Would you shut up? I’m trying to atone!” That line comes in the opening scene of “Kissing Jessica Stein” delivered by the titular character, as she sits in the pews on Yom Kippur and tries to fend off her relatives’ too-eager advice about snagging a man before next year’s Book of Life is shut. Jessica,…
During the kapparot ceremony, a custom practiced primarily in the Haredi community before Yom Kippur, sins are shifted to chickens, which a holder swings above his head three times. The meat is then to be donated to the poor. After learning that the custom can cause pain to chickens, and even injuries to their bones…
Yom Kippur stirs my strongest Jewish food memory – it’s strange, but true. Since I was in the single digits I can remember walking to Ne’ila services with my mother and father, carrying a bag filled with two essential components of our holiday inside. One was a three-pound sack of apples, the then ubiquitous McIntosh…
My friend and former boss Ami Eden has identified the following sea-change in American Jewish life: From secular beachgoers in Tel Aviv to right-wing Orthodox settlers in Hebron, Crocs – the bulbous-toed, open-back, rubber summer shoe – already were ubiquitous in Israel. Now, reports from several synagogues across America suggest, Crocs have surpassed Chuck Taylors,…
Some go to synagogue to atone for their sins. But in Washington, Yom Kippur is just another opportunity for mingling and political shmoozing. The Politico has the lowdown on the politicians’ favorite shuls.
The High Holy Days are meant to be a time of sincere self-reflection and heartfelt penitence. But these days, many synagogues are filled with people decked out in uncomfortable temple-appropriate garb, complaining that the cantor was too slow, while they try to figure out what they’re going to eat to break their Yom Kippur fasts….
Prophets are a grumpy bunch, always scolding their neighbors and warning of divine punishment. However, Jonah, whose story we read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, stands out. Not only does Jonah argue with God — as Abraham and Moses were prone to do — but he also refuses his mission and walks off the…
My sister, Wanda, and her boyfriend, Michael, were driving our family car in New York City when Michael came across two pieces of round fabric in the console between the two front seats. He held them up to his chest and asked my sister, “How does Angela wear these?” Neither Wanda nor Michael is Jewish,…
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