A gay and lesbian synagogue in Chicago was a target of explosive-laden packages from Yemen intercepted by authorities over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Or Chadash, a 100-member congregation whose web site identifies it as “the Chicagoland synagogue serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual Jews, their families, friends and loved ones,” is housed…
Chicago’s first minyan gathered for Yom Kippur in 1845; before then, the 12-year-old city hadn’t been able to muster a prayer quorum of even 10 men. Yet it was only two years later that Chicago welcomed its first rabbi, the Reverend Ignatz Kunreuther, and its first synagogue. This history lesson is displayed in the first…
Rahm Emanuel now has a new topic for introspection—and it comes just in time for Rosh Hashana. Could he become Chicago’s first Jewish mayor? Richard Daley, Chicago’s mayor since 1989, announced today that he won’t seek reelection. “I have always believed that every person, especially public officials must understand when it is time to move…
Divorce is never easy, and mixing in the rules of Orthodox Judaism certainly doesn’t make it easier. But that’s precisely what happened when Laura Derbigney became entangled in a custody battle between her Catholic husband and his Jewish ex-wife over the ex-couple’s 7-year-old son. Derbigney, a Chicago resident, is being forced by a court to…
Jami Attenberg’s new novel “The Melting Season” (Riverhead, 2010) is about a young Nebraska woman who leaves her husband and small town for Las Vegas with a suitcase filled with cash. On the road she meets a very un-small town Nebraska cast of characters — including a cross-dressing Prince impersonator and a cancer-surviving flamboyant woman…
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