Shira Hanau
By Shira Hanau
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News Meet the rabbi who still blows the shofar every night at 7 to salute health care workers
(JTA) — Rabbi Janise Poticha had been blowing the shofar on her terrace every evening at 7 for five months when the daily ritual began to take on a new meaning. Her sister contracted COVID in August and, after a week and a half at home, had to be hospitalized and later intubated. “She spent…
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Food A Jewish studies professor and her cheesesteak-loving husband are behind Rochester’s new kosher ‘butcher shop’
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (JTA) — Rob Nipe and Nora Rubel hadn’t anticipated selling out of pastrami on their opening day. But when you have a vegan butcher shop certified kosher and open up just a few blocks from an Orthodox synagogue, perhaps selling out of pastrami is par for the course. Butcher, of course, is a…
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News NJ co-op owners want an elevator they can ride on Shabbat. They’re suing the board that said no.
(JTA) — When Paul and Helaine Kurlansky first moved to Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 2019, they were excited at the prospect of hosting their children and grandchildren, who lived in a nearby town, for Shabbat and holidays. They chose The Colony, a high-rise co-op building, in large part for the accommodations made for the…
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News These are the Jewish victims of the Surfside building collapse
This article will be updated as more names are identified by authorities in Florida. (JTA) — The Champlain Towers South building collapse is a national tragedy, one that has claimed nearly 20 lives so far and left over 140 still missing in the rubble as of Thursday. Among other groups, it struck a unique nexus…
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News This rabbi was addicted to opioids. Now he’s using his experience to help his congregants.
(JTA) — For Rabbi Michael Perice, the hardest thing about counseling congregants who have family members dealing with addiction had been holding back his own experience with substance abuse. “I really wanted to let people know in these conversations that I understand. And I couldn’t do that,” Perice said. Perice, the spiritual leader at Temple Sinai…
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Fast Forward Major Orthodox rabbis in Israel say everyone 12 and up should be vaccinated
(JTA) — Two major Israeli haredi Orthodox rabbis said everyone aged 12 and over should be vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to The Jerusalem Post. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the influential leader known as the “prince of Torah,” and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein approved the announcement in a message printed by Kanievsky’s personal physician, Meshulam Hart, in…
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News For Jewish burial societies, Surfside building collapse presents a grim and complex task
(JTA) — Among Rabbi Mayer Berger’s first thoughts on seeing the 12 stories of the Champlain Tower South pancaked upon themselves: This is like Sept. 11. Then as now, destruction of unimaginable proportions claimed many lives without warning, in a manner that rendered traditional practices for burying the Jewish dead impossible to perform. Those practices…
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Fast Forward Two New York City kosher restaurants sent Pride emails. They didn’t mean to.
(JTA) — When Rabbi Mike Moskowitz got the Pride email from Kasbah BBQ & Deli, a kosher restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he immediately went to Facebook to offer his feedback. “Very impressed!” wrote Moskowitz, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in Orthodox communities. He the restaurant and shared the rainbow-colored image…
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