Across the United States, there will be re-enactments and parades, cannon salutes and speeches. The U.S. Postal Service plans to issue a commemorative stamp, while the Massachusetts Historical Society will display the pen Abraham Lincoln used on Jan. 1, 1863, to formally declare millions of slaves free. But the star of next week’s 150th anniversary…
From nailing pimps to cracking down on forced labor, Israel is doing a much better job of preventing so-called human trafficking, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of State. Trumpeting successes like the convictions of a pimp who sold Eastern European women into sex slavery for $5,000, Israeli officials say they are…
Jewish reaction to President Obama’s declaration of support for same-sex marriage was swift. Liberal Jewish groups, including Hadassah and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, praised the president’s statement, and the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center declared, “History will regard the president’s affirmation of this core right for the LGBT community as a key moment…
Why was the night of April 4 different from all other nights in Tel Aviv? Because the illegal immigrants who ordinarily collect the city’s trash, wash dishes in its restaurants, and clean floors in its hotels, sat as Israelis served them dinner. For Africans who have come to Israel — some 50,000 since 2005 —…
President Obama is looking forward to “a good bowl of matzo ball soup,” at the fourth annual White House Seder on Friday. Obama sent out his Passover greeting on Thursday, in which he speaks not only about his love for Passover dishes, but also on the meaning of the exodus story and the search for…
During the Seder, some Jews have the custom of going around the table and imagining themselves as Hebrew slaves in Egypt during the Exodus. They describe their respective slave jobs — bricklayer, house slave, mortar mixer — and how they feel about their impending freedom. The game illuminates the Seder’s insistence that had God not…
Bo – Go In Exodus 10:1–13:16 This week the story of the Exodus reaches its climax. The last plagues come down on Pharaoh and his house. The gates of Egypt are thrown open wide and “my people go.” Thus the Middle Eastern drama of days gone by, whose echoes still spark the imaginations and shape…
This year’s Man Booker Prize shortlist featured two authors who write about groups not often represented in British literature. Howard Jacobson, author of “The Finkler Question,” has made a career crafting a literary image of the English Jew, while Andrea Levy, shortlisted for “The Long Song,” has documented the black British experience in her five…
