Just in time for the new year, several notable firsts have taken place in the world of Jewish women. On Sunday, September 9, the first Torah to have been scribed by a woman was unveiled at Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, located in midtown Manhattan, before being transported to its home at the United Hebrew…
In the world of New York City residential real estate, the list of available luxury amenities continues to grow: The Pierre boasts views of Central Park; The Trump World Tower offers a 60-foot swimming pool; the William Beaver House promises a covered dog run, valet parking and a cinema. But none compares with a slew…
A new report is offering some unexpected insights into the changing patterns of Jewish life on campus. The findings, released in recent weeks by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, give a bird’s eye view of the 60 schools with the largest estimated undergraduate Jewish populations. The state of Florida tops the list, with…
Americans may require their president to be religious, but not necessarily very religious, according to a new study released last week. The survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, found that voters overwhelmingly link perceived religiousness with a positive assessment of candidates, but that the two presidential frontrunners — Democrat Hillary…
Funds End Strange Trip In 1921, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee helped to establish a bank in Vilnius, Lithuania, to assist local Jewish communities reeling from World War I. Now, the JDC is in the unusual position of assisting the remaining Jews of Lithuania with accounts recovered from the bank it helped to establish…
His face is peppered with multiple piercings, his neck is normally padlocked with a thick metal chain, and his dreadlocks are dyed bright orange and blood red. Bram Presser cuts an archetypal punk rock figure — but he does not blend into your average Sabbath-morning crowd. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped an Orthodox synagogue in Australia…
Yom Kippur is a day different from all others. It, alone in the Jewish calendar, is a “Day of Death,” a time when all the normal teachings about honoring the body are, for one day, reversed. On this day, the sanctification of ordinary life and the celebration of the body and the world are undone,…
What can you say about a Jewish music festival that rounds up nine eclectic musical acts, puts them on the same 9-hour bill and then holds the festival the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah? Ambitious, to say the least. When you attract over a thousand people to a festival that combines the Do-It-Yourself aesthetic of the…
In a position paper released to JTA today, Hillary Clinton affirms her belief in Israel’s right to exist with an undivided Jersalem as its capital.
A survey released by the STAR project (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) finds that a plurality of rabbis, from all religious streams, name Hillary Clinton as the presidential candidate most supportive of Israel. Asked which candidate is most supportive of Israel, 41 percent said they were unsure. Clinton polled highest, at 22 percent, followed by former…
Jewish Democrats rushed to call out one of their own on Friday, after Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia – who has raised hackles with previous comments about the “Israel lobby” – went at it again in the latest issue of Tikkun. In the September/October 2007 issue of the magazine, Moran is quoted as having said…
