGO, Calif. (JTA) — The snack bar is always kosher and the games are never on Friday night. The roster is packed with names like Adam, Isaac, Benjamin and Micah, with an Ori, Ethan, Yuval and Noam thrown in. The players huddle to say the Sh’ma before taking… Read more »
Meeting with an Orthodox group in Brooklyn, New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, seated, saw an audience receptive to his message that children shouldn't be "brainwashed" into thinking being gay is OK, Oct. 10, 2010. (Creative Commons/azipaybarah NEW YORK (JTA) — When the Republican candidate for New York governor, Carl Paladino, addressed an Orthodox crowd on Sunday about his opposition to gay pride parades and how children shouldn’t be “brainwashed” into thinking being gay is OK, he clearly thought he’d find a receptive audience. He was… Read more »
A girl affiliated with the Westboro Baptist Church pickets the offices of the Anti-Defamation League in the Pacific Southwest region, June 19, 2009. Creative Commons/k763) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish defense organizations long — and proudly — have upheld a delicate principle in defending the First Amendment: Hate the speech, defend the speaker. But a Supreme Court case whose arguments were scheduled for Wednesday have put that precept to the test: A Maryland family is… Read more »
Dean Hank Dobin of Washington and Lee University dedicates the school's new Hillel house, a $4 million, 7,000-square-foot facility funded by private gifts, in September 2010. (Kevin Remington/Washington and Lee) SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Last year, 19-year-old Max Chapnick ate plenty of vegetables. Chapnick, who comes from a kosher home in White Plains, N.Y., is a sophomore at Washington and Lee University, a small liberal arts school in Lexington, Va. His freshman year he ate in the dining hall… Read more »
‘Fractured Bubble’ by Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan won the Sukkah City architectural competition in Manhattan. (Courtesy of Reboot) It was a surprise hit on the cultural roster of a city that may be the most culturally busy city in the nation. And even though the Sukkah City architectural competition in New York was being dismantled this week, look for Sukkah City next year in a town near… Read more »
A recent survey of British Jewry showed a decline in every Jewish denomination since 1990 except for two groups: the strictly Orthodox haredi and the Masorti, or Conservative movement. Over those 20 years, both have nearly doubled. Researchers behind the report, published in May by the Board of Deputies… Read more »
Palm fronds are a favorite form of schach for sukkahs in the Los Angeles area. (Edmon Rodman) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — His 14-foot-long pole saw in hand, Paul Nisenbaum is ready to head out into the great urban forest in a search for schach. The Los Angeles teacher and small businessman is among the many Jews throughout North America who will search their neighborhoods, from wilderness… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — While most people equate Sukkot with autumn vegetables, I picture the holiday as a tea party. Among Jews who build sukkahs, the evening meal is the most popular time to gather inside these modern-day harvest huts. Because temperatures often dip at night, I much prefer… Read more »
Ariella Dadon, who obtained a divorce from her husband with the help of a private investigator after a four-year battle, sits outside the nursery school where she works in Netivot, Israel. (Dina Kraft) NETIVOT, Israel (JTA) — Ariella Dadon still marvels at being free. For more than 2 1/2 years she was married to a man she describes as unfaithful, physically violent and emotionally abusive. For four years she struggled to get a divorce. But the rabbinical court ruled repeatedly that she… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — High on the list of Jewish martyr stories still retold, or at least alluded to, every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is the terrible medieval tale of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz. For refusing to appear before the Bishop of Regensburg, who had requested that Amnon… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — On a fall day in 1963, Abraham Joshua Heschel unburdened his soul. Speaking the truth without regard for whether it scandalized or hurt was something he would do fairly often in that decade of social upheaval. Already branded as an eccentric and an outsider, that… Read more »
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — When I’m invited to a Shabbat or holiday meal in a Jewish home, I always bring kosher wine. Not just that, I try to make it Israeli. It’s not because I keep kosher. And it’s not because the people I’m visiting necessarily keep kosher either.… Read more »
WASHINGTON (Forward) — When the waiting list for High Holidays tickets reached 700, leaders of the downtown Sixth and I Historic Synagogue decided to look outside the box — in their case, to the Chinese Community Church across the street. The church was a perfect match for the needs… Read more »
Rumors surrounded a trip by a delegation of U.S. Muslim leaders to Auschwitz and Dachau in mid-August 2010 (no credit) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Eight imams bowed in prayer before a sculpture at Dachau vividly representing the Jewish dead of Europe. It’s a picture worth a thousand words of reconciliation and understanding. Yet even before its appearance in the Jewish media — on the front page of the Forward for… Read more »
ST. LOUIS (JTA) — Amanda Boris is nervous about what she’ll face when classes resume at the University of Wisconsin later this month. “There’s an uncomfortable amount of anti-Semitism on my campus,” said the incoming senior. Last year, her campus newspaper ran an ad from a notorious Holocaust denier… Read more »
Guide with Holocaust educators on Centropa trip outside the entrance to Theresienstadt, a former concentration camp outside of Prague, July 2010 (Centropa) PRAGUE (JTA) — Educators who teach Holocaust history face the same challenge every year: how to get students interested in one of history’s greatest tragedies more than 65 years removed from World War II. In the old days, the formula was straightforward. “You show kids horrifying pictures, scare them,… Read more »
Conservative blogger Andrew Schlafly says Albert Einstein's scientific theories are bad science and part of a "liberal conspiracy." (JTA graphic/Library of Congress) BALTIMORE (JTA) — More than a half-century ago, the Nazis dismissed Albert Einstein’s groundbreaking theories as “Jewish science”; in recent years Holocaust revisionists have taken up the anti-Einstein cause. Now, the legendary physicist is facing a new wave of attacks — this time from conservative bloggers who say that… Read more »
ATLANTA — PunkTorah has announced the fundraising launch for OneShul.org, the world’s first web-based, community ran synagogue. OneShul was inspired by group of PunkTorah volunteers who began meeting online to daven with one another, using PunkTorah’s recently released Indie Yeshiva Pocket Siddur (available online and through ModernTribe.com). With the… Read more »
NEW YORK (Forward) — Imagine the scene: Four bearded rabbis sit for hours around a table, swaying before their open volumes of the Talmud, debating whether a Jew who owns a gate tower near the entrance to his mansion is required to hang a mezuzah on it. A synagogue… Read more »
Larry Lokey has pledged to give away all of his $700 million, with the next $60 million going to Israel. (Photo courtesy The Giving Pledge) NEW YORK (JTA) — The philanthropic world got a happy jolt when 40 members of the world’s wealthy elite — including 13 Jews — announced that they would give away more than half their money before they died. The participating philanthropists were responding to a challenge issued earlier this… Read more »
