Pope Francis really likes the Jewish custom of Shabbat
The Pope praised Shabbat in a 2018 '60 Minutes' interview
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How one synagogue is staying open: Staggered prayer times
Synagogues around the country have shut their doors to daily because of the coronavirus pandemic, but some, particularly among Hasidic and other Orthodox strains of Judaism, are taking extraordinary measures to find ways to stay open. One Orthodox synagogue in Lakewood, New Jersey — which has one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the…
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Conservative Movement leaders say virtual minyans are permissible during ‘crisis situation’
(JTA) — The leaders of the Conservative movement’s Jewish law committee issued a crisis declaration allowing the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish with a virtual online prayer quorum. In a statement issued this week, Rabbis Elliot Dorff and Pamela Barmash, the co-chairs of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, said that given the current…
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Headquarters of Chabad movement, iconic ‘770’ building, closes for first time
The international Chabad movement, one of modern Judaism’s most powerful forces for the dissemination of Jewish culture and practice, has closed its iconic headquarters for the first time, citing the spread of coronavirus and the illness of residents in its Crown Heights, Brooklyn neighborhood. The closure happened “in accordance with the order of the rabbis…
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Undeterred by coronavirus, a couple plans their wedding in Israel in less than 24 hours
(JTA) — Nina Abrahams and Amit Bigler knew the coronavirus pandemic would have an impact on their wedding, which was already taking place in Israel, far from their home in New York. But they didn’t expect to have their guest list whittle down from 330 to about 20 — and for those 20 guests to…
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Rapper Jay Electronica sparks anti-Semitism controversy
(JTA) — The respected rapper and producer Jay Electronica — a friend of Louis Farrakhan — released his debut album on Friday and it’s already causing controversy. On the “Ghost of Soulja Slim” track, about a late rapper friend, Electronica raps in the second verse: “And I bet you a Rothschild I get a bang…
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Amazon bans sale of ‘Mein Kampf’
A month after Amazon removed several white nationalist and anti-Semitic items from its website, the online retailer has stopped selling a most editions of the most notorious anti-Semitic screed of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” The move comes after a decades-long push by Holocaust memorial organizations, The Guardian reported. Amazon alerted booksellers of…
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What U.S. Jews can learn from Italy’s Jewish response to coronavirus
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Italian people’s first reaction to the coronavirus was to have a good laugh. Not because they didn’t believe the virus was a real issue, but because that’s just how we like to process big changes in my home country. By Feb. 23, there were 152 confirmed cases in Italy. Yet many…
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Israeli man returns stolen antique 15 years later fearing “end of the world”
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Figuring “the end of the world is near” because of the coronavirus, an Israeli man is trying to make amends by returning an archaeological artifact he took 15 years ago. It was a 2,000-year-old ballista stone, ancient ammunition, that he removed from the Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David…
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100 people test positive for coronavirus in hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood
(JTA) — At least 100 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Borough Park, a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn. This story has been updated here. The number was confirmed by an official at Asisa, an urgent care clinic in the New York City neighborhood that caters to the Hasidic community. This gives me…
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Former leader of Milan Jewish community dies of coronavirus
(JTA) — Michele Sciama, a former secretary-general of the Jewish Community of Milan, has died of the coronavirus. Sciama, known to his friends and family as Micky, was 79 when he died Monday morning. He is survived by his wife, Viviane, and two daughters, Dalia and Stefania, the Italian-Jewish Moked news site wrote in an…
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