Tagged FRONT

Saying Kaddish from balconies and fasting: How Hasidic Jews are responding to the coronavirus

Chabad children in Argentina study in the movement's online school in 2007. During the new coronavirus outbreak, the school has offered guidance to other Jewish schools transitioning to remote learning. (Courtesy of the Nigri International Shluchim Online School)
March 19, 2020 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — One of Avi Webb’s favorite times of the week is Sunday morning, when he takes his children to morning prayers at his synagogue and stays for a lesson on Hasidic thought. His kids play at an arts and crafts table while he studies. Webb is… Read more »

Jews in the United Kingdom prepare for distancing as Britain adapts to coronavirus

Philip Carmel, seen outside a Jewish cemetery in Russia during a work trip in 2018, says "the only difference between the United Kingdom and Italy is that we’re three weeks behind them.” (Cnaan Liphshiz)
March 19, 2020 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — As the coronavirus forced the shutdown of many synagogues in the United States and beyond last Shabbat, many British Jews celebrated the day of rest as usual. At the time, their government was taking a far less restrictive approach even as the leaders of other countries shut… Read more »

‘We’re not scared’: Some haredi Orthodox Jews in Israel are ignoring coronavirus social distancing rules

Some of the students at a haredi boys school in Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet, just west of Jerusalem, where classes are still being held, March 18, 2020. (Sam Sokol)
March 19, 2020 / Sam Sokol, JTA

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA) — “Do you want trouble?” the Hasidic man asked, leaning toward me intimidatingly. “Are you threatening me?” I asked, turning to look at the lean man in a flat black hat and long caftan. “No. But if you stay here, everyone will come and there… Read more »

Aging Poles who rescued Jews during the Holocaust are at risk from the coronavirus. So this Jewish group is delivering food to them. 

Jonny Daniels delivers groceries to a rescuer of Jews in Warsaw, Poland, March 17, 2020. (Courtesy of From the Depths)
March 19, 2020 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — As a teenager in Warsaw during the Holocaust, Krystyna Kowalska helped save a Jewish family of four who hid at her family’s bakery. She does not remember being afraid, even though if they had been discovered her whole family would have almost certainly been shot dead on… Read more »

Arab-Israeli parties just recommended Benny Gantz to be prime minister. Here’s why that’s historic.

Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, left, with other party members at the party headquarters in the Arab-Israeli city of Shfaram, March 2, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)
March 19, 2020 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(JTA) — Amid all the justifiable focus on the coronavirus and its consequences, there was major political news in Israel this week: Benny Gantz, the Blue and White party leader, was tapped by the president to assemble a government coalition — bringing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closer to his… Read more »

No visitors, no group dinners: How Jewish nursing homes are trying to keep seniors safe from the coronavirus

Residents learn Facebook at the Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly in Massachusetts. (Suzanne Kreiter/Getty Images)
March 13, 2020 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Benita and Michael Ross are glad to live a half-hour’s drive from their granddaughter’s college, Brandeis University. So when the Boston-area school announced Thursday that it would close due to the novel coronavirus, Benita would have invited her granddaughter to stay with them. Except she… Read more »

The coronavirus could be disastrous for Israeli service workers. Here’s what they told me.

The doorman and the roof of the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem (Laura Ben-David)
March 13, 2020 / Laura Ben-David, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — For the young and healthy, the coronavirus itself is likely to be mostly an inconvenience. But for many workers, the COVID-19 pandemic could literally cost them their livelihoods. Obviously, many of us are deeply concerned about catching the highly contagious respiratory illness or about the growing… Read more »

Preparing for the ‘worst-case scenario’: Jewish aid groups scramble amid the coronavirus outbreak

Masbia kosher supervisor Pesach Gittleson assembles boxes containing food for people who may be quarantined or unable to obtain food due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Alexander Rapaport)
March 12, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — The run-up to Passover is the busiest time of the year for Masbia, a nonprofit that operates three kosher soup kitchens in Brooklyn and Queens. The organization has to order all kosher-for-Passover food and scrub one of its locations’ kitchens so it can prepare food… Read more »

Taika Waititi adapting anti-Semite Roald Dahl’s work is exactly what we need

Taika Waititi will write, direct and executive produce two series based on the work of Roald Dahl for Netflix, starting with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factor." (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
March 12, 2020 / A.R. Vishny, JTA

This story originally appeared on Alma. Netflix just announced that the Academy Award-winning Maori-Jewish filmmaker Taika Waititi will write, direct and executive produce two series based on the work of author Roald Dahl for the streaming platform. The first is based on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” focusing specifically… Read more »

I’m not a doctor, but I am a rabbi. Here’s my spiritual prescription for the coronavirus.

A sanitary gel is used as a precaution against the coronavirus. (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
March 12, 2020 / Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, JTA

PHOENIX (JTA) — I am not a medical professional, an epidemiologist or an expert on pandemics. I leave the serious information in those important fields for the professionals who have the appropriate training to help us get through the coronavirus epidemic. Even though I do not possess medical knowledge,… Read more »

How to make pastrami gravlax and impress your friends

Serve pastrami gravlax at your next brunch with some good pumpernickel bagels, rye bread, cream cheese and wedges of fresh lemon. (Shannon Sarna)
March 12, 2020 / Shannon Sarna, JTA

This story originally appeared on The Nosher. Tell someone you made the gravlax at your next brunch and I promise they will be impressed. The truth is that gravlax is a surprisingly simple dish to make. (Here’s our video and recipe you can follow to make it). There is… Read more »

From ‘Spock’ greetings to chopstick Torah pointers, synagogues are getting creative amid the coronavirus outbreak

To minimize the spread of germs, congregants at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley are using disposable chopsticks in lieu of a shared yad when reading from the Torah. (Courtesy Alan Sokoloff)
March 10, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — On a typical Friday, some 200 people show up for services at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, a Reform congregation in Seattle. But last week, there was no one in the pews as Rabbi Daniel Weiner welcomed Shabbat in the synagogue’s smaller sanctuary. Instead, some 1,500 people watched… Read more »

‘It’s separating families’: How the unprecedented coronavirus lockdown is affecting Italy’s Jews

A man and woman stand outside the Milan Cathedral with protective masks and sanitizing gels, Feb. 23, 2020. (Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
March 10, 2020 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — The outbreak of the coronavirus in northern Italy forced Claudia Bagnarelli to make a painful choice. “To keep visiting my 94-year-old mother, I needed to stop seeing everyone else in my life,” Bagnarelli, a Jewish ballet teacher from Milan, said Monday. To avoid the risk of infecting… Read more »

Local, Israeli experts to discuss modern Israel at NW symposium
March 6, 2020 / Lauren Bookwalter, AJP Intern
David Graizbord

Editor’s note: This event has been postponed until November due the spread of COVID-19. The Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona have canceled all public events through April 16 out of an abundance of caution.   Israeli politics, water scarcity, and medical advances will highlight “Israel… Read more »

Tucson’s first mezuzah week set to ensure spiritual security

Rabbi Moshe Peretz Gilden
March 6, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

“Tucson Mezuzah Week’ is the first community-wide opportunity, offered by Congregation Chofetz Chayim and the Southwest Torah Institute, to have every Jewish home in Tucson protected by the mitzvah of placing mezuzot on every doorpost,” says the congregation’s Rabbi Israel Becker. Often called the “Jewish security system,” the mezuzah is… Read more »

Congregation M’kor Hayim will focus on refugees for special Shabbat service

Gloria Goldman and Teresa Cavendish
March 6, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Editor’s note: Due to the spread of coronavirus, Congregation M’kor Hayim has postponed this event. HIAS’ National Refugee Shabbat is a call to congregations across the country to dedicate sacred time on the March 20-21 Shabbat to honor refugees and asylum seekers. Congregation M’kor Hayim will hold a special Friday,… Read more »