Jewish News

Ukraine Divided over WWII Legacy

Ukrainians dressed in Nazi SS uniform trudge through trenches and fire model rifles in a reconstruction of a key battle against the Soviets during World War II. An Orthodox priest leads a ceremony for fallen soldiers of the Nazi unit, sprinkling his blessing over several men sporting swastikas who lower a coffin in a ritual reburial. The scenes were part ...

U.S. Jewish Community Cautious as Syria Attack Looms Large

America’s organized Jewish community has long been united in its abhorrence of the dictatorship ruling Syria. Yet it has been notably hesitant and, at times, muted in reacting to the large-scale chemical weapons attack allegedly carried out by loyalists of Syria’s president, Bashar Assad. Despite the community’s strong opposition to any use of nonconventional weapons, Jewish activists have sat on ...

Top-Level Meeting Ahead of Jewish Pilgrimage

Rabbis and organizers from the Breslov hassidic stream met with top officials in the Ukrainian government Monday, as well as the commanders of police and secret police in the Cherkasy Province, ahead of the annual mass pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. The meeting took place at the World Breslov Center in the large synagogue in Uman ...

The Story of a Mysterious Jewish Holiday Phrase: ‘The Book of Life’

Kotvenu b’sefer he-ḥayyim, “Inscribe us in the Book of Life,” Jews pray in the days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. “May you be written down and inscribed for a good year,” they say to each other. No concept or phrase is more associated with the High Holy Days than that of a divine “book” in which our fates are ...

Syria Crisis Highlights Rift Running Through J Street

Among the many political fault lines unearthed by the debate over American military intervention in Syria, one touched directly on the internal rift running through J Street, the left-leaning pro-Israel lobby. The group has prided itself in the past for “having the president’s back” as he seeks to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace. But in this case, the group decided to turn ...

Syria threatens to send Israel back to ‘prehistoric times’

Syria has threatened to “send Israel back to the era of prehistoric man” if the Jewish state attacks it with unconventional weapons. A source close to decision-makers in Damascus was quoted by Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai on Saturday as saying that “If Israel uses unconventional weapons, we’ll respond in a similar fashion.” Read More: @ ynetnews.com Readers found more information by ...

Shana Tova and a Sweet New Year from Arutz Sheva

The sonorous call of the ram’s horn – the Shofar – will herald the start of Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year) and the festive Hebrew month of Tishrei on Wednesday evening. This year the two days of the Rosh HaShanah holiday, Thursday and Friday, are followed by the Sabbath (Shabbat), creating a three-day weekend for Jews around the world. Hebrew calendar ...

Sarkozy to Jewish group: Iran solution ‘not military’

The best way to deal with Iran is through diplomacy and not military action, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy to a Jewish group at an event in Paris on Wednesday. Speaking at the annual dinner of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, the Jewish umbrella group better known by its acronym CRIF, the president said he believed the ...

Rosh Hashana: The Sound of the Shofar

What is the essence of our faith, the purpose for which the Jewish people have been placed in the world? Fascinatingly enough, the answer is to be found within the central prayer of our Rosh Hashana liturgy: the three blessings, uniquely found within the Additional (Musaf) prayer of Rosh Hashana, of “Malchuyot” (kingship), “Zichronot” (remembrances) and “Shofarot.” These blessings are ...

Rabbis Pass Hotel ‘Equality of Treatment Resolution’

A new resolution was passed by the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, at its National Convention in Atlanta earlier this month that calls upon Israeli hotels to treat all denominations of Judaism equally. Over the past year, there has been an increasing number of cases when Conservative Jewish groups have wished to pray in Israeli hotels and ...

Rabbi David Lau: Prevent Animal Suffering

The Jewish New Year is just around the corner, but animal rights organizations are already dealing with the Kapparot ritual which is conducted during the days leading to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to transfer one’s sins to a chicken. The Let the Animals Live association has appealed to Israel’s new Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, describing the suffering ...

Protesters Try to Stop Kaporos in Crown Heights

A small but determined group of demonstrators gathered at Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights yesterday to protest the Kaporos ceremonies that take place in Orthodox Jewish communities the week before Yom Kippur. The ritual requires that the chickens be held by their wings and swung three times in small circles over the heads of family members while a ...