● Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition by Gary A. Anderson Yale University Press, 232 pages, $30 Charity, as an old joke puts it, sometimes does begin at home, but it always begins with an annoying phone call. But Jews, with their high rates of charitable giving, have often been eager…
What’s the best way to squeeze charitable dollars out of Jews? A new study suggests it could be to make sure that they’re involved in a Jewish community. Jewish charities complain that shrinking donor pools and tighter-fisted younger Jews are threatening the viability of the Jewish not-for-profit ecosystem. Yet a September 3 study from Jumpstart,…
There won’t be any skydiving for 92-year-old Aaron Rosloff this year. He spent his past two birthdays jumping out of planes as part of a fundraising mission for the South Brunswick Food Pantry in New Jersey. He planned to celebrate his 92nd birthday, July 3, with a third jump, but after he broke his ankle…
A Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox rabbi and purported do-gooder is under investigation for allegedly running 20 phony not-for-profit organizations to solicit funds from donors. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office issued a subpoena on June 7 to Rabbi Yaakov Weingarten of Brooklyn demanding he provide proof of legal incorporation, bank records, expenditures since 2007, and…
An organization that declared its intent to bring transparency to charitable donations in Syrian Sephardic Jewish communities has gone silent three years after its inception. Shortly after the July 2009 arrests of three prominent Sephardic rabbis who had used charity funds in a money-laundering scheme, the Sephardic Community Federation instituted a compliance plan for charitable…
Israel is prepared to attack Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel’s air force chief said on Wednesday. Major-General Amir Eshel also said Israelis should brace for a protracted and painful conflict should their forces engage in combat with Hezbollah or its…
When Moti Kahana first approached a local synagogue in New Jersey, asking to come and speak about the plight of Syrian refugees, the response was skeptical. “Are you sure about this?” he was asked. “Who is it we’re going to help there?” But, as the enthusiastic Israeli-born American Jew tells the story, reaction quickly changed…
Whether it was implicitly or explicitly taught to me, I don’t remember, but somehow, I always knew: The people who hold the Torahs during the reading of the Kol Nidre prayer are the congregation’s big machers. A few years ago, as I stood at Kol Nidre, my eyes swept over the bimah. Even I, a…
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