On a bright Chicago spring morning, longtime friends and business partners Tamar Fasja Unikel and Elena Vasquez Felgueres ventured out from their Southside home to the northwest side of the city to view a rental space. It’s the first one of many that they planned to visit, as the two are in search of a…
(JTA) — When Rayhan Asat attended a Passover seder last month, its contours seemed familiar and different at once — especially the tradition of leaving a seat empty at the table. It reminded Asat, a lawyer, of leaving a seat empty for her brother, Ekpar, at her graduation from Harvard Law School in 2016. Ekpar,…
One summer in the early 1980s, Shaun Donovan and his sister Justine – both high school students at the time – traveled to Eastern Europe to visit the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. For Donovan, now a candidate for mayor of New York in the June 22 Democratic primaries, visiting the historic sites had a…
(JTA) — Following yet another Israeli election, voters are getting to know an unlikely kingmaker: Mansour Abbas, an Arab-Israeli lawmaker who might be the one to break Israel’s two-year political stalemate. Abbas, head of the United Arab List political party, is not the kind of politician who usually wields power in the Jewish state. He’s…
In their new book, “Raising A+ Human Beings: Crafting a Jewish School Culture of Academic Excellence and AP Kindness,” Dr. Bruce Powell and Dr. Ron Wolfson explore the unique benefits of a learning environment fueled by Jewish values. I experienced the results firsthand, as a former student of de Toledo High School, which Dr. Powell…
With his black Hasidic coat, flat brimmed hat and long beard, Rabbi Yaakov Herzog must look like a strange sight on the streets of Riyadh, but that’s exactly where he is hoping to relocate after years of working with Jewish expats living in Saudi Arabia. No native Jewish community remains in the Arabian kingdom, which…
When Norman Lamm, the longtime leader of Yeshiva University, died last spring at the age of 92, he took his secrets to his grave. Lamm died of natural causes while a defendant in a high-profile sexual abuse lawsuit, before he could be called to testify and provide what the plaintiffs and their lawyer say is…
A group of Jewish educators at UC Berkeley is hoping that an 11-minute, animated explainer video on antisemitism, geared toward college students, university staff and administrators, will help combat ignorance of Jewish history, improve the discourse on issues related to Israel, and better the campus climate for Jewish and pro-Israel students. Released Friday, “Antisemitism in…
A year into the pandemic, every organization has its COVID-19 pivot stories, but some had to pivot harder than others. At Beit T’Shuvah — the Los Angeles-based treatment center that uses a comprehensive program of Jewish spirituality, psychotherapy, and the 12-Steps of recovery – the robust in-person community was always a core part of the…
Two weeks after this piece was published, a flare-up of antisemitic incidents on Clubhouse led the social networking app to announce publicly they had “shut down a number of rooms found to be in violation” of their policies. Those rooms, which were eventually shut down, amassed hundreds of listeners and reportedly included statements about “how…
A prime time-worthy drama has blown up in a posh gated community in West Delray Beach, featuring language that would make the Real Housewives blush, like “stupid shiksa,” “Jewish call girls” and “white supremacist.” The social media-fueled feud pits eight Jewish women of Seven Bridges against a Christian family. The family has filed a $7…
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט
