Jewish News

Fire Damages Historic Connecticut Synagogue

A fire has damaged the historic Hebrew Congregation of Woodmont, but the synagogue’s Chabad Rabbi, who was on the fire scene Sunday morning is grateful two Torahs, a Shofar and a citron box were saved.“It’s devastating,” said Rabbi Schneur Wilhelm.The cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation.Assistant Chief Robert Healey said the fire caused moderate to heavy damage. ...

Fire Consumes Historic Connecticut Synagogue, Torahs Survive

A fire seriously damaged a historic synagogue in Connecticut on Sunday morning.Flames consumed the Hebrew Congregation of Woodmont in Milford, Connecticut, at approximately 9:30 Sunday morning. No injuries were reported.“It’s massive destruction. The building will have to be totally redone” congregation president Joel Levitz told The Connecticut Post.While the synagogue’s two Torah scrolls were damaged, the congregation’s rabbi, Schneur Wilhelm said that ...

Finnish Lawmaker Defends ‘Jews Control U.S. Media’ Comment

A Finnish lawmaker reportedly has dismissed criticism of his references to “Jewish control” over U.S. politics as “a pure analysis of foreign policy.”According to the Finnish broadcaster YLE, lawmaker Pertti Salolainen sent the broadcaster an email on Saturday in which he denied he had made anti-Semitic statements when he said Friday that the United States had “a large Jewish population ...

Finland Gets New Israeli-Born Chief Rabbi

An Israeli-born rabbi has been named chief rabbi of Finland. Simon Livson, 30, the Israeli-born son of Finnish immigrants, was officially installed as chief rabbi on January 13, taking over from Rabbi Moshe Edelman.Livson, who describes himself as Modern Orthodox, immigrated to Finland in 1989 when his parents returned to their country of origin. He later studied at an Israeli ...

Finding Jewish Life in Eastern Europe

Pavel Fried was born in the village of Třebíč, Czechoslovakia, in 1930. Fried lived a middle-class Jewish life; he was in the midst of preparations for his bar mitzvah when his family was deported to Terezin. In the camp, he told interviewers from the Vienna-based oral history project Centropa, he had a secret ceremony. Pavel and his parents both survived, ...

Filmmaker Shines Lens on Jewish African Tribes

Filmmaker Laurence Gavron is on a journey to document lost Jewish tribes in Africa.The French-born Gavron, who has made Senegal her home since 1989, says she was immediately taken by the project, which she says combines her passion for Africa with the mystery of rediscovering Judaism.The film, titled “Black Jews, Juifs noir en Afrique,” focuses on a dozen African tribes ...

Fighting Kosher Supermarkets: If You Can’t Beat Them – Join Them

Not every market can sustain a super kosher store as well as bakeries, butchers, takeout, and fish and even if it can incorporating these stores into super stores assures greater traffic and ultimate profitability. It is a model that is working well in Cedarhurst LI (Gourmet Glatt) and in Monsey NY (Rockland Kosher). Kosher food sources say that they can ...

Fifth Graders from L.A., Samaria Hold Unique Skype Meeting

Fifth graders from Beit Hinuch Ramon School in Samaria held a virtual meeting through the Internet with pupils of the same age from Los Angeles’ Tifereth Israel congregation’s Hebrew school.The meeting was held with the aid of video cameras and the Skype application, to honor Israel’s 64th Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration, which was marked on Sunday in many U.S. Jewish congregations. Samaria ...

Fidel Tells Ahmadinejad to Stop Slandering the Jews

A few years ago, it looked like Fidel Castro was going to make his grand exit from the land of the living. Instead, early this summer he emerged from his medically induced hiatus. Since his return, Castro has apparently been reading The Atlantic because he contacted Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter at the magazine recently.Read More: @ blog.rabbijason.comYou might also like: Top 10 ...

Fidel Castro tells Ahmadinejad: Stop denying the Holocaust

Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro has urged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stop slandering the Jews, according to an article published on the U.S. website The Atlantic on Tuesday.The ageing revolutionary devoted much of a five-hour conversation to the issue of anti-Semitism, wrote Jeffrey Goldberg, who interviewed Castro in the Cuban capital Havana.Read More: @ haaretz.comVisitors found this page by searching ...

Fewer People Believe in God

A poll conducted last February by the Guttman Center for Surveys of the Israel Democracy Institute shows a rise in the proportion of Israelis who define themselves as religious Jews, yet the world is heading in the other direction.The latest Gallup poll the results of which were published on Monday show that 59% percent of the world’s population labeled itself ...

Few Politicians Will Challenge Hynes On Kol Tzedek Secrecy

With increased scrutiny on the handling of sex-abuse cases involving members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox community, some elected officials are beginning to take a stand on practices tied to District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.But few elected officials this week wanted to take a position one way or the other regarding another controversial practice of Hynes’ office: that of withholding from the ...