By Julie Wiener, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — Unplugging more from electronic devices has become a commonly cited resolution for both the Jewish and secular new years. But electronics are also increasingly becoming integrated into Jewish New Year observances. Here are some new offerings at the junctionContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Orthodox rabbis are widely known for their distinctive black suits and black Borsalino hats. But on September 10, University of Washington Chabad rabbi Elie Estrin wore a different kind uniform: The navy blue suit and cap of the United States AirContinue Reading
By Tsafi Lev, MyJewishLearning.com I’m advocating a new angle on Heshbon Nefesh, “soul’s accounting,” that we do in preparation to the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This soul work begins with the ancient Greek dictum “know thyself.” Or, to put it more rabbinically, “know before whom youContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Germany is ready to allocate funds to tailor education about anti-Semitism for its Muslim students, the country’s Jewish outreach official said.Felix Klein, Germany’s special representative for relations with Jewish organizations, is in Washington this week to meet with Jewish groups and Obama administration officials over AmericanContinue Reading
By Edmon J. Rodman, JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In preparation for the High Holidays last year, my community sent its shofar blower on the road. During the month of Elul, in the run-up to Rosh Hashanah, we are supposed to hear the shofar blown every dayContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Citing possible threats to the homeland among other considerations, President Obama pledged to “destroy” ISIS using airstrikes and training the Iraqi army to combat the terror organization.“Our objective is clear,” Obama said, speaking Wednesday evening from the White House on the eve of the 13th anniversary ofContinue Reading
NEW YORK (JTA) – For years, Melissa Duchan had found the dress code for girls at her Orthodox school in Brooklyn, the Yeshivah of Flatbush, onerous. But it wasn’t until recently that Duchan, 16, felt that scrutiny of female students had crossed the line from irritating to what she calledContinue Reading
By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org When Harvard Hillel refused to host a planned 2012 event titled “Jewish Voices Against the Israeli Occupation,” organized by the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, frustrated students wrote an open letter to the Hillel community criticizing the decision.Continue Reading
NEW YORK (JTA) — A new partnership has launched to enable the purchase of kosher “fair trade” coffee, tea and chocolate while supporting Jewish communal efforts on human trafficking and worker justice.The Jewish Fair Trade Partnership allows individuals and Jewish institutions like synagogues to purchase fair trade products atContinue Reading
(JTA) — The serial killer Jack the Ripper was identified through DNA as a Jewish barber who immigrated to London from Poland.Businessman Russell Edwards, an amateur Jack the Ripper sleuth, and molecular biologist Dr. Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University made the discovery through DNA traces found onContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends.The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published last Friday in the journal ProceedingsContinue Reading
Compiled by Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Looking for a place to spend your High Holidays? We offer a compilation of statewide services to welcome you. Please contact the individual congregation for tickets or further information. Erev Rosh Hashanah: Evening of September 24 Rosh Hashanah Day One:Continue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service BEERSHEBA, Israel (JTA) — Handcuffed to a wooden chair in the middle of the night, Rafat Awaysha still wasn’t sure what crime he had committed. He had announced a demonstration against the war in Gaza in a July 11 Facebook post. Soon afterward,Continue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – Don’t bring it up. If it comes up, change the subject. If you can’t change the subject, consider an outright denial. Those are some of the strategies used by Jewish reporters working in the Arab and Muslim Middle East toContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joan Rivers, who broke barriers for women in comedy and on television, has died. Rivers, 81, died Thursday a week after being rushed to Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital after her heart stopped during throat surgery at a clinic. Doctors at the hospital put her in an inducedContinue Reading
By Dmitriy Shapiro, JNS.org/Washington Jewish Week After months of rampaging through Iraq and stoking international fears that the Islamic State terrorist group could spread, a combination of Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, aided by targeted United States airstrikes, appear to have pushed back the self-proclaimed caliphate’s rampage in the region. Continue Reading
By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org This summer’s 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which has come to a close if a cease-fire reached last week holds, has spurred a sharp rise in both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents around the world. At the same time, the boundary between anti-ZionismContinue Reading
By Anne Boher, Special to the Jewish Sound Note: This piece complements Erin Pike’s story, The Jewish capacity for love. Recently, Emily Ziskind, director of life enrichment at The Summit at First Hill, asked my husband Leslie and me if we’d like to join a group of young people fromContinue Reading
By Erin Pike, Special to the Jewish Sound Note: This story complements Anne Boher’s story Our bridge across the generations. Love has been on my mind. Exactly one year ago I was in Israel, falling in love with its natural beauty and powerful spiritual energy. It was no accident thatContinue Reading
By Dikla Tuchman, Jewish Sound Correspondent On Sunday, August 31, South Seattle’s newly formed Eruv Cooperative hosted SPARK, an outdoor Jewish music festival in Seward Park. Hundreds of community members and Jewish music appreciators piled into Seward Park Amphitheater to enjoy artists like singer-songwriter Ari Lesser, local Seattle-based recording artistContinue Reading
