(JTA) — Facing declining membership, a mainline Protestant congregation in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood listed its historic church complex for sale in the summer of last year. Church leaders were told it would take at least a year to complete the deal. But within days, an attractive offer came in, and a few months later the building’s $2.85…
(JTA) — Occult practices and totems are a mainstay of Halloween season, and sage bundles, altars and crystals are an increasingly trendy way to dabble in divination and witchcraft. But the spooky supernatural world also has a long history in Judaism, and modern “Jewitches” are encouraging the connection — though their practices often slightly differ…
(JTA) — One of the happiest nights I ever spent in synagogue was May 16, 2011, when my fellow congregants and I gathered to watch that night’s episode of “Jeopardy!” One of our members, Rabbi Joyce Newmark, was a contestant, but of course she hadn’t been able to tell us the results of a game…
(JTA) — (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — For JoAnn Mason Parker, playing pool comes just as naturally as handling a knife and fork. “You’re not going to drop it, because you know what you’re doing,” the former child prodigy said, explaining the analogy during a recent video chat from Westchester,…
(JTA) — The highest court in Greece has ruled against allowing ritual slaughter, fulfilling fears that some Jewish leaders voiced last year after the European Union’s top court ruled in support of such bans. Last December, the EU’s highest court upheld the bans imposed in regions of Belgium against slaughtering animals for meat without stunning…
In a statement marking the third anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, President Joe Biden called on the American people and the Jewish community “to embrace the better angels of our nature – and to turn pain into purpose.” Biden said the deadliest act of antisemitism in America’s history, in which…
(JTA) — The dozens of Jews who escaped the Nazis by hiding in the sewers of Lviv became local and international lore almost immediately after World War II. “In the summer, when the rain seeped in, there was a lot of water everywhere,” Krystyna Chiger recalled in testimony in 1947, when she was 11. “Then…
Joan Rivers’ estate is getting the last laugh. In this week’s “Well boy, we sure got worked up over nothing,” Variety is now reporting that the planned Joan Rivers Showtime series “The Comeback Girl,” the origin of the “Jewface” controversy that launched a thousand think pieces, will not move forward. Looks like the producers didn’t…
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has condemned Facebook for allowing the incitement of violence on the platform, making the ADL one of the many organizations to speak out in response to a series of reports illuminating systemic policy failures at the social media company. On Monday, after consortium of news organizations began publishing articles based…
(JTA) — Florida state entities will cease new investments in Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, as of Tuesday, because the ice cream maker plans to stop selling its product in the West Bank. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in July triggered a 90-day review mandated by Florida law which mandates divestment from companies…
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Imagine arriving at the Pastrami Queen but finding no pastrami, or showing up at Holy Schnitzel to find its signature breaded chicken cutlet off the menu. To quote Tevye, sounds crazy, no? But that is exactly what will happen if you visit Sherry Herring, the Israeli eatery that…
