How I rustled up a minyan to say kaddish on Capitol Hill
As the Democrats’ chief deputy whip, Rep. Deborah Wasserman Schultz herds her colleagues for key votes. So I figured she could rustle up nine Jews.
Kaddish
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Community ‘Let us consider this woman’: Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg
This is the message I shared with my congregation during this past weekend’s Rosh Hashanah services, before we said the mourner’s Kaddish for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and from the Congress floor today. We have to resist what may be our first impulse over the loss of Justice Ginsburg – the political horror of it….
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Community I always sang for my father
My father, a fan of life, music and his home state politician Joe Biden, died soon after the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Delaware — although fortunately not of Covid-19. He was felled by “natural causes,”also known as the physical vicissitudes of old age. Dad’s death was not unexpected, but because of the…
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Opinion The Jewish Prayer That Guided – And Defined – Our Coverage Of The Pittsburgh Massacre
A writer searches for the right language to mourn those slain in the Pittsburgh synagogue
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The Schmooze Natalie Portman Hypes Nathan Englander With Titillating Picture Of His Book
On reality star Khloe Kardashian’s Instagram page, she hawks for Flat Tummy Co. shakes, a laxative-based meal replacement product. On his page, DJ Khaled posts paid ads for sparkling wine. And on Jewish actress Natalie Portman’s Instagram, she peers out coquettishly behind a new piece of fiction by a man who once began a New…
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Community What I’ve Learned About Life Preparing Jewish Bodies For Death
It’s a crisp autumn day in Madison, Wisconsin, and I’m running late for a meeting with a dead person. I volunteer with my congregation’s Chevra Kadisha, a group that helps prepare Jewish bodies for burial and ensures that every congregant has company from the moment they’ve passed away until the last clump of dirt covers…
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Life The Prayer For My Mother That Made Me A Better Man
I am not a Jew who prays three times a day, in the morning, afternoon and evening as proscribed by Jewish law. Not like my wife’s four religious cousins who live with their large families in Israel. Not even like my Modern Orthodox brother in Jerusalem, who often dons a baseball cap and finds time…
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News The Day My Mormon Bishop Neighbor Asked for a Minyan
It began with a phone call on a cold winter day in January 1998. The purpose of the call, from a neighboring Mormon bishop I’d never spoken with before, was unusual: He was requesting a minyan. As president of a small lay-led congregation in Idaho Falls, Idaho — one of the only two Jewish congregations…
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Yiddish צי קען מען בײַטן די הלכה־דעפֿיניציע פֿון אַ ייִד?Can one’s Jewish identity be halachically redefined?
זעלטענע גמרא־דעות, וואָס זענען אָפּגעוואָרפֿן געוואָרן אָדער אָנגענומען בלויז אין געוויסע קרײַזן, קאָנען זײַן אַ סכּנותדיקער קוואַל פֿון קאָנטראָווערסיעס.
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Fast Forward Artists are boycotting Finland’s national gallery over an Israeli billionaire on its board
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News Ukrainian Jewish life has always taken place in Russian. Now a race to translate is underway.
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Culture As Time’s Person of the Year, Zelenskyy joins a short list of Jews, and a longer list of antisemites
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Events
Haart to Haart
Virtual
Dec 7, 2022
7 pm ET ·
A conversation with Julia Haart and her son Shlomo, stars of Netflix's 'My Unorthodox Life,' about the new season and much more.