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Hasidic Enclave Keeps Its Secrets Amid Elusive Rebbe’s Tight Control
To his hasidim, Rabbi David Twersky is nearly akin to God. But that does not mean he exempts himself from the obligations God imposes on all Jews, at least as traditionalists understand them. Like his followers, Twersky prays to God three times a day. But unlike other Hasidic grand rabbis, Twersky does not pray in…
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Jerusalem Orthodox Seminaries Refund Girls’ Tuition Over Sex Abuse Scandal
(Haaretz) — Following accusations of sex assault and fraud, four religious seminaries in Jerusalem have agreed to refund tuition to 13 American families. The four girls seminaries — Pninim, Binas Bais Yaakov, Chedvas Bais Yaakov and Keser Chaya, which are located in Jerusalem and have a large number of American students — were sued in…
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Chasing Ghosts, Reviving Spirits: The Fall and Rise of Poland’s Jews
By the fourth day of my weeklong reporting trip to Poland, I was struggling to make sense of the crushing contradictions. I had felt the palpable excitement unleashed by the newly opened exhibit at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, a rich, sophisticated retelling of the Jews’ thousand-year sojourn in Poland, built on…
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Jewish and Palestinian Children Learn Together at Jerusalem ‘Greenhouse’ of Coexistence
Rawan Masalha and Inbar Shaked-Vardi were in their ninth-grade geography class earlier this year when a fight began over the name of their textbook, “Israel: Its People and Area.” “The Palestinian students started saying, ‘Why Israel? Why not Palestine?’ They didn’t want to use the book,” recalled Shaked-Vardi, 14, a Jewish student from western Jerusalem….
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What Does the Madoff Name Mean 6 Years Later?
The name of the most reviled member of the American Jewish community hangs in a place of honor in the lobby of the Center for Jewish History, in Manhattan. In a field of plaques commemorating donors to CJH, one stands out. Below etched lines naming the CEO of the World Championship of Ping Pong and…
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Marrying a Buddhist is Marrying Out, Right?
The Seesaw is a new kind of advice column in which a broad range of columnists will address the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. Read the discussion and vote below for what you think is the best response to this particular quandary. You can email your own questions, which will remain…
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Exactly One Jewish Group Supports the Keystone Pipeline. Others Stay Quiet.
A looming decision on one of the most-debated environmental issues in recent years has exposed the Jewish community’s fundamentally different perceptions about what’s at stake: national security for America and for its ally Israel, or the battle against climate change. The American Jewish Committee, one of the largest and most influential Jewish groups, has been…
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Chickenshit: The Sequel
A number of you have written to correct my November 14 column on the use of the word “chickensh–” by an anonymous White House official, in talking to The Atlantic magazine, to describe the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The correctors all make the same point: I was wrong in thinking that “chickensh–” meant cowardly….
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As Chabad Gathers, South Dakota Is Only State Missing
(JTA) — Some 4,200 Chabad rabbis from more than 80 countries are gathering this weekend in New York for the annual conference of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries. In the year since they all last got together to attend workshops, listen to keynote lectures from the likes of former Sen. Joseph Lieberman and pose for their “class picture”…
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Poland Museum Only Tip of Cultural Revival Iceberg
(JTA) — Crowds have been streaming to Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews since its core exhibition opened Oct. 28 at a high-profile ceremony led by the presidents of Poland and Israel. Thousands of visitors have toured the museum’s eight interactive galleries that tell the 1,000-year story of Jewish life in Poland and…
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Pro-Israel Presbyterians Push Back on Divestment
A Presbyterian group took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling on fellow church members to oppose divestment from Israel. “Presbyterians: We can do better than divestment,” read the headline on the ad signed by scores of Presbyterian clergy and laypeople under the rubric of the group Presbyterians for a Just and…
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