Reconstructionist Judaism is suddenly leaderless, six months into a dramatic effort to save the movement through a reorganization of its key institutions. In the sweeping membership crisis that has rocked North America’s non-Orthodox Jewish denominations in the past decade, perhaps no denomination has faced greater peril than the Reconstructionists. During its half century of existence,…
Los Angeles Jews are reeling from a kosher meat scandal that hit the community on Sunday, just a day before the beginning of Passover. In what The Jewish Journal is calling “the biggest kosher scandal to hit Los Angeles in 20 years,” Doheny Glatt Kosher Meats on Pico Boulevard, in the heart of the city’s…
A decision by the historic but broke Bialystoker Center of Nursing and Rehabilitation on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to accept designation of its building as a landmark now appears to be conflicting with its most pressing moral imperative: paying back wages to its workers. Gary Ambrose, a board member and treasurer at the Bialystoker, told…
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward deputy arts editor Ezra Glinter to discuss the centenary of the publishing of Swann’s Way and why the next 100 years will be filled with centenaries. Then, Forward food editor drops by to give us some hints on how to get through…
When Yityish Aynaw immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel at age 12, she was thrust into an Israeli classroom. An orphan lacking Hebrew skills, Aynaw says she relied on other kids and her own sheer ambition to get through. Ten years later Aynaw, 22, is the first Ethiopian-Israeli to be crowned Miss Israel – a title…
“You’re now a gay American Jew? Are you a Jewish American gay? Are you an American gay Jew?” Jayson Littman pondered his multiple identities. Is it possible to be all three simultaneously? For Littman, it’s a rhetorical question. The 35-year-old financial consultant hosts parties in New York City, where the scene is decidedly gay and…
A controversial documentary on Egypt’s expulsion of its long-resident Jewish population opened despite an initial effort by the Egyptian government to block its release. “Jews of Egypt” opened on March 27 at three movie theaters in Cairo and Alexandria after official permission was first granted, then withdrawn and then granted again. When the initial scheduled…
Supreme Court justices on Wednesday indicated interest in striking down a law that denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a potential swing vote, warned of the “risks” that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) infringes upon the traditional role of the states in defining marriage. The 1996 U.S. law denies…
Former British foreign secretary David Miliband, once tipped as a potential prime minister, said on Wednesday he was leaving politics to boost his brother’s chances of leading the opposition Labour party to victory in an election in 2015. His departure ends speculation he might replace brother Ed Miliband as Labour leader between now and 2015…
As the anonymous protagonist of Frank Stockton?s story ?The Lady or the Tiger?? grew increasingly aware, what lies beyond a portal can make a huge difference. A long tradition of adorning doors with a variety of iconographies reflects artists? understanding of what is at stake in an opaque entrance that obscures and protects what lies…
Everyone loves a centenary. One hundred years might not be more important than 99 or 101, but it?s an occasion to revisit a part of the past we don?t think about every day. Memory doesn?t require a reason ? just an opportunity. With the revolutions, wars and innovations of the 20th century now reaching their…
די „שלום־עליכם לעקציע“ וועט מען קענען הערן אויפֿן אָרט אָדער דורך דער אינטערנעץ.
