Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish holiday of Tish’a B’av, which commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem’s ancient temple (the Second Temple) by the Romans in the year 70, and other historic tragedies.
Tisha B’Av
The Latest
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Fast Forward 30% of Israelis Want Third Temple Built on Temple Mount
Right-wing organizations devoted to the Temple Mount are buoyed by a new poll they commissioned finding that 30 percent of Israeli Jews support rebuilding the Jewish Temple on the site. When the poll, commissioned by the Joint Forum of Temple Mount Organizations, asked Israeli Jews, “Are you for or against erecting a Temple on the…
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News Six Excuses To Celebrate Jewishly This Summer
Sadly, between Shavuot (May 15) and Rosh Hashanah (September 5) there is a shortage of Jewish holidays. Sure, there’s Tisha B’Av (July 15), a day to recall the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other Jewish tragedies. But who wants to throw a party on a fast day? Tu B’Av, the Israeli equivalent…
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Opinion No (GOP) Sex on Tisha B’Av
With President Barack Obama’s reelection only a few days in the rear view mirror, the topic of the Jewish role in American politics is still brewing — and we learned some tantalizing details about Mitt Romney’s summer trip to Israel. Democratic and Republican operatives sparred over the importance of the Jewish vote in the just-completed…
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Opinion Out Bibi-ing Bibi
Mitt Romney has out Bibi-ed Bibi. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is famous for saying that history is repeating itself. The way he tells it, we’re in the late 1930s, and today’s Nazis are the leaders of the Iranian regime, who threaten Israel’s future and perpetrate attacks like the recent one in Bulgaria through its…
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Food Turning the Tables: The Black Fast
By its very nature eating to me is a spiritual practice. There are two components to food. The “what” and the “why.” As for the “what” that’s the food itself. The “why” is the choice I make to eat knowing the history behind the dish and its connection to the community of growers, workers, and…
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Food No Meat — The 9 Days
Editor’s Note: The Beet-Eating Heeb is the nom de plume of Jeffrey Cohan, a former journalist in Forest Hills, PA. He also blogs about Judaism and veganism on his own Web site Observant Jews refrain from eating meat for the first nine days of the Hebrew month of Av as part of the mourning rituals…
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The Schmooze LGBT Synagogue Finds New Home, Complete With Assyrian Art
Every Tisha B’Av, rabbis around the world try to come up with new and creative ways to remind their congregations of the history of the two Holy Temples that once stood in Jerusalem. Students of Jewish history readily recall 586 B.C.E. as the year that the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple, and 70 C.E. as…
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Opinion Music for the 9th of Av: On Jerusalem, Exile and Homelessness
I agonized over this. We’re now in the nine-day mourning period approaching Tisha B’Av. Music is not appropriate. Can we observe by listening to music of the season? Well, I decided to go with it. It’s for those who haven’t thought of observing the mourning period, to get you in the mood. There are versions…
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