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Boundaries Blur Between Jews and Christians in Shocking Ways
Are you Jewish or Christian? Increasingly, Americans seem to be checking both boxes, according to the 2013 Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews. It’s not just that a lot of Jews have Christmas trees, though 32% say they do; it’s that 34% of Jews said that they think being Jewish is compatible with believing…
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A (Mixed) Blessing on My Jewish Head
When I worked at a Catholic college, the nuns were forever blessing me, even when I hadn’t sneezed. The nuns’ blessings were like a warm, fuzzy blanket on a cold winter night. During my seven years at the college, I came to admire the dedication and selflessness of the sisters. I considered it the highest…
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Caryl Stern Believes in Zero
Each year on Yom Kippur, Caryl Stern mourns her father at Yizkor, the traditional prayer chanted to honor lost loved ones. In 2008, she also prayed for Fatima, a 6-day-old infant in Sierra Leone whom Stern watched die because the vaccine needed to save her life was unavailable to her. This year, Stern, president and…
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Kenya Jews Stunned by Bloody Westgate Mall Terror Attack in Nairobi
(JTA) — When Rina Attias phoned to say that she was trapped with terrorists inside Nairobi’s Westgate mall, her husband Albert replied with a short instruction: Hang up right now. Albert Attias, the head of the Jewish community in the Kenyan capital and an Israeli military veteran, wanted to communicate with his wife by text…
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Israel Gutman, Warsaw Ghetto Fighter and Historian, Dies at 90
Israel Gutman, Israel’s most prominent survivor historian, died in Jerusalem on October 1. A native of Warsaw, Gutman was only a teenager when the Germans invaded his Poland. His parents and his older sister died in the Warsaw ghetto; his younger sister was part of the famed Janusz Korczak orphanage, led by the charismatic pediatrician…
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Memorial Planned for Jewish Mother Killed by Car on Yom Kippur
A memorial service for the Jewish woman who died crossing a busy Florida street on Yom Kippur will be held on October 6 in Jacksonville — as officials ponder ways to improve safety at for observant Jews at the perilous intersection. Esther Ohayon, 57, was walking to synagogue with her daughter when a Toyota Camry…
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Jewish Leaders Fret About Impact of Government Shutdown
Like many other Americans, Jewish communal leaders in Washington spent the last couple of days trying to figure out how to work around the government shutdown — and how it may affect them and their work. For the Jewish federation of Detroit, news from D.C. about the shutdown led to a decision to cancel the…
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Can Orthodox Buck Movement Toward More Liberal Branches of Jewish Faith?
Ron Rosenblatt’s parents grew up Orthodox. Ronsenblatt had his bar mitzvah in a Conservative synagogue. His children were raised as Reform Jews. Rosenblatt, 71, a dentist in Los Angeles, now attends a Reform synagogue a few miles from the Orthodox congregation where his parents were married. His trajectory is typical for an American Jew, the…
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Conservative Jews Shrug Off Evidence of Dramatic Decline in Landmark Pew Study
Conservative Jewish leaders brushed off evidence that their denomination is dramatically shrinking that appeared in the new Pew survey of Jewish America. Denominational officials said that the data, which showed that just 11% of young Jews identify with Conservative Judaism, confirmed what the movement already knows about the problems its facing. Some said that the…
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Apparent Suicide of Ex-Hasidic Woman Deb Tambor Sparks Funeral Chaos
Confusion and controversy marred the funeral of a mother of two said to have committed suicide after leaving her Hasidic community and being denied access to her children. Friends and family of Deb Tambor, a former resident of the ultra-Orthodox community of New Square, in upstate New York, believe she killed herself on Friday, September…
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London’s New American-Style JW3 Community Center Opens to Great Expectations
(JTA) — At his office in London’s newly opened, $80 million Jewish community center, Raymond Simonson fumbles with a state-of-the-art telephone switchboard. “Sorry, I’m embarrassed, but we’ve only just moved into our offices,” says Simonson, the 40-year-old boss of London’s first American-style JCC, which opened Sunday. “Now the article will say ‘New CEO can’t even…
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