(JTA) — Ernesto Bernardo Teicher was a builder — both of buildings in the Argentinean city of Cordoba, and of its Jewish institutions. Teicher was one of the leading real estate developers in Cordoba, the second-most populous city in the country. He was also a former president of JCC Centro Union Israelita and the local…
When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered synagogues across the nation a year ago, many congregations that previously avoided technology use on Shabbat embraced live-stream and video conferencing as the only viable and safe solution to maintaining community. Now, for many, the needle has moved, and post-pandemic, synagogues intend to keep those options available indefinitely. “I have…
(JTA) — When it comes to consuming matzah, the Jews of the former Soviet Union are in a league of their own. At the top of the chart are Azerbaijan’s 8,000 Jews, who this year are expected to consume 10 tons of the unleavened bread cracker that Jews eat on the week of Passover to…
Each week, Forward editors pick highlights from our coverage to savor over Shabbat and Sunday. You can download and print a PDF of those stories by clicking here, or click on any of the headlines below. Have a great weekend! Your Weekend Reads. (You can download and print a PDF of these stories by clicking…
When professor Bryan Kirschen was asked to set up an online Ladino course by the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America last spring, he thought he would get a handful of students. Instead, he got hundreds. “It was incredible,” said Kirschen, professor of Spanish and Linguistics and co-director of the Ladino Collaboratory at Binghamton University in…
Read this article in Yiddish During a Hasidic teenager’s first day at a new Brooklyn yeshiva last year, the head of the school approached him to talk about arranging his marriage. “He told me, ‘Wow, you’re so cute. You’re going to find a girl fast,’” said the former student, who spoke on the condition of…
Gideon Taylor was selected to succeed JCRC’s longtime executive Rabbi Michael Miller, who is stepping down in June after more than 36 years
Boycotting Israel and calling for an end to its Jewish majority is not inherently antisemitic, according to a new definition of antisemitism released Thursday by a group of more than 200 scholars of Jewish studies. The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism represents the latest salvo in the debate over how to define anti-Jewish bigotry and is…
The Bene Israel, India’s largest Jewish community, doesn’t call Passover Passover. The word in their language, Marathi, is “Anashi Dhakaicha San,” which means “The Holiday of the Closing of the Anas.” San is the word for holiday, and anas refers to a sour liquid in a pot. It makes sense that the Marathi word for…
The Biden administration is hosting a virtual Passover Seder open to the general public on Thursday in a move to expand its outreach to the broader American Jewish community, the White House told the Forward on Wednesday. Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and a Member of the Tribe, is expected to…
Two anthropologists have discovered that the heartbeats of those who practice Sufism, a mystical dimension of the Islamic faith, beat in tandem during a communal ritual in which all of the congregants join in deep meditation or an ecstatic trance. Rabbis and cantors told the Forward they were not surprised. “Anyone who has been at…
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