From whence my nostalgia for the fourth matzo? A relic of the 1980s, the fourth matzo was added to the already crowded Seder plate as an expression of solidarity with oppressed Jews in the Soviet Union. In most homes, when the ’80s ended and Glasnost took off, the fourth matzo went the way of Betamax,…
One doesn’t expect to see a mezuzah outside a restaurant in the midst of a bustling Harlem street. The block of 116th street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard is lined with bodegas, hardware stores and soul food spots. But upon closer inspection the embellished clay ornament at the light blue store front of Silvana, a café…
Demonstrators in Nairobi, Kenya rally against wave of anti-gay legislation in Africa. Getty Images. The ancient rabbi Hillel famously asked: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” I feel it is important to answer the first two questions…
The shiva period of mourning for Anne Heyman has only just ended, but the American philanthropist’s heartbroken family is already taking concrete steps to make sure her legacy of caring for orphans of Rwanda’s genocide never dies. Heyman’s 19-year-old son, Jonathan Merrin, journeyed to Africa for a month-long stint at the unique youth village Heyman…
The first utility-scale solar power field in East Africa will be built on land belonging to a Jewish-sponsored youth village in Rwanda. The nearly $24 million project was announced Monday by Yosef Abramowitz, the president of Gigawatt Global Cooperatief, which arranged for its financing. Construction has already started on the solar field on land belonging…
An array of U.S. Jewish groups urged Israel’s government to introduce refugee asylum reforms, saying that a major holding facility was indistinguishable from a jail. The letter sent Wednesday to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that Israeli authorities have ordered asylum seekers to move to the Holot facility in Israel’s south. “While…
A compound of one-storey buildings deep in the southern Israeli desert is now home to some 400 African migrants who face the prospect of being held in custody indefinitely. The detainees in what the authorities call an “open” detention centre are allowed to leave for a few hours each day, but given its remote location…
Anne Heyman, a pioneering Jewish philanthropist who founded a youth village for victims of the Rwanda genocide, has died in a Florida horse-riding accident. She was 52. Heyman died after falling from a horse at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in the town of Wellington Friday morning. She was taken to a local hospital…
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