By Jacob Kamaras, JNS.org More than five months after the Pew Research Center’s “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” survey drew widespread pessimism over rising intermarriage and assimilation, as well as declining connection with synagogues and other institutions, proponents of a newly released study believe they may have the antidote forContinue Reading
By , JTA World News Service Cheryl Jacobs, Columbus, Ohio Camper at Camp Kinder Ring in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., in the mid-’70s My two grandmothers were summer residents of a bungalow colony euphemistically named “The Forest Lake Country Club.” A country club it wasn’t! My grandmothers walked along the shoresContinue Reading
By , JTA World News Service Cheryl Jacobs, Columbus, Ohio Camper at Camp Kinder Ring in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., in the mid-’70s My two grandmothers were summer residents of a bungalow colony euphemistically named “The Forest Lake Country Club.” A country club it wasn’t! My grandmothers walked along the shoresContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington determined to hold the line on Iran, but he also brought something new: An expansive vision of Middle East peace. The Israeli prime minister remained firm, after meeting with President Obama on Monday, in insistingContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington determined to hold the line on Iran, but he also brought something new: An expansive vision of Middle East peace. The Israeli prime minister remained firm, after meeting with President Obama on Monday, in insistingContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—If it wasn’t clear before, it should be abundantly clear now: The Orthodox establishment will not sanction so-called partnership minyans, and it’s willing to go to the mat to fight them. In recent weeks, a flurry of articles by leading OrthodoxContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—If it wasn’t clear before, it should be abundantly clear now: The Orthodox establishment will not sanction so-called partnership minyans, and it’s willing to go to the mat to fight them. In recent weeks, a flurry of articles by leading OrthodoxContinue Reading
By Julie Wiener, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—A Religion News Service article about the PJ Library is headlined “Free books — 10 million of them — help keep Jewish kids Jewish.” Now the foundation behind the widely lauded nine-year-old program—which distributes free books to more than 130,000 JewishContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA)—He calls his troops “the Blue Helmets of Maidan,” but brown is the color of the headgear worn by Delta—the nom de guerre of the commander of a Jewish-led militia force that participated in the Ukrainian revolution. Under his helmet, he also wearsContinue Reading
By Amelia Katzen, JNS.org “The most difficult thing to overcome is their terror,” the young doctor said softly. “All their lives they have been told that Israelis are evil, they are the devil. They come to us because they have no choice. But they are terrified.” Dr. Sasha S., aContinue Reading
As many already know, not only is the Vulcan salute (“live long and prosper”) based in Jewish prayer, the notorious Star Trek Enterprise science officer, Spock (Jewish actor Leonard Nimoy) made it famous on the 1960s science fiction classic television show, Star Trek: The Original Series. Nimoy, who discussed theContinue Reading
As the political turmoil rages on in the Ukraine, Jewish communities continue to awaiting nervously the outcome of the civil unrest. With a handful of anti-Semitic incidents having broken out over the past week leaving Ukrainian Jews fearful that they may be amongst those targeted in continued attacks throughout theContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—Just how open should Jewish institutions be when it comes to talking about Israel? That’s the question at the center of a flurry of controversies over the last few days involving Jewish museums, an Orthodox high school and Hillel chapters onContinue Reading
Sighting too many overly sensitive complaints from kvetching clergy , Newsweek’s Top 50 Rabbis List co-founders explain why they have decided, after seven years, to discontinue the “unusual snapshot of the Jewish landscape” in their publication. Read the full letter on Tablet Magazine. Continue Reading
By Talia Lavin and Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA)—The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities on edge. After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital and parliament installedContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA)—A billboard in central Tel Aviv features a black-and-white photo of a distressed woman above a caption in bold red letters that reads, “The pain and remorse from my abortion accompany me every day.” The billboard is an advertisement for Efrat, anContinue Reading
By , JNS.org (JNS.org) Jewish organizations have set up emergency assistance for Ukraine’s roughly 200,000-member Jewish community amid ongoing political unrest there. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) said that it is providing immediate assistance in areas of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, to ensure that elderly Jews and people withContinue Reading
By , JTA World News Service (JTA)—Spanish Muslims urged their government to grant citizenship to descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain in addition to Jews. The demand was made this week in a statement by the Association for Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, the Spanish news agency EFE reportedContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—When Abraham Foxman steps down next summer from his longtime post as national director of the Anti-Defamation League, he’ll be leaving his successor with a much brighter picture on anti-Semitism in America than when Foxman joined the organization in 1965. InContinue Reading
By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Sexual abuse of minors has for many years been among the most controversial and suppressed issues in the Jewish community. An inaugural conference in Israel next month will, at the very least, contribute to the conversation on that issue. “The mere fact that we are talkingContinue Reading
