Philip Roth?s boyhood house is ugly. It?s a three-story home in the Newark, N.J., neighborhood of Weequahic, just a couple of blocks from the local high school. The siding on the upper stories is a greenish yellow. Unlit Christmas lights are strung between the bars on the lower- story windows. A hefty iron gate covers…
“Just back from a year in Israel, I was fired up with a newly revived Jewish identity in a city full of outreach institutions ready to embrace young seekers and turn them frum. But Rabbi Goldstein showed me that it was possible for a smart liberal rabbi to care deeply about individual students and model…
“I am 81 years old and when I finish Rabbi Plotkin’s class each week, I feel as if I have been studying with a lamed-vavnik. Not only has my mind expanded, but my spirit as well. He is non-judgmental, respectful and deeply inspiring. His work with UM Hillel has been exceptional, bringing Judaism and inspiration…
“I have worked as Rabbi Goodman’s assistant for nine years, and he has made a huge impact on my life. I had pretty much moved away from my Jewish roots over the years, but I was convinced by a colleague to come to shul one Friday night to hear Rabbi Goodman speak — and I…
“Rabbi Joseph Potasnik made his most significant impact on his community as well as on our nation on 9/11. As a New York City fire chaplain, he spent countless hours and days at ground zero searching for survivors as well as comforting and praying with the grieving families. He never once asked the families what…
‘Our largest archaeological project ever” is how Israel’s national museum has described its new exhibition featuring King Herod. James Snyder, the museum director, proudly announced that no fewer than 30 tons of material have been brought from one archaeological site alone — Herodion, one of Herod’s palaces and the location of his recently discovered tomb….
Twenty-nine years have passed since Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and I last exchanged glances in that Manhattan hotel room at the Regency. Now that he’s commencing a third term as Israel’s prime minister — a record matched only by founding father David Ben-Gurion — I can’t help but reminisce. Twenty-nine years, and not one phone call…
For many years — centuries —Passover was the scariest time of the year for Jews because it more or less coincides with Easter. “That’s the time when people would do their Passion plays,” writer and rabbi Abby Sosland said. Those gruesome re-enactments of the Crucifixion did not exactly enhance Christian-Jewish relations, and Sosland said, “There…
Drawing on her last reserves of energy, Merilyn Papernick, a terminal cancer patient, reached out to some local Hasidic Jews in her hometown of Toronto to place a special Passover order: Could they get her gluten-free oat matzo for the upcoming holiday? Papernick, who was 65, suffered from celiac disease, a digestive illness that prevented…
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras vowed to crack down on neo-Nazi groups in a landmark speech marking the 70th anniversary of the first deportations of Thessaloniki’s Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Samaras spoke Sunday at a memorial ceremony at the city’s Monastiriotes Synagogue, the first-ever visit by a sitting prime minister to a synagogue…
As executive director of The David Project, a pro-Israel advocacy group, David Bernstein has spent years urging Jews to raise their voices and take a stand. Recently, though, Bernstein felt isolated when he was told that his 7-year-old son, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, no longer fits into the plans of the Washington-area Jewish…
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