By DROR EYDAR (Israel Hayom via JNS) – Historical memory is not a matter for annoying arguments about minutiae, it’s an issue of national security. We remember, therefore we are. “By the rivers of Babylon,” a Jewish exile wrote in Psalms after the destruction of the First Temple, “there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalms 137:1). […]

By DEBORAH FINEBLUM (JNS) – Memory and imagination: The two keys that unlock the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av. In fact Tisha B’Av, a holiday many Jews seem unfamiliar with, is all about memory, the collective memory of the Jewish people, as much a family as it is a religion. But to tap into the Jewish collective memory bank, we […]

By Rabbi SHMULY YANKLOWITZ PHOENIX (JTA) – Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz’s recent tone-deaf declaration that intermarriage is akin to a “second Holocaust” was shocking and shameful, and desecrates the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust. While Peretz leads the Jewish Home party as well as the United Right coalition, and is known for a Kahanist ideology, we […]

By DAVID SUISSA (Jewish Journal via JNS) – We take it for granted that the way to address the evil of anti-Semitism is to fight it. It’s a natural part of our vocabulary. We fight, we confront, we condemn, we call out. We refuse to stand idly by. All of that makes perfect sense. But on this 25th anniversary of […]

By BEN SALES NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Eric Fingerhut believes in the “big tent.” But is the tent collapsing? For six tumultuous years, he has served as the president of Hillel International, the umbrella group for more than 500 Jewish centers on college campuses across the country. He is leaving that position on July 1 to become the president […]

Rabbi DANIEL LANDES JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently reported that I would be ordaining a gay Orthodox rabbinical student who was denied the opportunity to receive smicha from his own Orthodox yeshiva.  I have now done so, ordaining Rabbi Daniel Atwood during a ceremony attended by more than 200 guests. I have been an Orthodox rabbi for a […]

By RABBI DONNA KIRSHBAUM, RABBI RICHARD HIRSH (JTA)  – “I have ordered the men not to molest you.” (Ruth 2:9) With these words, Boaz, the wealthy landowner, tells Ruth, the destitute Moabite, a stranger in Bethlehem, that she is not only free to glean in his fields and to gather what the reapers may drop, but that she will be […]

By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – A few months ago, a couple got involved in the Chicago Jewish community. Rivkah Weber and David Costello started attending an Orthodox synagogue in the West Ridge neighborhood. They looked and acted like Orthodox Jews: Weber covered her hair and wore long skirts, while Costello sported sidelocks and a kippah. The latter […]

SCHENECTADY– Rabbi Cutler, senior rabbi of Congregation Gates of Heaven, will facilitate a discussion with a panel of students and higher education professionals, with diverse experiences and political orientations about the future of the American Jewish relationship to Israel on Wednesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. the program at the temple, 852 Ashmore Ave., Schenectady will examine thoughts on the […]

By Rabbi RAYMOND APPLE Was matzah something new? Matzah existed before the exodus. Since the Egyptians are said to have pioneered the leavening process in baking bread, unleavened bread must previously have been the norm. Even when leavened bread became available, it was probably limited to the aristocracy and the wealthy. It was too expensive for the ordinary person, who […]