William Davidson, a businessman and Jewish philanthropist for whom the Jewish Theological Seminary’s graduate school of education is named, died on Friday, March 13. Davidson, 86, was the owner of three professional sports teams, including the Detroit Pistons, a National Basketball Association franchise. According to a statement released by the Detroit Pistons, Davidson died with…
Once a generation, every 28 years, Jews recite the Blessing of the Sun, the same prayer that is said upon seeing majestic mountains, seas, rivers and deserts: “Blessed are you, our God, King of the Universe, who effects the work of creation.” This is the moment that Jewish tradition says the sun returns to the…
A group of presidents of Conservative synagogues is threatening rebellion, and even possibly secession, if the Conservative movement’s congregational arm does not make prompt and dramatic structural changes, the Forward has learned. In a letter addressed to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s president and to the organization’s professional head and board, the synagogue presidents…
I promise I will have more recipes from my CSA in the next few days (here’s a hint: collard greens) but today I want to take a break from the veggies to share something really outstanding! Last weekend my boyfriend and I had one of his old friends over for a bit of a feast,…
An employment dispute at a Midwestern state university has bubbled into a national cause célèbre in the world of Jewish studies, drawing in some of the field’s leading lights. The University of Cincinnati’s decision to discipline and attempt to fire Mark Raider, a tenured professor of modern Jewish history and, until recently, chairman of the…
Jews who say they were sexually abused as children by their rabbis are seeking to tip the balance in favor of a long-stalled bill that would extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in New York State — legislation that could have far-reaching impact on some Orthodox communities as they struggle with emerging…
It is an Obama revolution that has gone by virtually unremarked. In the space of one week, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have knocked down no fewer than five long-standing pillars of American foreign policy from the Bush years and earlier, leaving Israel and other countries affected to confront a transformed…
Conservative Judaism is being roiled by potentially tectonic changes that could lead to both new leadership for the movement and structural changes in how the movement’s organizations work. After a months-long search, the movement’s congregational arm, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, has selected Steven Wernick, 41, a Philadelphia area rabbi, as its new executive…
What would be a fair punishment for Bernard Madoff? Life in prison is considered probable for Madoff, who pleaded guilty Thursday to 11 criminal charges. But that’s just for starters. How about toilet-cleaning duty in the slammer, a job as a Wal-Mart greeter or simply oblivion? Those are some suggestions from victims of Madoff’s Ponzi…
On the day known as Ta’anit Esther — when observant Jews fast before Purim — more than 150 members of Los Angeles’s close-knit Orthodox community gathered for a protest rally outside the family home of a man they claim has refused to grant his wife a Jewish divorce, known as a get. They chanted and…
Henry Tylbor, one of the youngest survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and a survivor of Budzyn and other camps, died February 24 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 79. According to his wife, Wendy Gittler, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 15 years ago. Born in Warsaw, Tylbor was 13 years old in…
דעבאָראַ בראָדי, אַ לערערין פֿון קינדער מיט ספּעציעלע באַדערפֿענישן, האָט זיי געלאָזט אָנטאַפּן די זאַכן.
