AllJewishLinks.com Newsletter Issue # 53 – October 24, 2012

Preparations are underway in securing the visit of more than 120,000 worshippers at Rachel’s Tomb on October 25 to 28,marking the anniversary of her death. On Wednesday morning parliamentarians Yisrael Eichler and Uri Maklev (UTJ), Yulia Shamolov Berkovich (Kadima) and David Azoulay (Shas) traveled to the tomb, which is located in the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis issuesa an order that  concerns women as part of their battle against the dangers posed by the Internet. During a special conference in Bnei Brak, the rabbis led by prominent Lithuanian leader, Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman  is determined that women’s workplaces should also be properly blocked.

Active members of Chabad at USC have gathered together for the groundbreaking of the new renovations to the Chabad House. The event featured a home-cooked brunch, a self-guided tour of the changes that will be made to the house and speeches by leaders in the Jewish community.

For a year and a half, Rabbi William Wolff is the rabbi of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern community. While photographer Manuela Koska-Jäger is a German Christian photographer, who met the rabbi by chance together they documented the life of the Jewish community in Schwerin, West Pomerania. A journey which led to an exhibition and a book.

Lehava Silman Herman, an Indian woman who is also the owner of the Ichak Dana Indian restaurant has stood up against the dictates of the powerful Jewish rabbinate and decided to give up the kashrut certification for her restaurant after she was forced to buy vegetables in specific stores.

We tend to see the differences that separate us from other religious groups rather than the commonalities. That sounds so cliché, but it’s true. When some Jews hear of an Islamic religious school, called a madrassa, they make assumptions about what might be taught there. They don’t take the time to to consider that the Arabic word madrassa is very closely related to the Hebrew word midrasha, a Jewish religious school.