What happens when a ritual designed to remove sin might itself generate sin? That was the thorny question asked by rabbis who met in Brooklyn earlier this month in preparation for this year’s High Holy Days. The ritual in question is kapparot, a practice generally performed during the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur…
As the Conservative movement is seeking to reenergize its ranks, a swath of its members is mourning the sudden loss of the New York City area’s only Conservative Jewish high school. Less than two weeks before the Metropolitan Schechter High School in Teaneck, N.J., was set to begin the academic year, the board announced to…
In our tradition, we often compare God to a parent, and ourselves to clueless, wayward children. Our expectations about God’s parenting can teach us a lot about our own responsibilities as Godlike figures (uh, sometimes) to our own children. As Rosh Hashanah approaches and we begin the introspection and self-inventory that are as much a…
Rabbi Judah Nadich, an adviser to Dwight Eisenhower on Jewish affairs and later a prominent New York rabbi, died Sunday. He was 95. Born in Baltimore in 1912, Nadich was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1937. In 1942, he enlisted as a chaplain in the Army and was the first American rabbi to…
The Jewish New Year should be about spirituality, about Jews’ aspirations to be better people than they were the year before, about their hopes to find and stick to the righteous path. But like most other Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah is really about a little bit of theology and a whole lot of food. And…
Challah comes in many forms, and when preparing for Rosh Hashanah, Jewish cooks often follow the custom of their ancestors by adding raisins to their golden round holiday loaves. The practice originated among Ashkenazic Jews, and much like dipping apples in honey, it signifies hope for a sweet New Year. “The tradition probably began in…
These aren’t your mother’s honey dishes, but the New Year is the perfect time to try something new. These six pieces from the United States and Israel range from sleek to funky and breathe new life into the holiday table. Like Rosh Hashanah guests, each with different customs and traditions, these dishes can add a…
HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR TELLS OF RESCUE BY BRITISH POWS Doris Schechter, a Vienna-born restaurateur, was kvelling at the August 14 launch of her cookbook-cum-memoir, “At Oma’s Table” (Berkley Pub. Group), held at her Manhattan restaurant, My Most Favorite Food. The crowd included journalist Ruth Gruber, who in 1944 accompanied 1,000 World War II refugees from Italy,…
Jerusalem – After an acrimonious summer-long debate about Israel’s treatment of its Holocaust survivors, the Israeli government inked a controversial deal Sunday that will provide millions of dollars in financial aid to some survivors. The plight of Israel’s Holocaust survivors, of whom there are estimated to be 260,000, has been on public display since the…
It has been a long, hot, difficult summer for Abraham Foxman. Faced with the fight of his professional life, the indefatigable director of the Anti-Defamation League was forced into a rare and reluctant retreat by the unlikeliest of adversaries: an ethnic minority charging one of the world’s most famous Holocaust survivors with suppressing recognition of…
When they initially visited Chautauqua 30 years ago, Joe Rait and his family were among the very few Jewish people vacationing in this mainly Christian community of southwestern New York State. Now, not only has the number of Jews in Chautauqua increased, but Jewish residents are also about to get a space to call their…
