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...
November 12, 2012 5:13 pm
Thousands of Jews Visit Hebron to Mark Cave of Patriarchs Purchase
Tens of thousands of Jews arrived in Hebron over the weekend to mark a special Sabbath when...
November 8, 2012 8:40 am
For Hispanic ‘Crypto-Jews,’ Lawsuits May Follow Religious Rediscovery
Sonya Loya’s path of rediscovery aligns with the journey potentially millions of other “Crypto-Jews”...
November 4, 2012 3:59 pm
Israeli Oscar’s Entry Offers ‘Window to the Orthodox World’
NEW YORK—At a time when the secular world looms just beyond the boundaries of Tel Aviv’s...
November 1, 2012 11:46 pm
OTZMA Israel Program to End After 26 Years
The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) has announced that it is ending the long-running...
October 30, 2012 11:38 am
‘Forward’ Cartoon Mocks Zionism Through Anne Frank DNA Experiment
The Forward newspaper on Oct. 29 published a Halloween cartoon by Eli Valley that the newspaper...
October 29, 2012 9:30 am
Ethiopian Aliyah Enters Final Stages
Approximately 240 new immigrants were set to arrive at Israel’s David Ben-Gurion airport...
October 24, 2012 9:00 pm
Secularization Breeds Collaboration in “Blessed Are the Artists” Exhibit at Caldwell College
Threatened by secularization in the wake of modernization, members of different religions...
October 23, 2012 9:33 pm
Young American Jews and Israel
When a recent Cohen and Kelman poll reported that 50 percent of young American Jews would...
October 22, 2012 2:39 pm
Swedish Court Upholds Religious Freedom in Chabad Case
A Swedish appellate court has upheld the right for Chabad-Lubavitch representatives to homeschool...
October 21, 2012 3:26 am
Grasping the Hand of God
One of the most iconic images in the art world is the finger of God reaching out to the finger...
October 18, 2012 8:56 pm
Gangnam Style Hits Jerusalem?
Gangnam Style has hit the Holy City. The original video, which has become a full-fledged global...
October 16, 2012 10:11 am
Jewish Agency Facebook Page Inundated with Anti-Semitic Posts
In an apparently coordinated cyber-attack of a different kind, the Jewish Agency for Israel’s...
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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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