(JTA) — The president of the student government at Chicago’s Loyola University vetoed an Israel divestment resolution that was passed twice. Pedro Guerrero, president of the Loyola United Student Government Association, on Tuesday rejected the measure that calls on the university to remove its holdings from eight companies that provideContinue Reading
Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org Wild booze-filled nights, toga parties, and even hazing. Those are the popular culture images that come to mind when thinking of fraternities and sororities, especially for those who are not personally exposed to Greek life on American campuses. But the Jewish college fraternity Alpha Epsilon PiContinue Reading
Ari Rudolph, Special to The Jewish Sound NEW YORK (JTA) — A key component that unifies a people or nation is a common language. The Jewish people are no exception; the Hebrew language is an essential element of what constitutes the Jewish nation. Hebrew often is the only common languageContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — The battle between members of Congress and the State Department over tourist visas for Israelis features two competing archetypes of the young Israeli traveler. The lawmakers paint a picture of a world traveler, matured by service to country, who deservesContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—Dear Friend, I understand you’re thinking of becoming a rabbi. Mazel tov! Getting into a seminary shouldn’t be too hard. During the decade between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, four consequential new rabbinical schools opened in America: the liberal Orthodox Yeshivat ChoveveiContinue Reading
By Robert Gluck, JNS.org The recently deceased Sid Caesar made America laugh, and in so doing, revolutionized television comedy. His trailblazing style was infused with Jewish influences, according to Eddy Friedfeld, co-author with Caesar on his biography “Caesar’s Hours: My Life in Comedy, With Love and Laughter.” “Sid was partContinue Reading
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 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
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
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 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 Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA)—Presbyterians who engage in dialogue with Jewish groups are scrambling to undo what they say is the damage caused by a congregational study guide assailing Zionism distributed by a group affiliated with their denomination. The guide, “Zionism Unsettled,” posits that the Israeli-PalestinianContinue Reading
By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Picture a mad science lab with electrical wires, computer chords, ropes, and wheels and you have a pretty good picture of one of the country’s more than 20 CIJE-Tech laboratories. CIJE, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education, is a non-profit organization that provides advanced classroomContinue Reading
