A scene from 'The Women's Balcony' (Menemsha Films)
Set among a congregation of observant Jews in a quiet neighborhood in the Old City, “The Women’s Balcony” begins with a bar mitzvah and ends with a wedding. But there’s plenty of tsuris (trouble) between the celebrations, triggered by a structural collapse just before the haftorah that shutters the… Read more »
Jared Kushner speaks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, June 19, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — If Jared Kushner is the only person who can deliver Middle East peace — as his father-in-law Donald Trump said — he comes off as a reluctant savior. In a speech delivered Monday to a group of congressional interns and leaked to the media, Kushner expounded… Read more »
Ramadan Abu-Ragila receives a doctoral degree at Ben-Gurion University (Ran Dahan/TPS)
Among the graduates receiving their doctoral degrees at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on June 28, one stood out above the rest. Ramadan Abu-Ragila, 34, has muscular dystrophy, a disease that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass, is wheelchair bound and relies on an oxygen machine… Read more »
The Palestinian and Israeli flags hang at the Knesset during a meeting featuring, left to right, Abdullah Abdullah of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Israeli parliament member Hilik Bar and Muhammad Madani of Fatah's central committee, July 31, 2013. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — I don’t know if there is a Yiddish or Hebrew version of “more Catholic than the pope.” More machmir than the rebbe? More kosher than glatt? If there is such an expression, this weekend’s convulsion over a Jewish camp in Washington state raising a… Read more »
Gary Wasserman, left, strolls through a corridor on the Georgetown campus in Qatar with his students in 2012. (Georgetown University-Qatar)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Near the end of his first year teaching American studies at the Georgetown University campus in Qatar, Gary Wasserman introduced a dozen Israelis to a dozen undergraduates from across the Middle East. Then he left the room so the students could have an unfiltered discussion.… Read more »
Children wave Israeli and American flags at the Celebrate Israel parade in New York City, June 4, 2017. (Perry Bindelglass)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Six years ago, the Israeli government released a series of controversial ads to show its expatriates that they would never feel at home in the United States. But last year, Israeli Cabinet members lined up to address a Washington, D.C., conference celebrating Israeli-American identity.… Read more »
Gershom Sizomu, religious leader of the Abayudaya, in 2003. (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Uganda’s 2,000 Jews have long maintained a modest existence. They live in the east of the country in a hilly, rural area that lacks paved roads, consistent electricity and freely running water. But this year, the situation for Uganda’s Jewish community, called the Abayudaya, has worsened. Twenty million people… Read more »
The summer before she entered first grade, my oldest daughter asked me when she was going to go to sleepaway camp. I was stunned; she was too young. And why the heck would she ever want to leave us, her family? I blew off the question until the next… Read more »
Members of the Habima National Theatre and the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv appear in an adaptation of David Grossman's novel "To the End of the Land," as part of the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, July 24-27, 2017. (Gérard Allon)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In David Grossman’s 2008 novel “To the End of the Land,” an Israeli mother flees to the countryside to avoid news of her soldier son, who is serving a dangerous stint in the West Bank. Ora considers herself apolitical and tries to avoid talking or… Read more »
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party supporters demonstrate for voting rights outside the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J. Some hold signs with portraits of slain civil rights workers Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. (Warren K. Leffler/Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are about the closest American Jews have to secular saints. The two Jewish civil rights workers traveled south for the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, joining the African-American activist James Chaney in canvassing black churches. All three were kidnapped and murdered by… Read more »
Rona Matlow served in the Navy for 22 years before leaving to become what she calls "the only nuclear-qualified, transgender rabbi." (Photos courtesy of Maslow)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — On Wednesday, in our offices near this city’s Dupont Circle, the staff at Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. were opening the mail when a request came in from a veteran asking that we change her first name on our records from Jaron to Rona. “I… Read more »
From left: Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill at the 25th Annual William S. Paley TV Festival at the Arclight in Hollywood, March 17, 2008. (Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In history books, the summer of 2007 will go down as the official start of one of the worst financial crises in American history. It started in July, when Bear Stearns announced that two of its hedge funds had lost all their value —… Read more »
Harissa Honey Roast Chicken (Shannon Sarna)
There’s a reason chicken is a bit of a Friday night staple: Before Jews came to America, red meat simply wasn’t abundantly available and therefore saved for special occasions. But also, chicken is a relatively easy dinner to prepare, especially when you roast a whole chicken. This honey harissa and lemon… Read more »
Rabbi David Seidenberg (Courtesy of Seidenberg)
NEW YORK (JTA) — For many Jews, Tisha b’Av is centered around mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. But that interpretation misses out on an important lesson that is made more relevant by recent events, Rabbi David Seidenberg argues. With the release of a new translation of… Read more »
During a 2006 visit to the Jordanian capital of Amman, JTA's Uriel Heilman underwent some invasive security checks when he visited the Israeli Embassy there. (Uriel Heilman)
(JTA) — “Drop your pants.” The order came curt and clipped, and it caught me by surprise. What?! “Drop your pants,” he repeated sternly. I had been subject to the indignities of Israeli security before, but never this. I was in a holding area of the Israeli Embassy… Read more »
The Anati brothers, from left, Emmanuel, Andrea and Bubi. (Tamar Tal Anati)
(JTA) — Renting a house in the Italian countryside and eating loads of pasta is about as blissful a vacation as they come. For the three Anati brothers, however, such a trip is a reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet the brothers — Bubi, 77; Andrea,… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center (the Tucson J) will be the host of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony on Wednesday, July 26 at 10 a.m. in the Tucson J’s Ballroom. One hundred new U.S. citizens will participate in the naturalization ceremony and originate from the… Read more »
Aerial footage of the Dead Sea (Kobi Richter)
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators announced a far-reaching agreement July 13 to provide the Palestinian Authority with 33 million cubic meters of water a year, as part of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal project. At a press conference hosted by United States Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, Israel’s… Read more »
Tourists at Auschwitz photographing the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate, July 2015. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said it will file a complaint with the Polish prosecutor against an Israeli woman, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, who removed relics from site. Rotem Bides, 27, an art student at the Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba, visited the Auschwitz… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses members of the Visegrad Group, the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, July 19, (Haim Zach / GPO)
Europe is undermining its own security by undermining Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday as he was caught on live microphone bashing the European Union at a meeting with the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia in Budapest. “We have a peculiar situation here. The… Read more »
