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The advice comedian Mel Brooks gave to his great nephew Todd Kaminsky, now running for Nassau County DA
Eight years ago, Todd Kaminsky went cross country seeking some advice from his great uncle, the comedian Mel Brooks. Then an assistant U.S. attorney in New York’s Eastern District, Kaminsky was considering running for elected office and wanted to know what Brooks, the younger brother of his grandfather Lenny Kaminsky, thought of the idea. Brooks,…
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Is it safe to attend Rosh Hashanah services? Should kids? Your COVID-19 High Holiday questions, answered.
(JTA) — For the second year, COVID-19 has made it so Jews who want to attend High Holidays services must undergo a complicated risk calculation. Is it safe to go to synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? Should I bring my children? Is the shofar — the horn whose blasts punctuate the holy days — a potential…
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Salsa pioneer Larry Harlow, ‘El Judio Maravilloso,’ dies
Larry Harlow, a Jewish musician who was an architect of New York salsa and a Latin music legend, passed away Friday at the age of 82. Dubbed “El Judio Maravilloso” (The Marvelous Jew) by the extended family of genre-changing Latin musicians at Fania Records, where he was the only non-Latino, Harlow was a passionate, big-hearted…
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10 High Holiday hacks to welcome in 5782
Whether you’re hoping for an in-person holiday or gearing up for a second year of virtual services, this year’s Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur come with unique challenges — and opportunities. Although the COVID-19 Delta variant means some synagogues’ plans are still up in the air, it’s not too early to start thinking about how…
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Why climate anxiety is familiar to some Jews
One morning this spring I was circling the yard behind my apartment on the phone with my therapist. I’d perfected the particular choreography of our virtual sessions. Pacing the largest outside area that didn’t necessitate a mask, I rolled exercise into the process of analyzing my family dynamics or my self-confidence deficit or my gnawing…
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The Crown Heights riots, 30 years later: Insiders recall tense three days between the mayor and the Jewish community
In the summer of 1991, following an accident that killed a young Black child and the fatal stabbing of a Hasidic yeshiva student, tensions erupted between the Jewish and Black communities in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. In the riots that ensued, more than 200 people were injured. Property damage was extensive. Jewish leaders…
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Why only Yiddish and Ladino? Oxford wants to teach you Judeo-Tat and Karaim
When Jews long ago ordered their coffee in Baghdad, gossiped in Derbent or traded recipes in Kurdistan, they did so in Judeo-Arabic, Juhuri and Neo-Aramaic— languages that are all but lost, and with them centuries of unique Jewish history, culture and tradition. Beginning this fall, Oxford University will be offering online classes in nearly a…
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A Chabad campus rabbi is discouraging student vaccinations — against Chabad guidance
Update, August 19: The Amherst Chabad House website no longer displays the message questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and offering to assist people with exemption’s to UMass Amhert’s vaccine mandate. The rabbi in charge of a Chabad House serving the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s 2,000 Jewish students is raising unfounded concerns about COVID-19…
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As Taliban take charge, uncertain future for Afghanistan’s Jewish heritage sites
The simple stone facade of the Yu Aw Synagogue in Herat, a city in western Afghanistan, conceals an elaborate interior, including a blue, hand-painted dome that has in recent years been painstakingly restored by local craftsmen with funding from the newly deposed national government. Jewish sites received attention as part of a push to restore…
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The Anne Frank House chose its first North American partner. Here’s why it’s in South Carolina.
This month, the Anne Frank House opened its fourth partner site, and first in North America, in an unlikely locale: a former alumni house at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Joining existing partners in Buenos Aires, Berlin and London, the Anne Frank Center at UofSC will provide educational programming and exhibits intended…
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The Abraham Accords just turned 1. Here’s how each of the agreements are holding up.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — While most of the foreign policy world is focused on President Joe Biden’s moves in Afghanistan in the wake of the stunning turn of events there, the first anniversary of another important Middle East development quietly took place last week. The first part of the Abraham Accords, the historic cooperation agreements between…
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