Mayim, Mayim, Mayim, Mayim
The JTA reports:
A thousand Orthodox rabbis are sending an emissary to Atlanta to pray for rain.
Rabbi Yehuda Levin will perform an ancient prayer ritual Wednesday seeking divine help to end the drought in the South, the Christian Newswire reported. Levin reportedly performed the ritual in 1986, after which there was four days of rain.
“Orthodox Jews wish to show solidarity with those suffering from the drought and other natural disasters,” said Levin. “We want to kick off a nationwide movement of prayer. Furthermore, we wish to announce a program which we believe could curtail much of the disaster our country has been experiencing.”
If this is the same Rabbi Yehuda Levin I’ve heard of before, he’s quite a Renaissance man: In 1985 he was designated by New York’s Right to Life Party as its mayoral candidate; in 1996 he was campaigning for Pat Buchanan; and in 2006 he headed up opposition to a planned gay pride parade in Jerusalem, reportedly pointing to a “spiritual cause and effect” between the parade and attacks on the State of Israel by Hezbollah.
I wonder if these “thousand rabbis” also backed Pat Buchanan?
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
