Uriel Heilman
By Uriel Heilman
-
Israel News Orthodox N.J. Embraces Rabbi Pruzansky — Extreme Anti-Arab Views and All
(JTA) — If Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Teaneck, N.J., had his way, Arab rioters and stone throwers would be shot with live ammunition. Arabs would be barred from the Temple Mount for six months. Any village from which two or more terrorists originated would be razed and its residents deported. Arab terrorists would be executed, their…
-
Israel News Federations Gather To Network, Organize Fret and — Of Course! — Shmooze
(JTA) — There was the vice president of the United States, two Supreme Court justices and an Academy Award-winning actress with a compelling Jewish story. There were Jewish professionals, lay leaders, clergy and recent college graduates. The West Point cadets’ Jewish choir performed. The Israeli prime minister appeared via satellite from Jerusalem. Part pep rally, part…
-
News In Ebola Fight, Jewish Groups Help Caregivers Cope With Psychosocial Trauma
(JTA) — Even amid the unceasing horrors of Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic, it was a case that stood out. A 5-year-old boy had been found in his home in a remote village, the lone survivor in a house riddled with the corpses of family members. He needed to be extracted; the bodies needed to be…
-
News For Many Converts, Bumpy Road to Mikveh Only Beginning of Woes
(JTA) — There was the convert who was barred from a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Jamaican convert whose boyfriend’s rabbi offered him a coveted synagogue honor if only he’d dump her, the grandmother who told her granddaughter she’d be going to hell because she became a Jew. The road to conversion can be long…
-
Fast Forward After Freundel Scandal, Converts in Waiting Complain of Unexpected Obstacles
(JTA) — Tzipporah Laura LaFianza and her family have been living as Orthodox Jews for four years now. They reside in a heavily Jewish suburb of Washington, go to shul every Shabbat and keep a strictly kosher kitchen. But they’re not Jewish — yet. A prospective Orthodox convert, LaFianza, 34, is still waiting for the all-clear…
-
Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel Urged Women To Take ‘Long Showers’ and Mikveh ‘Dunks’
(JTA) — When Rabbi Barry Freundel asked Bethany Mandel to take a “really long shower” before a “practice dunk” in the mikvah prior to her formal conversion to Judaism, the whole request seemed a bit odd, she says. For one thing, Freundel instructed her to skip the pre-mikvah checklist, which includes things like cleaning out…
-
News Miami Jewish Community Grows by 9% in Decade
(JTA) — For the first time in four decades, Miami Jewry is growing. That’s the official finding of the new Miami Jewish population study released Monday by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. The Jewish population of Miami-Dade County increased 9 percent over the last decade, to 123,000 from 113,000 in 2004, according to the survey. That…
-
Israel News Benjamin Netanyahu Brings a Prop and Anti-Iran Rhetoric to United Nations
(JTA) — In the end, there was much to talk about at the U.N. General Assembly but few genuine surprises. With an eye on the jihadist group ISIS, President Obama focused on the need for the international community to counter the dangers of violent extremism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened Hamas to ISIS and…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Chabad on high alert after false Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens war claims
- 2
Opinion Marco Rubio invoked a medieval antisemitic trope in justifying war with Iran
- 3
Culture How an Amish Mennonite school in Arkansas went viral with a song by an Orthodox Jew
- 4
Opinion The real reason for the US war with Iran may have nothing to do with Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
News When observant Jews gathered to challenge pro-Israel orthodoxy, verbal sparring and walkouts ensued
-
Opinion Can the US really bring Iranians democracy?
-
Fast Forward Lawsuit says DOGE used ChatGPT to flag Jewish-themed humanities grants as ‘DEI’ before canceling them
-
Fast Forward Lindsey Graham urges Israel not to strike Iranian oil depots even as he says he helped make war happen
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism