The board of Temple Sholom in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, was still reeling from the beginning of lockdown. Then, Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp presented her big idea over Zoom: Take the synagogue’s entire $18,000 budget for the Jewish High Holidays and spend it on pre-recorded Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services — and get the…
(JTA via Jewish Press of Pinellas County) — If one were to make a movie about Holocaust survivor Natalie Grauer’s life, picking the most dramatic scene would be difficult. Perhaps it was when a boy she thought was her best friend betrayed her to the Nazis and she was sent to a death camp. Or…
Infighting at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, one of American Jewry’s oldest, biggest communal organizations, has broken into public view again with the release of a letter signed by 16 board members lamenting “breaches of trust” between the board and its current leadership. There are “existential issues” afflicting the board, including a “lack of…
No dancing, sukkah “crawls” or shared shofars, said Her Majesty’s Government — among other decrees handed down on Monday. British Jews have received an extensive list of don’ts and dos for this year’s High Holiday season, covering Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and the festivals of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. The list was released…
Kosher offerings on supermarket shelves in America and Israel might have looked differently this High Holiday season had Rabbi Mendy Chitrik not undertaken a 3000 mile trip around Anatolia, Turkey’s Asian portion, this summer. While it may come as a surprise, despite only 15,000 Jews in the country, Turkey is a major supplier of kosher…
The ad is striking. At the top, it asks, “If You’re Jewish, WHY are you Still Voting Democrat?” It then asserts that a vote for the Democrats is a vote to defund the police and military, permit harassment of pro-Israel and Jewish college students, reinstate the “disastrous Iran nuclear deal” and “turn our American cities…
In less than two weeks, the High Holidays will arrive in the midst of this unprecedented pandemic. While it may be a challenge to engage worshippers, it’s not impossible. This past month, clergy across Judaism’s denominations shared their thoughts on recreating a High Holiday experience without people in the pews. All were confident about conveying…
Even as they struggle to help families hit hard by the coronavirus and the economic downtown, Jewish organizations in California and the Pacific Northwest are mobilized — once again — to help victims of the wildfires that have devastated large swaths of region. “The mood and tone here?” said Marc Blattner, president and chief executive…
The leading Orthodox advocacy and religious authority has released a rabbinical decree ahead of the High Holidays that contains no mention of masks or social distancing, in contrast to the organization’s previous statement, which called on congregations to be careful at large gatherings. The decree, or Kol Korei, was written by a group of 15…
When the statue of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth was unveiled in Central Park, becoming the first statue in Central Park to honor historical women, the Jewish couple largely responsible for making it happen watched the proceedings via Livestream from their home in La Jolla. The former longtime New Yorkers couldn’t…
Rachel and Shlomi Elkriaf went on a trip to Laughlin, Nevada with a group of friends on Memorial Day Weekend. It was an annual tradition that they decided to continue despite the looming threat of coronavirus. After a few months of staying home due to the pandemic, they wanted a vacation. A couple of days…
