President Barack Obama cited examples of Jews and those who rescued them in a prayer day message calling on Americans to overcome fear and welcome the stranger. Obama in remarks Thursday to the annual National Prayer Breakfast cited multiple examples of faith communities working together to bring relief to natural disaster zones, to care for…
At the Central Conference of American Rabbis, we have to wrestle with the question “What does it mean to be Jewish in America today?” beyond the theoretical. In our charge is the basic structure and tone of worship for the largest group of Jews in the country, the Reform Movement. And when we took a…
Facebook Jewish tradition: it’s beautiful and comforting but a bit too constricting, right? Well, not anymore. The bookkeepers at Guinness just awarded the world record for “largest tallit (prayer shawl)”— measuring 1,471.74 square feet — to Boca Raton Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox shul. The Facebook post by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg announcing this amazing feat was…
Several public buses featuring photos of young women wearing kippot and prayer shawls were vandalized in Jerusalem. The buses had their tires slashed and ads defaced with spray paint in the haredi Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. Haredi men were responsible for the vandalism, according to reports. The bus advertisements, launched last week by the…
The Israeli and Eastern Mediterranean climate is one of hot, rainless summers and — barring drought — cool, rainy winters, with spring and autumn as transitional seasons. This is why, though it has nothing to do with their own local weather (unless they’re living in Southern California), Jews all over the world pray briefly for…
A new smartphone app aims to make corralling a minyan easier by alerting fellow Jews nearby looking to pray. The free application, called Minyan Now and available on both iPhone and Android, is a product of RustyBrick, Inc. of West Nyack, N.Y. The app notifies other users of the app when someone in the vicinity…
Sad and frightening events can summon exemplary reactions, as we have seen in the recent coming together of diverse parts of the Jewish world to express collective anguish over the three boys who were abducted in Israel, and unified prayer for their return soon to their families, to us all. Less inspiring, though, are the…
In a rare moment of unity, the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the West Bank has brought together a Jewish community deeply divided over Israel. Debates over Israeli policy, often fraught with friction, were put aside as communal players from right to left joined in support of efforts to rescue the three yeshiva students…
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