Jewish Identity
Israel’s Negev Facing Alarming Changes
Although the Negev desert makes up 60 percent of the Israel’s land mass, it is a sparsely populated area in the south that holds only 8% of the country’s population. Home to the biblical Abraham and Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, there are approximately 700,000 people who live in the Negev today including over 200,00 in the desert’s capital Beer Sheva. While the...
January 29, 2013 2:07 am
Israeli Lawmakers Visit Hungary to Discuss Antisemitism
A delegation of leading parliamentarians from Israel and Europe traveled to Budapest over...
January 28, 2013 11:49 am
Shabbos in Davos
Shabbos in Davos. Almost rhymes, like the two are meant to be together. And so it felt this...
January 25, 2013 12:56 am
American Jews and Israel Have Never Been Closer
Despite occasional media warnings of a “distancing” between American Jews and Israel,...
January 24, 2013 12:22 am
DC Jews React to Obama Inauguration, Honor MLK with Volunteer Work
Monday’s 57th Presidential Inauguration officially sent off Barack Obama into a second term...
January 18, 2013 4:06 am
What’s in a Name?
I spend a fair amount of time with Persian Jews here in New York. I really enjoy their warmth...
January 11, 2013 5:14 pm
Philanthropist Steinhardt to Auction Huge Jewish History and Art Collection
Sotheby’s auction house in New York City plans to sell an enormous art and culture collection...
January 10, 2013 6:14 pm
Deaf-Blind Israeli Theater Troupe Performing in Manhattan
Try to imagine what it’s like to live your life not hearing or seeing. Imagine the difficulties...
January 9, 2013 12:59 pm
Fighting to Keep Hebrew the Living Language of Israel
This past week, Israel celebrated the 155th birthday of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, considered by...
January 8, 2013 4:55 pm
Reclaiming the Values of the Kibbutz Movement
On Oct. 29, 1910, a group of 10 men and two women founded the first kibbutz in Israel: Kibbutz...
January 8, 2013 4:45 pm
Accessing The Bible With 21st Century Technology
The Bible, the best-selling book in history, is transitioning into the 21st century. An online...
January 4, 2013 5:13 pm
Rebbetzin (Rabbi’s Wife): The Ultimate Balancing Act
Recently, a congregant asked me to speak to her daughter, who was planning to become a Rebbetzin, ...
January 4, 2013 4:13 am
Experiencing Jerusalem Through the Arts
Jerusalem–Jerusalem inspires creative energy—ever since David composed his Psalms here,...
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Personalities Sports
NBA Finals a Time to Remember Legendary Jewish Coach Red Auerbach
JNS.org - At the start of each nationally televised game of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, ABChas aired a film-clip montage of basketball’s great players and coaches—a montage that includes Jewish coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, the mastermind behind nine championship teams for the Boston Celtics. Red was one of four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who left Belarus when he was 13. The couple owned a deli and [...]
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Arts and Culture Jewish History
The Marx Brothers and Jewish Identity
JNS.org - The sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France, the Marx Brothers became zany masters of stage and screen who continue to captivate audiences. But in addition to providing comic relief, their films captured the drama of the entry of their marginalized religion into the U.S. Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the 2012 book The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, explains that the Marx Brothers’ Jewishness as a family “was evident, marked, thoroughly legible.” “Within a family already marked as Jewish within [...]
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Arts and Culture Jewish Identity
SuperJew
For my shekels, the question of whether the comic book character Superman, is Jewish or not shouldn’t even be questioned. Born and named Kal-El by his father Jor-El, “El” is one of the ancient names for God used throughout the bible and found in great prophets such as Samue-el, Dani-el and angels Micha-el and Gavri-el and of course, Isra-el. As Simcha Weinstein in his entertaining book, “Up, Up And Oy Vey” points out, “Kal” is the root of several Hebrew [...]
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Israel Sports
Formula 1 Road Show Thrills Jerusalem
JNS.org – Some 100,000 people attended Israel’s first-ever Formula 1 Road Show in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. For several hours, the controversies that normally characterize Jerusalem were put aside, and a diverse mosaic of Israelis watched up close as the motor-sport stars temporarily conquered the city. “It was an amazing experience, the most fast and furious thing I have seen,” spectator Masada Porat told Israel Hayom. “It was a rare, extreme event that explodes in your face.” Spectator Irena [...]
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Book Reviews Jewish Identity
Klara’s Journey Casts Jews in Fast-Paced Adventure Through Russian History
JNS.org – “If you’re sick, move away. Have some consideration for others,” a red army soldier scolds a slow-moving old man selling train tickets. “No, fires back the old man, proud, haughty, not realizing it’s a new country, a Bolshevik country where force heads the list instead of civility,” reads the following line in Ben G. Frank’s new novel, Klara’s Journey, released June 1. Reminiscent of Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago—whose backdrop is also a train ride across the Russian frontier during the [...]
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Personalities Theater
Nora Ephron, Famed Jewish Screenwriter, Remembered Through Tribeca Film Festival Prize
JNS.org – For filmmaker Meera Menon, no honor could have been more fitting than winning the inaugural award named after famed Jewish screenwriter and novelist Nora Ephron, the woman whose work inspired her. At the recent 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Menon was named the first recipient of the $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, given to a writer or director whose work embodies that of the late Ephron, who wrote the scripts for a number of hit films, including “When Harry Met [...]
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Book Reviews Personalities
Book Review: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Memoir an Important Guide for Players and Coaches
JNS.org – Despite his friends’ and family’s doubts that a young Orthodox Jewish athlete could ever play college or professional basketball without compromising his religious values, between 1999 and 2009 the “Jewish Jordan” defied conventional wisdom and found his place on the court. In his new memoir, Jewish Jordan’s Triple Threat, Tamir Goodman describes his triumphs and disappointments in life, crediting his practice of Judaism for shaping his identity as an athlete and his understanding of basketball as a team sport. [...]
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Blogs Sports
Omri Casspi, ‘Jewish Jordan’ Partner on Basketball Camps to Inspire Youths On and Off the Court
Tamir Goodman (left) and NBA forward Omri Casspi—pictured on the court of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls—together run basketball camps that seek to inspire youths on and off the court. Photo: Courtesy Tamir Goodman. JNS.org – Before last year, basketball camps for Jewish youths never had an instructor quite like Omri Casspi, a forward for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Cleveland Cavaliers and the first Israeli-born player in NBA history. Casspi is a de facto ambassador for [...]
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