Lakewood, N.J., is a famously devout and rapidly growing town centered around the biggest yeshiva outside Israel — Beth Medrash Govoha. Its citizens devote their lives to fulfilling the Torah’s dictates, including the one many consider to be the first: be fruitful and multiply. When the onset of New Jersey’s strict social-distancing rules meant to…
At least 100 people gathered Friday outside of the the Chabad Lubavitch’s headquarters in Brooklyn to pay their respects to a rabbi who passed away earlier in the day. Rabbi Aharon Yaacov Schwei, 86, was a prominent figure in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Jewish community and held many top roles within the Chabad organization. Despite…
Georgia’s governor is in a hurry to reopen his state. Atlanta’s Jewish community, not so much. “No one is calling us frantic to reopen,” said Robert Wittenstein, president of Temple Emanu-el of Greater Atlanta. Earlier this week, Georgia’s Republican Brian Kemp announced he wanted Georgia to reopen—to the surprise of business leaders and mayors across…
(JTA) — Avraham Yeshayahu Heber, an Israeli rabbi whose charity facilitated hundreds of kidney transplants, died of the coronavirus. Heber died April 23 in Jerusalem. He was 55. Heber was the founder of Matnat Chaim (Hebrew for “gift of life”), an organization started in 2009 that matches kidney donors with transplant patients. The organization is…
Masbia Soup Kitchen has partnered with Mordy Getz, the owner of Eichler’s Judaica Bookstore, to offer free groceries to any Boro Park family which has lost a breadwinner to coronavirus. The novel coronavirus has devastated tight-knit Hasidic communities in New York. And for families, grief over a parent’s death is compounded by anxiety about fulfilling…
Jewish Community Center leaders predict most JCCs will end up cutting more than 90% of employees by the end of the pandemic. But the sector has seen one bright spot over the past few weeks: More than 80% of the JCCs that applied for loans from the Small Business Administration were approved, according to data…
Updated April 28 When the coronavirus starts to recede, Jewish life across the United States will look a lot like it already does in Fargo. Only 150 Jews live in the biggest city in North Dakota, but it’s one of the few places in the country where the governor hasn’t ordered people to stay home,…
What do you do if you own Los Angeles’ premier independent cinema chain and the coronavirus pandemic shuts down all your theatres? You show movies, of course. That’s what Greg Laemmle, chief executive officer of his family-owned Laemmle Theatres, has taken to doing at the theatre’s web site. “My family has been in this business…
(JTA) — DENVER (Intermountain Jewish News via JTA) — Theodore “Ted” Paul Ruskin, whose activism mirrored the evolving face of Jewish Denver, died of COVID-19 on April 7, 2020, at the Medical Center of Aurora. He was 76. Rabbi Avraham Mintz officiated at an April 12 graveside service at Mt. Nebo Cemetery. Feldman Mortuary made…
In the weeks after Passover, the phones are usually ringing at Jewish organizations supporting domestic violence victims. For observant Jews, the eight-day festival entails a significant financial burden, an increase in household and childcare responsibilities, and long periods of time spent in the home — all factors that can exacerbate or catalyze domestic abuse. This…
(JTA) — Yom Kippur had just ended and as the members of his synagogue prepared to go home to eat after a long day of fasting, Alex Klein walked up to the Holy Ark and, placed his hand on it, and began speaking directly to God. He stood that way for the better part of…
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