For the last year, one of Dr. Michael Bukstein’s duties as synagogue president for B’nai Sholom Temple, the oldest synagogue in the state of Illinois, has been trying to sell its beautiful and unique building. Located in the small city of Quincy, the building is in a neo-Byzantine style of architecture, with detailed brickwork and…
(JTA) — Mike Finesilver started attending daily services for the first time since his bar mitzvah shortly after joining Congregation Beth El in 2012. Praying every day with the same small group of people was “a wonderful experience” for the 62-year-old paralegal, and he enjoyed being deeply involved with the Conservative synagogue in South Orange,…
Here at the Forward, we get emails from rabbis all the time. I counted at least a dozen just last week in my inbox. So when Aiden Pink, our deputy news editor, received a vague email seemingly from Rabbi Sheldon Kleinman of Cong. House of Israel in Hot Springs, Ark. over the weekend, he didn’t…
The gift card email scam targeting American rabbis and synagogues has reached communities from New York to Hawaii, with some incidents of congregants falling for the scheme. Three members of a Conservative synagogue in Virginia responded to emails they thought were from their rabbi by buying a collective $2,500 worth of gift cards. So far,…
The Colorado synagogue that was targeted by a white supremacist would-be bomber has said that the public is welcome to attend Friday evening services this Sabbath. Rabbi Birdie Becker, the leader of Temple Emanuel, in Pueblo, also noted that the synagogue will now install external security cameras in response to the bombing threat. The man…
The president of the Pueblo, Col., synagogue that was targeted by a white supremacist hoping to bomb the building, is voicing his support for guns in the sanctuary. Mike Atlas-Acuna, president of Temple Emanuel, has told reporters in recent days that he thinks it’s “crazy” for congregants not to arm themselves. “We already have armed…
The FBI arrested a white supremacist Friday when he met with undercover agents to plan a bombing of the Temple Emanuel synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado. The man, Richard Holzer, 27, was charged with one count of attempting to obstruct religious exercise by force using explosives and fire, Denver 7 ABC reported. According to a criminal…
In 1842, members of one of the first synagogues in Maryland broke away after a rebuke from their rabbi, an Orthodox hardliner who was deeply troubled by secularism among American Jews. He decried their use of Masonic rituals at Jewish funerals — in effect, idol worship. So they formed their own synagogue, Har Sinai Congregation….
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