Iranian president tweets Rosh Hashanah blessing to Jews
theguardian: Harriet Sherwood. Amid a global exchange of greetings and good wishes to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which began at sunset on Wednesday, there was one from […]
Rosh Hashanah 2013: The Jewish New Year Explained
Huff Post: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is celebrated in 2013 from sundown on Sept. 4 to nightfall on Sept. 6. The Hebrew date for Rosh Hashanah is 1 Tishrei 5774. Though Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year,” the holiday actually takes place on the first two days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which […]
Rabbi bans male handshaking
PressTV: The head of the Gur Education Department, Abraham Benjamin Silberberg, said at a meeting with educational officials that handshakes between men is banned because it can cause “sinful thoughts.” […]
A Time for Soul-Searching — Reflections on Elul and Eid Al-Fitr
Huff Post: by Ron Kronish. As we Jews begin the month of Elul, the month before our “High Holidays” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Muslims in Israel and around the world celebrate the holiday of Eid Al-Fitr. Our calendars, which are both lunar, often run in a parallel way, so […]
World’s oldest Torah scroll found mislabeled in college library
Professors at the University of Bologna in Italy think they found the world’s oldest Torah scroll, and they didn’t even have to excavate any ancient archeological sites to do it. […]
Irena Sendler-Polish Woman Who Saved 2,500 Jewish Children
Huff Post: WARSAW, Poland — Polish officials have honored Irena Sendler, a Polish woman credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust, by naming a walkway in a symbolically important spot after her. Sendler was a social worker who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during World […]
Church of Scotland agrees to reword report on Israeli settlements
Guardian: The Church of Scotland has moved to defuse a furious row with Jewish leaders and the Israeli government after agreeing to change a controversial report on Israeli settlements. Senior […]
Should I Thank God for Not Making Me a Woman?
Huff Post: Ari Hart. “Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has not made me a woman.” — Morning Blessings, Artscroll Siddur, p. 12. I’m supposed to say that each morning. If I were a woman, I would recite this instead: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler […]
Growing Anti-Semitism: World Jewish Congress Takes on Hungary
Source:Spiegel. In symbolic protest of growing anti-Semitism in Hungary, the World Jewish Congress will meet in Budapest this weekend. This has angered Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who plans to address the assembly about the criticism. But no amount of talk can erase the fact that right-wing extremism is on the […]
Circumcision study supports HIV theory
By Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times April 15, 2013, 11:16 p.m. Researchers say the foreskin can shelter troublesome bacteria, so its removal may bolster the immune system to keep the […]
Love Is Revolution
Huff Post: by Eiton Press. My heart feels torn because I don’t want that which I love, which I am a part of, to experience suffering, to be destroyed, whether it be due to humankind’s unconscious behavior or otherwise. I want to live in a world that is free, that […]
Community in Crisis: Bitter Conflicts Divide Berlin Jews
Source: Spiegel dapd Amid accusations of waste, nepotism and smear campaigns, long-established members of Berlin’s Jewish Community are in open conflict with relative newcomers from abroad. Severe financial difficulties are at the core of their problems with one another. More:
Barclays Center Offers Separate Men’s And Women’s Seating
Source: Huff Post, by Ron Dicker. Several hundred seats are being set aside so that Jewish men and women can sit in separate areas — as is custom — at a Feb. 28 concert by violinist Itzhak Perlman. The night features Jewish music and cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot. The tickets […]
Why women are not allowed to pray at Western Wall
The Times of Israel: Ten women were arrested Monday morning at the Western Wall for wearing prayer shawls, part of a group of activists from the Women of the Wall […]
Why Palestinian Arabs Hate Jews
Source: The Conservative Papers. It was reported last May that nearly 70% of Arabs living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are in favor of suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Yes, seven in ten of the so-called ‘Palestinians’ are willing to send their own children to their deaths in […]
Despite Intimidation, Alleged Victim Testifies Against Accused Rapist
Source: The Daily Beast by Allison Yarrow A young woman from Williamsburg’s tightly knit Satmar community breaks with it to stand by her allegation that a community elder raped her. “He watched me when I was young. He always waited for me and said he knew I was going to […]
On Thanksgiving, Jews And Muslims Volunteer Together Despite Middle East Violence
WASHINGTON (RNS) It’s an idea that feels particularly poignant this Thanksgiving: American Jews and Muslims banding together to help the homeless and other needy people. The interfaith collaboration has been […]
Peres opens Jewish Center in Moscow: ‘Museum tells us about Communism and Zionism’
The latest addition to the myriad of museums in Moscow has just opened. Among the first visitors to the new Jewish Museum and the Center of Tolerance were Israeli President […]
Lost Sheep of Israelite to come Home
Lost tribe’s immigration to resume after five years The Times of Israel: The government has quietly decided to approve, after a five-year hiatus, continued immigration of the Bnei Menashe, a […]