Jewish News

From ‘Our Son, the Doctor,’ to ‘Our Son, the Charlatan’: The Rise and Fall of France’s Chief Rabbi

Forty years ago, “The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob” had French audiences doubled over in laughter. Gerard Oury’s frantic comedy of an anti-Semitic businessman who finds himself mistaken for a famous rabbi — don’t ask — smashed box office records. The timing was important: Oury’s anarchic comedy reflected the end of a 30-year run of dramatic economic growth, the end ...

From Gangsta-Rapper to a Representative of the Jewish People

Belize-born, Brooklyn-raised, rap artist known as SHYNE is in Israel, he has adopted a Hebrew name, Moshe Levy, and a very Jewish traditional look. During the past few months Levy has been learning Torah and reaching out to Jewish young boys and girls who need support and strengthening. Now SHYNE is preparing his new musical projects and he met Deputy ...

From Chuppah to Aliyah

At a time when many Israelis are checking the validity of their passports or looking for a way to obtain a foreign passport, there are those who have decided to immigrate here and tie their fates with ours.Allan Katz and Leora Stroh of New Jersey got married Sunday, and instead of a honeymoon, the next day they boarded a plane ...

From Borscht Belt to Berlin at the New York Jewish Film Festival

Last December, the online magazine Tablet ranked what it called the “100 Greatest Jewish Films.” If the heading was not sufficiently pretentious, the surprising choice of “E.T.” in first place raised quite a few eyebrows. Jody Rosen, a journalist at Tablet who helped consolidate the final list, explained that Steven Spielberg’s successful film is actually about an alien of short ...

From Bar’s Basement to State-of-the-Art Facility

It all began in a bar’s basement, but now the Chabad Jewish Center is a state of the art facility. “We would joke, you go upstairs for the bar and come downstairs for the Mitzvah,” Rabbi Yitzchok Tiechtel said.Appropriately enough it’s the Chabad of Nashville’s 13th year of existence and it had a Bar Mitzvah of its own.Sunday was the ...

Friendship Circle Honorees Share Lasting Memories

The theme was “The Power of Love” as the Conejo Valley, California Friendship Circle celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza hotel on Monday night and paid tribute with Pioneer Leadership Awards to 19 volunteers.The nonprofit Friendship Circle has several programs, but its most popular is Friends at Home, through which teenagers visit a child with special needs ...

Friendship Circle Celebrates First Year in New Home

Friendship Circle Executive Director Rabbi Yossi Marozov recalled the Shabbat morning in winter 2011 when he read in the Cleveland Jewish News that the former Congregation Bethaynu building on Gates Mills Blvd. in Pepper Pike was for sale.“In an instant, it flashed up to my mind,” Marozov said. “I said to my wife Estie, ‘Friendship Circle has a new home.’” ...

Friends Seminary Plays Bait, Switch on Anti-Semitism

The Friends Seminary of New York, which invited the notorious anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon to one of its classes, and assigned its students to read his hate-filled writings, has now backed out of an agreement to invite me to the school to talk to the students about the evils of anti-Semitism.The headmaster of the Friends Seminary, a school which is supposed ...

Fresh Perspectives on Money and Morality

Terms like “capital” and “value” often crop up in economic parlance. But at this year’s Sinai Scholars symposium in New York City, these words were endowed with new meaning.During a panel discussion held towards the end of the day, philanthropist George Rohr made the distinction clear: “As Jews, we have a radically different understanding of what matters. The most important ...

French Students Win Twitter Anti-Semitism Legal Battle

A French court ordered Twitter on Thursday to disclose the identities of racist and anti-Semitic users to police, ruling it unacceptable to post hateful material anonymously.The decision issued by a high court in Paris came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Union of French Jewish Students in October that successfully sought to order Twitter to remove a number of ...

French Poll: 40% Say Jews Too Powerful in Business

More than 40% of France’s population believe that Jews have “too much power in the business world,” according to a survey on anti-Semitism in France conducted by the World Zionist Organization ahead of the International Day for Countering Anti-Semitism, which will be marked on January 27.The poll also shows that 47% think French Jews are “more loyal to Israel than ...

French PM Knocks Halal, Kosher During Campaign

France’s prime minister urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping their halal and kosher slaughter laws on Monday as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his allies stepped up their efforts to woo far-right voters.French Prime Minister Francois Fillon made the suggestion after Sarkozy called at the weekend for butchers to clearly label meat slaughtered according to religious laws and his ...