It’s a dilemma familiar to many a not-so-observant Jew as late September rolls around: fork over hundreds of dollars for High Holiday services or scandalize bubbe by skipping out altogether. Fortunately, in NYC some synagogues are opening their doors to wandering Jews during the High Holidays. Other organizations have sprung up specifically provide free and…
The High Holidays are here. Synagogues will swell with their biggest crowds of the year on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But in the wake of the Pittsburgh and Poway shootings in the past year, and amid a nation-wide uptick in anti-Semitic incidents, American Jewish communities are on edge. What role can you, as a…
As the High Holidays near, some religious Jews are considering an unusual question: Are swords like jewelry? In the time of the Talmud, one stream of rabbinic thought considered swords to be an adornment — and thus permissible to carry in a synagogue on the Sabbath and holidays. After a year in which a dozen…
A man experiencing homelessness pleaded guilty on Tuesday to starting a fire that burned down a synagogue in Minnesota earlier this month, the Duluth News Tribune reported. Matthew Amiot said he was seeking shelter from the cold in a sukkah, a temporary dwelling built behind the Adas Israel Congregation in Duluth. He had tried to…
(JTA) — Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman. They said in a court filing late on Monday that “a sentence of death is justified” in 22 of the 63 federal charges against Robert Bowers, citing his premeditation, planning, anti-Semitic motivation and the number of victims. They also noted his…
(JTA) — Anti-Semitic graffiti was painted on the exterior walls of a synagogue in Connecticut. The graffiti on the Congregation Adath Israel synagogue building in Newtown was discovered at 7:30 Saturday morning. The graffiti was removed and painted over prior to the start of scheduled Shabbat services with the assistance of the town’s Public Works…
Rabbi Rachel Cowan, the mother of the “Jewish healing” movement, was hailed throughout the Jewish world for giving new life to the ancient practice of visiting a sickly person to pray over them. And in the moment she needed such prayer most desperately, it came in force — via the internet. Last year, Cowan’s friends…
A small temple over 95 years old will be closing its doors soon — but not before it donates its Torah scroll to a congregation in Montana, the St. Louis Jewish week reported. Temple Israel was once a community of 150 families that served southwestern Illinois Reform Jews with weekly services and a religious school….
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