By Jamie Geller, JNS.org The average Hanukkah sufganiya (jelly donut) has between 300 and 400 calories of nearly pure oil and fat. In honor of the miracle God bestowed upon the Maccabees, making oil meant for just a day last eight days, the delicious donut and other traditionally oily HanukkahContinue Reading
By Rita Berman Frischer, Special to the Jewish Sound Whenever I think I’ve seen every possible spin on a Hanukkah book for kids, something new comes along. Just this morning I was singing “This Land is My Land” with a chorus of ex-hippie contemporaries, so you may understand why IContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA) – On the surface, the tour looked much like a standard Birthright Israel trip: Participants celebrated Shabbat in Jerusalem’s Old City, swam in the Dead Sea and ascended the ancient mountain fortress at Masada. The trip was mostly free and organizersContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent Like a shidduch, the matchmaker who transforms life by pairing the right life partners, the Hadassah women’s organization and Hillel at the University of Washington want to supercharge young Jews’ professional life — but without the attendant pressure and drama. The two organizations have themselvesContinue Reading
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli police closed off Highway 90 to the southern city of Eilat after an oil pipeline burst around 12 miles north of the city Thursday night, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil and prompting serious environmental concern for the entire area. The Israeli Environmental ProtectionContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two shoppers outside a West Bank supermarket were stabbed by an assailant in what police are treating as a terrorist attack. The victims reportedly were moderately injured in the attack Wednesday evening outside the Rami Levy discount supermarket in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone near Maale Adumim,Continue Reading
(JTA) — A suspect in the robbery and rape of a young couple in suburban Paris borrowed sugar from the victims days before the attack, a lawyer for the victims’ family told French media. The three suspects in the case, who reportedly are known to police, appeared in court onContinue Reading
By Deborah R. Prinz, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — Sharing their favorite Jewish chocolate experiences recently, a group of about 60 chocolate lovers didn’t even mention Hanukkah gelt. That is, until one woman at the New Jersey get-together shared her thoughts on the subject. “It is sucky,”Continue Reading
By Michael Natkin, Jewish Sound Columnist An all-out hanukkah latke binge is something I look forward to every year, and I’m a purist. Please do not darken my doorstep with tales of pumpkin-chipotle latkes or Thai-spice latkes. For me, a latke should contain: Russet potato, onion, egg, salt, and beContinue Reading
By Shelley Adatto Baumgarten, Special to the Jewish Sound “What makes a fried donut a birmuelo?” I recall my then 9-year-old daughter asking me at the beginning of the eight-day festival of Hanukkah. A birmuelo, I explained to her, is not simply a donut made from flour, water, yeast, sugarContinue Reading
(JNS.org) Ahead of Americans’ nationwide feasting on Turkey for Thanksgiving last week, newly released statistics showed that Israel is the surprising world leader in consumption of turkey per capita. According to figures from Israel’s turkey industry, agriculture ministry, and foreign ministry, the average Israeli eats about 28 pounds ofContinue Reading
Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org Hezbollah has a stock of advanced sea-to-sea missiles with which it intends to impose a maritime siege on Israel if the two sides enter another war, Lebanese media outlets reported on Monday. According to the reports, Hezbollah apparently has an arsenal of sophisticated Russian-made Yakhont sea-to-seaContinue Reading
By Ben Cohen, JNS.org To properly understand how the Holocaust has been seared onto Israel’s collective consciousness, one should visit the country on the 27th of Nisan, a date in the Hebrew calendar that falls in either April or May in the solar one. On that day, Yom HaShoah,Continue Reading
By Jacob Kamaras, JNS.org Settlements or Jewish communities? West Bank or Judea and Samaria? East Jerusalem or eastern Jerusalem? Those are some of the language choices that journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are faced with each day—and those choices should not be taken lightly, experts say. “It’s the terminologyContinue Reading
(JTA) — Israeli security services uncovered a Hamas plot to carry out several large-scale terror attacks on Israeli targets. More than 30 Hamas members involved in the plot were arrested in September, according to the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces, which released information about the plotContinue Reading
(JTA) — Jewish groups called for civil and serious discussion about race, democracy and justice in the wake of the grand jury’s decision in fatal shooting of an unarmed African American teen in Ferguson, Mo. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs in a statement issued on Wednesday affirmed its supportContinue Reading
NEW YORK (JTA) – A growing chorus of Orthodox leaders are speaking out against the anti-Arab rhetoric of a prominent New Jersey rabbi, Steven Pruzansky of Teaneck. Following last week’s terrorist attack at a Jerusalem synagogue, Pruzansky, the spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, wrote a blog post titled “DealingContinue Reading
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A town in central Poland is reconsidering a development plan that would turn a Jewish cemetery into a residential complex with underground parking. The Jewish community of Warsaw and local activist Robert Augustyniak, who is not Jewish, had protested the plan. The City Council in GrodziskContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel and the Palestinians held secret back-channel peace negotiations, the New Republic reported. The secret negotiations created substantial progress toward an agreement but collapsed when it became clear the Palestinian negotiator did not have the backing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the article publishedContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent Make no mistake: Dr. Einat Wilf is on the forefront of an intellectual war to recapture the global zeitgeist of her home country, Israel, and wrench it back from those who’ve hijacked its image by using political epithets as their weapons, looking to ultimatelyContinue Reading
