Senator Ted Cruz got a “pretty cool” comment about his beard from a rabbi. Cruz tweeted on Wednesday that his friend in Israel, who is studying at a yeshiva, told him that his rabbi had some strong words to say about his facial hair. “’It gives Cruz a Talmudic & Rabbinic look & presence that…
(JTA) — On a recent Friday, Eitan Press stood in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market offering to apply balm to the beards of passers-by. Press was hoping they would get hooked on his product, an ointment that comes in a variety of Jewish-themed scents, including the popular Sukkot (myrtle, lemon, lemongrass and mint) and Havdalah (clove…
Israel’s long-running struggle to balance modern standards with Jewish tradition has come to a head in the military, where new orders curtailing beards among soldiers have met protests from some rabbis. Many Orthodox Jewish men go unshaven, a religious observance that Israel’s armed forces accommodates. But in recent years, many secular soldiers have also grown…
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas on his beard length in a case that drew Orthodox Jewish support. In the ruling Tuesday in favor of inmate Gregory Holt, written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court said Arkansas failed to show why it was unable to allow the half-inch…
The U.S. Air Force is swearing in its first bearded chaplain, a rabbi. Rabbi Elie Estrin, the director of a Chabad House on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, will be sworn in Wednesday at McCord Air Force Base in the state, Chabad.org, a news website of the movement, reported. The military only this…
Who are you and what have you done with Saul? “Homeland” star Mandy Patinkin stunned his fans this week when he showed up on “LIVE with Kelly and Michael” without the beard that has almost become a character in its own right. “How can I run my fingers through your facial hair?” cried Kelly (raise…
Eilenberg trimmed his beard on Tuesday and did not leave home until Friday. It was his wife, my good friend Gitty, who put an end to it — she who could not understand him. “You wanted to trim your beard for over a year,” she screamed, exasperated. “Why are you crying now like you lost…
No one noticed Matisyahu when he climbed onstage at a downtown Manhattan concert venue in early January, drinking a cup of tea under dark red lights. It wasn’t until the onetime Hasidic reggae superstar took off his fleece cap, revealing a velvet yarmulke, that fans connected the gaunt, stubble-faced man with the yeshiva boy who…
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