A national push to dismantle memorials that glorify racism might help the Jewish community of Charlotte, N.C. achieve a long-sought goal: the permanent removal of a monument to Judah Benjamin, the most prominent Jewish figure in the Confederate government. Erected in 1948 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the memorial to Benjamin is a…
Professor Zeev Sternhell z”l, one of Israel’s leading intellectuals and political observers, passed away in Jerusalem on Sunday at the age of 85. Sternhell was an internationally acclaimed political scientist renowned for his work on the ideological and historical origins of fascism. His early work focused on strains of fascist thought in France that few…
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Efrahim Kopel Meniuk, the president of the Brazil-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Rio de Janeiro chapter, died of COVID-19 on June 22. He was 82. Born in Brazil to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Meniuk led the institution since early 2019. Founded in 1959, the chamber promotes commercial ties between Latin…
BOSTON (JTA) – Long before he joined the rabbinate, Rievan Slavkin had an ear for music. Born into a musical family and gifted with perfect pitch, Slavkin led the choir at the Pittsburgh synagogue where he grew up and later became the organist for services during his rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati….
Gamal Palmer was 9 years old when he marched into the local synagogue and demanded an appointment with the rabbi. “His secretary looked at me, this little brown child, like, ‘What?’” As the son of a white Jewish mother and a Black father, Palmer was used to these kinds of looks, the ones that consciously…
Updated June 23 In the weeks since protests against racism began after the killing of George Floyd, activists around the world have been toppling statues, either by pressuring public officials or by tearing the monuments down themselves. Activists have naturally focused on memorials to Confederate leaders or others who enacted racist policies, and associate monuments…
Early on in Jim Scheinman’s investment career, a cousin suggested he take a look at a video-conferencing startup called Saasbee. Scheinman liked the company for its social benefit but thought the name was awful. He suggested an alternative, inspired by one of his children’s favorite books: “Zoom City,” which he said conveyed the concepts of…
(JTA) — When Rabbi Meyer Yosef Rottenberg, the leader of the Kosover Hasidic sect, sought to help young families priced out of Brooklyn in Linden, New Jersey, several years ago, he turned to Rabbi Avraham “Bobby” Katz for help. Katz had cycled through a number of jobs in his life already, from postman to stockbroker…
(JTA) — Chaim Gantz didn’t conform to expectations. Born to Israeli immigrants in the ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park in 1970, he attended the more moderate Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and went clean shaven even though he was a dedicated member of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect. After a gap year in yeshiva in Israel, he…
(JTA) — Lester Wax loved cars, but his pride and joy was a 1931 LaSalle that looks like it could have belonged to Daddy Warbucks. Wax purchased the car in the summer of 1969 for $325 and restored it with help from his father, an auto mechanic who owned a couple of gas stations. The…
Four national organizations and three prominent synagogues have signed onto a letter that seized on a national debate about racism to push for change in the Jewish community. The letter commits them to increasing their representation of Jews of color by reserving 20% of board seats for them, among other things. However, the biggest, most…
אַבֿרהם שטערן, אַ פֿרומער ייִד, האָט פֿאַרטראַכט חשבון־מכשירים וואָס האָבן דערפֿירט צום מאָדערנעם קאָמפּיוטערײַ.
