(JTA) — A Jewish candidate in Canada’s federal election and a Jewish voter have filed a lawsuit asking to change the voting day because it falls on a Jewish holiday. Shemini Atzeret comes out this year on Election Day, Oct. 21, which would prevent observant Jews from casting their ballots. Of the four advance polling days,…
A synagogue in New Jersey will be celebrating the upcoming Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah holidays on a single day, rather than on two consecutive days as is normally the case outside Israel. In Israel, the three major pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot — are celebrated for one day. Outside Israel, they are…
I was hoping to get through this holiday cycle without debating the mechitza — the wall that divides the genders in Orthodox shuls. I’ve committed to sampling all iterations of observance without prejudice, including segregated worship. But then on Wednesday I visited the historic Carlebach Shul for Hoshana Rabba — the seventh day of Sukkot,…
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…
And to all dear readers, whatever your creed or background, a very happy and sweet Shemini Atzeret — or as a former editor of mine once referred to the festival, when I told him I had swapped shifts and would be out for yet another two days: You’re Making This One Up, Right? hag sameach,…
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