ALBANY–Congregation Beth Emeth will host a conversation about racism in 2020 via live stream on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 7:30 p.m. The program titled “Shmooze with Rabbi Shpeen: A Conversation with Marcus Pryor about Racism in Our Community” is open to the general public. Pryor is an Albany native and is a local businessman who is active in many community […]

The Capital Region Antiracist Community Training Initiative is set to kick off its next program, a 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge on Aug. 10. By signing up to take part, participants will receive daily e-mails with each day’s challenge. Communities around the country have conducted the curriculum, which includes daily suggestions for readings, podcasts, videos, observations, and ways to […]

Touro College, the nation’s largest institution of higher education under Jewish auspices, and the Orthodox Union (OU), the nation’s oldest and largest umbrella organization for the North American Orthodox Jewish community, have awarded Yael Gonzalez from Schenectady its Sarah Rivkah and Dr. Bernard Lander Scholarship. Yael, daughter of Margarita and Florentino Gonzalez, an Albany High School senior, plans to use […]

NEW YORK CITY – Herut North America, a leading American Zionist organization has developed an eBook offering ideas about how to improve Jewish unity in these challenging and polarizing times, and it is now being offered for free in time for Tisha B’Av. Herut North America’s free eBook The Challenge For Jewish Unityis now available at https://herut.net/jewishunitybook/ The eBook is authored by Joshua Goldstein, the chairman […]

By SHIRA HANAU NEW YORK  CITY (JTA) – For Orthodox Jewish advocacy groups, the last day of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 session brought a big win. The high court handed school voucher proponents a victory in ruling that a state-run scholarship program funded by tax-deductible gifts could not exclude religious schools. The court split 5-4 in the Espinoza v. […]

ALBANY–Ya’ir Sasson a student at Myers Middle School in Albany and the B’Yachad Collaborative Religious School held at Ohav Shalom Synagogue in Albany is the 2020 winner of its B’Yachad’s Better Together/Better2Write Essay contest sponsored by the New York based Legacy Heritage Fund. The prize is a scholarship for 50% off the cost of Jewish summer camp, up to $5,000. Ya’ir, […]

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, health officials have been clear and consistent in their message to seniors: While anyone can fall victim to COVID-19, those who are 65 and older are in a high-risk group. That’s why older Americans need to be especially careful and —in the case of the very elderly — family members may need to step in to […]

Student winners of the 2020 B’nai B’rith Capital Area Holocaust Essay Contest were honored at a June 3 zoom award ceremony. Three winning high school and three winning middle school students read their essays and were awarded with cash prizes totaling $1000. Each student also was awarded certificates of achievement from B’nai B’rith, New York State Assembly Member Phil Steck, and U. […]

By BEN SALES NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – When Jewish camp directors explained their reasons for canceling camp this summer, state and local prohibitions were typically at the top of the list. We can’t even think about opening camp, they would say, because the government won’t let us. Now that’s changing. States across the country have told day camps, overnight camps […]

NEW YORK CITY – You’ve completed your New York City skyline jigsaw puzzle twice, binge-watched your favorite shows, and baking banana bread has lost its appeal. What do you do next? You could take a “Coffee Break.” With help from the experts at The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History, you can uncover your […]