It’s incredibly difficult to fully explain what it feels like to be in Texas right now. For one, I’m not sure which hat I’m wearing. I’m a homeowner, wife, and mother, so obviously I’m concerned about my family and the place I live. But I’m also a local resident who cares about community. So I’m…
Shortly after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York managed to enrage much of the Jewish community with a single tweet. After witnessing a large funeral in the Orthodox neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last April, de Blasio warned “the Jewish community, and all communities” that police would…
Yosef Abramowitz has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his groundbreaking work bringing solar power to the African continent. Today, he’s known as Israel’s solar pioneer — sometimes dubbed “Captain Sunshine” — but at heart, Abramowitz sees himself as what he’s always been: A Jewish educator. “I still see myself as a…
President Joe Biden engaged in a rare moment of kvelling during a live broadcast of a CNN town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. “I actually know some Yiddish,” Biden revealed during an exchange with a Jewish member of the audience. The light remark came after the president was introduced to Joel Berkowitz, a foreign…
It’s snowing in Israel — really snowing, not just a dusting that melts the second it touches the ground. By Wednesday afternoon, white powder had already dusted the Golan Heights and Tzfat; the weather system is expected to hit Jerusalem by the evening. Accumulation of about a foot is expected in the north, and up…
A year ago, Bruce Backman was on track for a record year in the Passover travel business. Reservations were almost sold out and the phones were ringing off the hook. But that was before the coronavirus brought everything to a dead stop, said Backman, owner of pesachinthesoutheast.com. Some operators went bankrupt, others are still in…
The killing of George Floyd and the economic devastation of COVID-19 have sparked a resurgence of Jewish engagement with the Black community. There is an opportunity to build on a century of civil rights work and philanthropy. In the early 20th century, Julius Rosenwald contributed to building more than 5,300 schools for Black children and…
Standing outside of a clinic in East Jerusalem, Rashdi Jasser seemed worried. While Jasser, 47, was eager to get the COVID-19 vaccine, he said that many of his fellow construction workers have dismissed government warnings about the dangers of coronavirus, calling it “nonsense” and refusing to wear masks. “The corona is difficult and I need…
RAANANA, Israel (JTA) – What caught Crystal Frant’s eye about the Rastafari skater she spotted on the beach outside Rio de Janeiro back in 2006 wasn’t his muscular body or his dreadlocks. It was the hand-sized Star of David among his several tattoos. “Do you think he’s Jewish?” she asked a friend with excitement. The…
Jews may be the “chosen people,” but when it comes to Jewish education, adults with disabilities have often been left out. Coinciding with Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, the Marcus JCC of Atlanta’s Lisa F. Brill Institute for Jewish Learning offers inclusive education classes through the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning virtually…
How will America memorialize the victims of COVID-19? Two stone benches and a granite memorial placed in the middle of a Jewish cemetery outside Boston provide one possible answer. The markers, placed by the the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts and dedicated last July, are among the country’s very first memorial’s to the pandemic’s victims…
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט
