Category: Israel

Photo Credit: Hannah Rubin We clustered in twos and threes beneath a leaden sky, light mist settling on the nearby tombstones. Before us loomed a newly-erected stone monolith, upon which was carved “al eileh ani bochiyah – over these do I weep.” That September afternoon, all in attendance witnessed a great cross-communal moment as we […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Here is a pertinent message as we conclude the keriat haTorah on Simchat Torah. When I was Chief Rabbi, I had wonderful friendships with other religious leaders, not least with the two Archbishops of Canterbury during my time. This was part of a profound healing that has taken place between Jews […]

Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90. Thousands of Christian evangelists and Israelis march at a parade in center of Jerusalem, marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, {Originally posted to the JNS website} This year, more than 5,000 Christians from all parts of the world gathered on Thursday for the city’s annual Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) festive march […]

Photo Credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90 Former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, May 19, 2011. Retired Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, who chaired, among other things, the state commission of inquiry into PM Yitzchak Rabin’s murder, and an investigation into the slaughter at the Cave of Patriarchs by Dr. Baruch Goldstein, passed away on Friday morning at […]

Photo Credit: YouTube screenshot Rally against anti-Semitism in Germany, October 12, 2019 A survey conducted for ARD public broadcasting—a joint organisation of Germany’s regional public-service broadcasters—and published on Friday, shows 59% of voting-age Germans believe that anti-Semitism is spreading in their own communities. This represents a 19% jump from last year’s survey which showed only […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press If a person is uncomfortable sitting in a sukkah, he is halachically exempt from doing so. But why? A person is not exempt from the mitzvah of tefillin if they are uncomfortable, so why is he exempt from the mitzvah of sukkah if he is uncomfortable? Rav Reuven Kerelenstein cites the […]

[embedded content] Thousands of Lebanese protesters on Thursday packed the streets of Beirut and other cities to condemn the Government’s plans to impose 20 cents a day in taxes on WhatsApp and other free messaging applications as a way of combating the country’s economic crisis. The protesters blamed the state of the economy on decades […]

Photo Credit: Ziv Sokolov/US Embassy Jerusalem Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) at Ben Gurion Airport, October 18, 2019. Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday agreed on a five-day ceasefire in Turkey’s military invasion of northeastern Syria, during which time Kurdish forces must move away from their homeland. “I’m […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Censorship of Hebrew books in the 19th century was rather commonplace although the reasons for it varied greatly. In an 1864 issue of the Hebrew newspaper Hamagid that I just acquired, I found part of an advertisement for a new Talmud censored; tar was placed over the words, completely obliterating the […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Vol. LXIX No.42                                                   5780 New York CityCANDLE LIGHTING TIMEOctober 18, 2019 – 19 Tishrei 57805:53 p.m. NYC E.D.T.Sabbath Ends: 6:52 p.m. NYC E.D.T. Advertisement ‘); _avp.push({ tagid: article_top_ad_tagid, alias: ‘/’, type: ‘banner’, zid: ThisAdID, pid: 16, onscroll: 0 }); Sabbath Ends: Rabbenu Tam 7:23 p.m. NYC E.D.T.Weekly Reading: Chol Hamo’ed Sukkos […]