By Justin Coskey, Special to the Jewish Sound I recently had the opportunity to interview Daniel Cohen, an active young adult in the Jewish community of greater Seattle, on his most recent endeavor, The Shabbos Project. While the Shabbos Project is an international organization and event, Daniel came up withContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service ARIEL, West Bank (JTA) — The small cardboard box in Elyashiv Drori’s palm looks like it’s full of black pebbles. Closing the box quickly, he explains that it cannot be open for long. The pebble-like pieces, which were uncovered in an archaeological dig near Jerusalem’sContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — For approximately a half hour at the beginning of her El Al Israel Airlines flight last week from New York to Tel Aviv, Elana Sztokman watched as the haredi Orthodox man seated next to her rushed up and downContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – In a strategic shift, the New Israel Fund is arming itself with a set of sharp political tools and picking a fight. Its target: Israel’s political right. Its weapons: Opposition research, media monitoring, and staking its claims to patriotism and Zionism. IfContinue Reading
(JTA) — President Obama in Jewish New Year greetings spoke of a challenging past year and new hope.“As Jews across America, Israel, and the world gather together for the High Holidays, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to you and your families for a sweet and happy new year,”Continue Reading
By Uriel Heilman JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — President Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran’s nuclear program. In his address last year to the General Assembly, Obama spent a great deal of time talkingContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that wouldContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent The Unites States needs to play hardball. When it engages in talks with Iran over its uranium enrichment program during the U.N.’s General Assembly meeting, which commences Thursday, it must keep air strikes on the table. So writes Michael Singh, the Washington Institute’s managingContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound This past year, the Samis Foundation allocated over $4 million to local Jewish education and camps, disaster relief, Jewish life, as well as social services and war relief in Israel. Though Samis’s work is evident across the community, these figures areContinue Reading
(JTA) — A Ukrainian health official warned that Jewish pilgrims converging in Uman may bring with them the Ebola virus and other epidemics.Larissa Kachanova, who heads the local branch of the Ukrainian government’s Sanitary and Epidemiological Management Center, issued the warning Sept. 18 ahead of the arrival of approximatelyContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service ANALYSIS NEW YORK (JTA) — The circus is coming to town. No, there won’t be marching elephants, lion tamers or motorcycles jumping through rings of fire. But there may be wolves in sheep’s clothing, tightrope walking and motorcades blocking traffic. We’re talking, ofContinue Reading
By Ami Eden, JTA World News Service ANALYSIS NEW YORK (JTA) — President Obama did not mention Israel or the Palestinians during his address to the nation last week. But his pledge to lead a U.S.-coordinated effort to destroy ISIS could end up doing more to get Israeli-Palestinian negotiations backContinue Reading
With 2014 marking our 90th anniversary, we decided to take a look back at our history to help you create your High Holiday menu. What you will find here — and what you can download as an ebook by visiting jewishsound.org/cookbook — is a selection from every single High HolidayContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — For a few days this year, they clogged up our Facebook feeds and then, perhaps, our subconscious. In our list of the top viral videos of 5774, we bring back those videos that had you hitting “share” again and again. Prairie dogsContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent Despite having to leave its building in Seattle’s Maple Leaf neighborhood after a six-year, post-recession, uphill financial struggle to buy it, the Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder has found a new site and is now open and bustling. Nearly 80 students from preschool through 8thContinue Reading
By Dan Aznoff, Jewish Sound Correspondent Every mother of a Jewish teenager will likely agree that leadership is a natural ability within most young people. And a new program that sends high school students to live in Israel for two months has been created to cultivate that inherent aptitude. The program thatContinue Reading
By David Chivo, Special to The Jewish Sound The media is awash these days with coverage about the rise of anti-Semitism around the world. If we are to respond, we first need to understand that this situation is not new phenomenon, but the rehashing of the same old story. Myth #1:Continue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — The scene at Arlington National Cemetery last Friday was not quite routine, but nor was it unusual: A clergyman said a prayer, an army NCO handed Bernard Gavrin’s closest living relative a folded U.S. flag, and a volunteer —Continue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jewish institutions, which have faced attacks in recent years by lone wolves — extremists who draw their inspiration from the like-minded but act on their own — now must be wary of returnees from the Iraq-Syria arena who are trained and indoctrinatedContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — It was the first Persian Gulf state to establish ties with Israel, the first to welcome Israeli students, and the only one to allow direct dialing to Israel. Israeli athletes shine on its courts. Now Qatar is on the outsContinue Reading
