Jewish News

A Machzor They Won’t Just Pretend to Read

As the average person’s attention continues to thin together with our ever-slimmer smart phones, engaging teens and adults in today’s fast forward world is becoming increasingly more difficult. And once great crowd pleasers like the songs ‘Oseh Shalom’ and ‘David Melech Yisroel’ – have become somewhat outdated, leaving many Shluchim baffled with the task of producing interactive High Holiday minyanim ...

Holland’s Largest Hebrew Bookstore Shutters Doors

One of Western Europe’s largest Hebrew bookstores has closed down in Amsterdam as its former owners prepare to immigrate to Israel.Samech, located in southern Amsterdam, has been supplying Hebrew-language books to members of Holland’s Jewish community for nearly 40 years and possessed a stock of 100,000 books, according to the website of the Dutch Israelite Religious Community, or NIK.The store, ...

17 Yemenite Jews Brought to Israel in Covert Operation

The Jewish Agency on Wednesday night helped a group of 17 Jews to move to Israel from Yemen, in a covert maneuver reminiscent of 1949-50’s Operation Magic Carpet, the first mass aliya after the foundation of the state.Citing heightened security concerns and increasing tensions in Yemen, two sets of parents were brought directly to Israel, along with 10 of their ...

Top Rabbi Backs Elon Despite Conviction

Less a week after he was found guilty of indecent assault by force on a minor, Rabbi Mordechai Elon is receiving significant support from one of the most prominent religious Zionist rabbis. Ynet has learned that Rabbi Chaim Druckman, one of the leaders of the national-religious public, invited the convicted rabbi to deliver his weekly Torah lesson at his yeshiva ...

Nefesh B’ Nefesh Flight Brings 330 more North American Immigrants to Israel

Some 330 North Americans making aliya to Israel arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday morning on a flight chartered by Nefesh B’Nefesh.Among the new arrivals were 125 young people making aliya in order to serve Israel in the IDF.This summer, a total of 2,500 olim were expected to arrive in Israel on Nefesh B’Nefesh aliya flights, in cooperation with the ...

Orthodox Jewish Youth Pray for Syria

A group of youth involved in the religious-Zionist Bnei Akiva program have started organized prayers on behalf of Syrian civilians who are at risk due to the ongoing civil war in their country. The prayer initiative, which began in Petach Tikva, has now spread to Jewish communities around the world.Bnei Akiva volunteers who are doing a year of national civilian ...

US Dept. of Education Dismisses Jewish Students’ Complaints Against UC Berkeley

A decision by the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights may leave Jewish students at UC Berkeley feeling even less at home than ever. But some say it may well be the impetus for them to step up and speak out on this campus, well known for student-led BDS movements.The Office for Civil Rights dismissed complaints filed ...

Chief Rabbinate Voices Opposition to Dep. Min. Ben Dahan on Marriage Registration

The Council of the Chief Rabbinate, headed by Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, publicly voiced opposition on Wednesday to abolishing marriage registration zones, a major policy initiative of Bayit Yehudi and the Religious Services Ministry.Following the first meeting of the council with the new chief rabbis, the body issued a statement to the press calling on the Knesset ...

Israel Inaugurates New Mixed-Prayer Plaza

About a dozen women sit underneath a large Israeli flag at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall. They’ve been here close to 24 hours, and are getting tired. They are members of Women of the Wall (WOW), a 25-year-old group of women from all denominations that wants equality for women at the Western Wall.Currently the Western Wall is run as ...

American Rabbi Authors ‘The Bill of Rights of a Jewish Wife’

The 5 Towns Jewish Times wrote an article last week on the “proliferation of divorces” in the Jewish Orthodox community and on the current system that fails to protect women struggling to “navigate their way through difficult or bad marriages.”The newspaper interviewed Rabbi Mendel Epstein of Brooklyn, New York, leader of a Jewish community, an experienced judge, and “to’ein”, the Hebrew ...

Open Letter: A True Friend to a Stranger in Need

I just arrived home from a routine bike-ride, but it was not without the generous help of a special group in our community.It all started with me simply chaining my bike to the Botanical Gardens bike rack and hopping on a train to Manhattan. Upon my return, still in broad daylight, I discovered that my lock, while still tightly fastened ...

UC Berkley Anti-Semitism Complaint Dismissed

The U.S. Department of Education has dismissed a complaint against the University of California, Berkeley that had accused the university of allowing a hostile environment for Jewish students to exist on campus.In a letter dated August 19 and released August 27 by UC Berkeley, the education department’s Office for Civil Rights indicates that it is closing its year-long investigation after ...