(JTA) — Every December Elana Snitman’s family gathers at her home, where they decorate a fake pine tree with ornaments, placing gifts underneath to exchange. After gathering for a dinner of chicken, eggplant and beet-and-potato salad, they sing a traditional song about the festive tree and the coming of winter. It’s a sacred tradition for…
We all know that the Christmas tree can become one of the biggest points of contention in intermarried families. It can cause hard feelings, arguments and problems with the kids. In my family, we have navigated this fairly well — until this year, when I have taken it upon myself to ponder whether a fragrant…
(JTA) — Christmas is a day like any other in most Hasidic neighborhoods in New York: Children go to school, shops are open, and tinsel and holly are nowhere to be seen. But Christmas Eve occupies a special place on the Hasidic calendar as a kind of “silent night,” when beit midrash study halls fall…
Anti-Semitic messages were left in the mailboxes of Jewish families in a gated community in South Florida. The messages left in at least two of the mailboxes in Cooper City in Broward County over the weekend read “X-mas is not for the Jews.” The words “not” and “Jews” were underlined, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday….
A group of far-right Jewish activists protested outside the Jerusalem YMCA over an event they believed encouraged Jewish children to decorate Christmas trees. Members of Lehava, a group in Israel that opposes Arab-Jewish coexistence, claimed that Sunday’s event decorating the trees was targeting Jewish children. The event was intended for Jerusalem Christians. “The appeal was…
(JTA) — Director and writer Jonathan Levine (“The Wackness,” “50/50”) may have grown up in Jew-centric Manhattan, yet he recalls feeling somewhat like an alien every Christmas. “I don’t think it was malicious,” Levine, 39, says in a telephone interview with JTA. “But, in a way, I felt like an outsider looking in at the party.”…
Who knew Jews did anything but eat Chinese and go to the movies on Christmas? Seth Rogen has other plans. “Made by Jews, is about Christmas, and opens on Thanksgiving,” Rogen posted about his new movie, “The Night Before,” on Facebook. Aforementioned Jews: Seth Rogen (Isaac) and Joseph Gordon Levitt (Ethan), and Anthony Mackie (Chris)…
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate issued new kashrut guidelines for hotels that are based solely on the food of an establishment and will not take into account other considerations. The guidelines were released last week following a petition by the Israeli NGO Hiddush-For Religious Freedom and Equality that threatened to appeal to the Supreme Court if the…
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