Jewish News

A Pill That Could Prevent Racism?

A common heart disease drug may have the unusual side effect of combating racism, a new study suggests.Volunteers given the beta-blocker, used to treat chest pains and lower heart rates, scored lower on a standard psychological test of “implicit” racist attitudes. They appeared to be less racially prejudiced at a subconscious level than another group treated with a “dummy” placebo ...

A New Mikvah In Gothenburg, Sweden

In 1940, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn arrived in Gothenburg, Sweden for what would be the last stop on his harrowing rescue from war-torn Europe.Several years later, in 1948, he recalled the small Jewish community in Gothenburg in a letter addressed to a rabbi living in Sweden.You must build a mikvah in this city, he wrote from ...

A Mother’s Intuition in 19th-Century Tetuan

In 1860, the Alliance Israélite Universelle, created by French Jews seeking to modernize and educate their less fortunate brethren, began to establish educational facilities for Jewish boys living in Oriental communities. Eventually the Parisian directorate decided that girls deserved an education as well, so in 1882 it opened a school in Tetuan, Morocco.Not all the members of this community were ...

A Jewish community president who can’t be called to the Torah? Meet Bulgaria’s Alex Oscar

Under a cloudless blue sky, in a square wedged between the National Assembly and the Rectorate of the University of Sofia, Alexander Oscar, the young president of Sofia’s Jewish community, issued a blunt message to his countrymen.The occasion was Bulgaria’s Holocaust remembrance ceremony on March 10, a day meant to celebrate the country’s heroic rescue of its 50,000 Jews during ...

“Operation Hang-Up V” continues to target illegal cell phone use

The fifth phase of “Operation Hang Up,” a stepped up, four-day enforcement of the state law prohibiting the use of cell phones, was announced by the New York State Thruway Authority and New York State Police Troop T. The initiative will begin Monday, April 11, and continue through Thursday, April 14.“Enforcement activities such as ‘Operation Hang Up’ have helped make ...

A Continuous Journey

When I was 16 years old I decided I didn’t want to be Jewish anymore.I had been raised in a traditional home, with weekly Friday night dinners, seasonal Chanukah parties, and even the yearly sukkah. I attended Jewish day schools and Zionist camps in my youth, and a Jewish high school in my teens. My mother, a child of Holocaust ...

A Closer Look at Chabad Life in Yeshiva University

Many students say they do not relate to the Chabad club because they are not Chabadniks. This is a shame, since the Chabad club at both Yeshiva University and Stern College is open to everyone, not just chabadniks, and everyone walks out a different and better person.The YU Chabad club provides a service for people who are interested in learning ...

90,000 Jews Will Gather In MetLife Stadium To Celebrate The 12th Cycle Of The Siyum Hashas

Some books you just can’t put down. On Aug. 1, some 90,000 Jewish men will attend a celebration of one such tome — the Talmud. Organizers bill the event as the largest party for Jewish learning in 2,000 years.The Siyum HaShas is the completion of reading all six orders of the Babylonian Talmud, the compendium of Jewish oral law that ...

900 Students Arriving in Crown Heights

This weekend, Shabbos Parshas Vayeira, over 900 students and 100 Shluchim and Shluchos will be coming to Crown Heights for the largest open gathering of Jewish students in America.The following is an open letter to all residents of the Shchunah from Rabbi Eli Moshe Levitansky, on behalf of the Chabad on Campus International Shabbaton Organizing Committee:Being a Shliach on campus ...

9 teens arrested on suspicion of attacks on Arab

Nine youths have been arrested in Jerusalem on suspicion of a series of attacks against Arabs, police announced Tuesday.The suspects are all Jewish, and aged 14 and 19, police said. The chief suspect in the case is a 14-year-old boy.According to police suspicions, the teens would go to “hang-out areas” in Jerusalem, look for Arabs, and attack them with stones, ...

800 Jewish leaders to attend WIZO meeting

Over 800 World WIZO leaders from 40 countries around the world – including the United States, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Jamaica, Brazil, India and Chile – will converge on Israel next week for the 25th Enlarged General Meeting (EGM) of World WIZO.The representatives are Jewish community leaders in their countries and represent the 250,000 WIZO members around the ...

80 Year Old ‘Bar Mitzvah Boy’ Twins With Disabled Israeli

Sixty-seven years after his 13th birthday, Larry Feinstein decided that it was finally time to have a Bar Mitzvah. It was an e-mail from ALEH, Israel’s largest network of residential facilities for children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities, that inspired 80-year old Feinstein to go through with the transformative Jewish ritual.The e-mail he received described the many ways an ...