Jewish News

Kotel Moment of Truth: Youths Asked to Stay Away

In an organized response to repeated provocations by the Women of the Wall, thousands of hareidim are expected to participate in a large scale prayer day at the Kotel Sunday.The prayers will be led by numerous rabbis, including leading Torah sages.Rabbanit Tviya Eliyahu, widow of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu ztz”l, made clear Thursday that the Women of the Wall will not ...

An Epic Shabbat Dinner Table

Imagine your regular Shabbat dinner. Now extend the table and summon several more chairs. And a few more. OK, now add about a hundred more seats. Your table is still not likely to be even half the size of the record-setting Shabbat dinner that was recently on display in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak.A 197-foot long table with room ...

Hindy Scheiman Touched So Many With Kindness

Beloved educator Hindy Scheiman, an unassuming leader in the Chicago and Des Plaines, Ill., area Jewish communities, passed away after a long illness at the age of 54. A Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, she was co-director of Lubavitch Chabad of Niles, Ill.“She was an extremely soft-spoken woman,” says Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois. “Her life was dedicated to ...

AllJewishLinks.com Newsletter Issue # 81 – June 19, 2013

Five years ago, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky and Rabbi Yerachmiel Benjaminson joined forces and Chayolei Tzivos Hashem, a thoughtfully designed educational and motivational system geared specifically for Lubavitcher children. Chayolei Tzivos Hashem has become a household word for its 4,832 members spanning 232 cities in 29 countries. Building on that success, Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and Tzivos Hashem have come together once again, this ...

Proud, Yet Ambivalent: Immigration Reform, Pride and the LGBT Community

The very first Pride Parade took place on June 28th, 1970 in commemoration of the first anniversary of the Stonewall raid in New York City. The parade, almost a year in the making, was an opportunity for gay men and women to step out of the proverbial closet and respond as a community to the horrific attacks at the Stonewall ...

What’s the Strangest Chinese Auction Prize You’ve Seen?

Despite the fact that I’m against Chinese Auctions because they make tzedaka into something which there must be immediate reward for, I find myself looking at them anyway. Sure, I feel like a hypocrite whenever I sign up for another $100k raffle to support an organization I’ve never heard of, but I might as well get some fantasy for my ...

Rabbinate Introduces ‘Bourekas Reform’

After the marriage registration reform , here comes the “bourekas revolution”: The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has issued new kosher procedures, obliging manufacturers of one of the country’s most popular pastries to design them in uniform and fixed shapes to prevent confusion between dairy and parve (neither meat nor milk) products.From now on, each pastry will have to be made in the shape ...

Brazil Gets Lesson on Avoiding Anti-Semitism in Soccer

Simon Wiesenthal Center officials presented a program to authorities in Brazil on dealing with racism in sports, notably soccer, as the nation readies for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.“Eleven Points Against Racism in Football” was presented Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro by Shimon Samuels, the center’s director for international relations, and Sergio Widder, its Latin America director.The ...

AllJewishLinks.com Newsletter Issue # 80 – June 12, 2013

Shoppers have been outraged over the discovery of an Amazon seller’s newest line of baby apparel: Jewish baby bibs. The bibs may be in possible violation of the online giant’s policy prohibiting products that glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance. Following the criticism, Amazon pulled several variations of the products.Two years since Chabad launched a centre in the lower ...

Uri Ariel: Israel Will Always Defend Jews Worldwide

The State of Israel is prepared to “defend the Jewish people wherever they are, without compromises,” Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel declared during a speech in Kiev on Monday.Speaking at a memorial ceremony organized by the Jewish Agency at the site of the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev, Ariel compared the Islamic Republic of Iran to Nazi Germany.Over 30,000 ...

Halachic Ruling: Women May say Kaddish

A surprising new halachic ruling issued by Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel allows women, for the first time, to say the Kaddish prayer in memory of their deceased parents. After probing the issue in the past few months, the organization’s rabbis, both men and women, found halachic sources allowing them to permit an act which has been considered a taboo for hundreds ...

New Jewish Memorial to be Built at Babi Yar

Jewish community heads from around the world on Monday participated in a special ceremony in memory of the Jews who were murdered and buried in Babi Yar in Ukraine. The event took place under the sponsorship of top members of the Jewish Agency, which is chaired by Natan Sharansky. The JA’s Board of Governors is meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, for ...