The new owners of the beleaguered kosher meat company Agriprocessors are quickly facing criticism over their early management of the company. A team of three men took over control of Agriprocessors — now called Agri Star — at the beginning of August. The new team, led by Canadian businessman Hershey Friedman, and using the corporate…
If Gary Moskowitz gets his way, the answer to that question will be a bulletproof “Yes.” In fact, Moskowitz — who is both a rabbi and a martial arts sensei — dreams of an armed posse in every synagogue. Each congregation, he believes, should include at least five people who are carrying weapons and are…
A San Francisco foundation with a focus on funding Jewish education is giving nearly $11.5 million to Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for individual and cooperative projects. The grant will require these central institutions for training Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis and educators to work together for…
For the first 20 years of her life, Chani Getter was no different from the other girls in the Nikolsburg Hasidic sect in Monsey, N.Y. As the second of five children, she earned good grades at school and had close friends. At age 17, she was introduced to her future husband, also 17, and after…
A bungled ad campaign that urged Israelis to phone a hotline and report details on individual Diaspora Jews whom they fear will assimilate involved an outlay of around $8,000 per name received, the Forward has learned. On September 2, Masa, an Israeli government and Jewish Agency-funded organization, began a 10-day advertising campaign on Israeli television….
Bad enough that my heartbeat went berserk and I had to be hospitalized. But on Rosh Hashanah? And me, an observant Jew?! Not only would I miss the synagogue service I so loved, and not have visitors because they were forbidden to drive, but how could I possibly adhere to the High Holy Day commandments?…
With its Paris-inspired architecture, visiting Argentina has been like traveling to Europe, but wholesale, and who doesn’t love a bargain. Since the 2001 collapse of Argentina’s peso, once equal to the dollar, it’s been a cheap alternative to Euro-land. In this recession, bargains are even more welcome. Of course, Buenos Aires has also long been…
Rabbi Samuel Levine has a problem — and it’s echoing throughout the Jewish day school world. Levine, the head of school at Hillel Day School in Boca Raton, Fla., has seen an increase of more than 20 percent in requests for financial aid from the past year. In 2008-09, the school gave out about $1…
AMBASSADOR JOHN LOEB’S GIFT TO AMERICA AND AMERICA’S JEWISH COMMUNITY On August 24, I finally caught up with Ambassador John Loeb Jr. (who spent the summer in Rhode Island) to chat about the visitors center he built adjacent to Newport’s Touro Synagogue. Honored in July as the “2009 John Clarke Laureate” by the members of the…
The dovish Washington-based Israel lobby J Street is about to take over the Jewish community’s largest likeminded grassroots organization. The anticipated merger of Brit Tzedek V’Shalom with J Street will give the lobby its own national network of volunteers. It is the latest in series of seemingly strategic acquisitions through which J Street — which…
NEWS ITEM: Some Israeli religious authorities are concerned about the recurrence of a problem that came to light last year: the sale of non-kosher shofars. It clearly states in Jewish law That shofars must be free of flaw. Yet thousands flood the market (true!) With imperfections masked by glue. (This means purveyors try to hide…
