(JTA) — Yair Shahak of New York City was one of two winners of the International Adult Bible Contest in Jerusalem. Shahak, 28, representing the U.S., shared the honor with Israeli Yafit Silman, according to Ynet News. Shahak’s wife, Yaelle Frohlich, was also a finalist in the competition, representing Canada. The contest ended on Dec. 28….
Gil and Jenna Lewinsky, a Canadian Jewish farming couple, had a different sort of aliyah in mind when they loaded more than 100 sheep on a cargo plane for Israel, animals they said hail from Biblical times. “You know that Israel is built on Jewish people returning. Now you have a case of an animal…
On the way home from the funeral, we discussed Amalek. It was Purim time, 1996. Israel was living through one of its worst spates of terrorism in years. Two students, Matt Eisenfeld and Sarah Duker, boarded a bus together and were killed, along with 24 other people. Matt was my friend. He and Sara were…
I am responding in this series to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” (August 12, 2016). So far, we have looked at Eve as “he”, Noah repairing to “her” tent,…
I’m acquainted with at least three people who voted for Donald Trump. I’m thinking of these three because of the way I came to know them – as fellow volunteers at a homeless shelter. I met the first many years ago, when we were serving food to homeless children at a Manhattan synagogue. The kids…
A once-soaring 80-foot-high city gate and shrine from the 8th century BCE was discovered in the Tel Lachish archaeological park in south-central Israel, the site of an ancient city that was second to Jerusalem in importance. According to archaeologists, artifacts in the shrine appear to bolster a biblical story about how ancient worship was centralized…
The Republican Party’s new platform calls for teaching the Bible as literature in public schools. But which Bible, exactly, would the Republicans approve of? The idea of the Bible taught in public schools has a fraught Constitutional history. For the Jewish community, it can bring back memories of “prayer in the schools” or mandatory participation…
The Days of Awe are rich in opportunity for Jewish feminists who see themselves as activists for transformation, both personal and collective. It is striking, even ironic, that on the first day of Rosh Hashana we read the story of a catastrophic feminist failure. Sarah and Hagar are rival wives; one has what the other…
מאַטי מענדלאָוויטשעס ברודער, וואָס האָט יאָרן לאַנג געליטן פֿון דעפּרעסיע, האָט הײַיאָר זיך גענומען דאָס לעבן. .
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