23andMe isn’t the only company that conducts mail-order DNA tests that reveal consumers’ ancestry. There’s also MyHeritage, Living DNA and GPS Origins, to name a few. But it’s 23andMe, founded in 2006, whose name is becoming a synonym for spitting in a vial and finding out what percentage of you comes from where. Now the…
Earlier this month, a woman who had broken with ultra-Orthodox Judaism welcomed another ex-Orthodox man into her home in New Jersey. The man had promised to advise her on managing divorce proceedings with young children. He claimed to have been through a similar ordeal, she said. Instead of asking her about her upcoming trial, the…
A few weeks ago, Holly Davies was getting ready to homeschool her kids and preparing the family for the High Holidays. When Hurricane Harvey hit, she helped evacuate 150 people from her neighborhood by airboat and shelter nearly 100 people in a local church. Then came the hard part. For the past three weeks, Davies…
Each year of Barack Obama’s presidency, hundreds of rabbis from all denominations had an annual heart-to-heart with him during a High Holidays conference call. Why is this year different? A coalition representing thousands of rabbis from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements opted out. They said they couldn’t countenance such a connection with Trump after…
The two-state solution, once a cornerstone of American and Israeli policy and official communications, is now so explosive that it cannot be uttered even when the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel meet to discuss the future of the Middle East. “I really believe peace between the Palestinians and Israel…
(JTA) — Here’s the full text of President Donald Trump’s phone conversation with Jewish leaders on Friday, ahead of Rosh Hashanah. JARED KUSHNER: Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining us here today. This is the most special time of the year for the Jewish people. This Wednesday evening begins Rosh Hashanah, the first of…
A campaign calling for the firing of the executive director of the Center for Jewish History over his ties to dovish pro-Israel groups is broadening, even as the organization’s board reaffirms its support for him. A “stream of vituperative emails” to the CJH board condemning David Myers, the prominent academic recently hired to run the…
SHOHAM, Israel (JTA) — Ely Cohen topped off his all-white outfit with a few spritzes of cologne. At sundown, the start of Yom Kippur, such “anointments” would no longer be kosher, and he wanted to be ready for the big night. He had just started dating a girl at his high school, and they had plans…
By selling coffee to Jewish tourists, 18-year-old Yuri Breskov can earn in a week more than his teachers from high school make annually in this provincial city. His revenues peak at $3,000 on the week of Rosh Hashanah, when some 30,000 Israelis and other Jews visit the gravesite of Rabbi Nachman. an 18th-century luminary and…
The firebrand executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, which came to prominence this year through social media attacks on President Trump, has abruptly stepped down from the organization to become a rabbi. Steven Goldstein’s resignation, announced online September 8, was sudden. “Steven’s departure from the Center came at Steven’s request —…
(JTA) — It’s affixed upon the doorpost. It’s wooden, thin and rectangular, but with rounded corners. It’s meant to fulfill a biblical commandment. And it bears a verse from the Gospel of John about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s right: It’s a Christian mezuzah. Karen Goode calls her creation the Doorpost Blessing, and it…
