Judaism

Sailors, Marines seek religious accommodation to wear beards

October 1, 2021

Shave or be Shaved. Aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, sailor Edmund Di Liscia faced a stark choice. According to his lawyers, he was told to either shave his beard voluntarily or be held down by his bunk mate and forcibly shaved. For Di Liscia, a practicing Hasidic Jew who had not shaved for more than two years, it was a choice between his loyalty to the U.S. Navy and his religious faith.

Di Liscia is one of several sailors and marines who are seeking religious accommodation to wear beards while in uniform.  

Earlier this year, Di Liscia, along with three...

Read more about Sailors, Marines seek religious accommodation to wear beards

The Unorthodox Art of an Ultra-Orthodox Community

September 24, 2021

When Shoshana Golin-Cahn set her sights on attending fine-arts school almost 30 years ago, she did what many Orthodox Jews do when faced with a big decision: She called her rabbi. He told her the one limitation she would face was that she was not to draw live male nude models, because the rabbi felt that doing so would be immodest for a single woman.

Growing up in a large Orthodox community in Monsey, New York, Golin-Cahn, who’s 53, felt like an anomaly when she decided to pursue fine arts professionally; community members looked at her askance. “It was like art was too...

Read more about The Unorthodox Art of an Ultra-Orthodox Community

"My heart is breaking:" Rabbi responds to metro Atlanta high school's bathroom defaced with Anti-Semitic images

September 13, 2021

Cobb County parents are concerned after bathrooms were vandalized with anti-semitic images at Alan C. Pope High School in Marietta Friday. 

 

Parents concerned after metro Atlanta high school's bathroom vandalized with anti-semitic images

... Read more about "My heart is breaking:" Rabbi responds to metro Atlanta high school's bathroom defaced with Anti-Semitic images

Religious organizations prepare for 'potential onslaught' of evictions

September 9, 2021

The Supreme Court’s Aug. 26 decision to end the federal eviction moratorium brings new challenges for religious leaders and organizations working to aid those at risk for homelessness. More than 3.6 million Americans say they could face eviction in the next two months, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We’re very, very nervous,” said Sarah Abramson, vice president of strategy and impact at Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston. “There is already a tremendous housing shortage in Boston. And we know from our data, and from the experience of our partners...

Read more about Religious organizations prepare for 'potential onslaught' of evictions

For a Second Year, Jews Mark the High Holy Days in the Shadow of Covid

September 6, 2021

The leadership at Central Synagogue in Manhattan had big plans this year for the Jewish High Holy Days: After celebrating via livestream during the pandemic last fall, they rented out Radio City Music Hall for a grand celebration.

But the spread of the Delta variant has upended those plans. Now, they’ll still use the 5,500-seat music hall, but only at 30 percent capacity. And everyone must show proof of vaccination and wear masks.

“In some ways, last year was easier to plan because it was so absolutely clear we would be gathering virtually,” said Angela W. Buchdahl...

Read more about For a Second Year, Jews Mark the High Holy Days in the Shadow of Covid

This rabbinical school is moving into a Catholic university

September 2, 2021

The Academy for Jewish Religion California has rented space in several locations during its 21-year existence as a transdenominational seminary that trains rabbis and cantors.

For a while it was housed in an office building in downtown Los Angeles, then at Hillel, the Jewish campus organization at the University of California Los Angeles.

But beginning Oct. 1, in an arrangement both novel and pathbreaking, the academy will move to Loyola Marymount...

Read more about This rabbinical school is moving into a Catholic university

Antisemitic and anti-Muslim content is flourishing on TikTok, report finds

August 27, 2021

Researchers analyzing TikTok for extremist content have discovered videos that portray Muslims as supporters of terrorism, clips supporting Holocaust denial and users glorifying the mass shooters behind the Christchurch mosque and Tree of Life Synagogue attacks.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that tracks extremism online, released a report on Tuesday (Aug. 24) that found TikTok “operates as a new arena for...

Read more about Antisemitic and anti-Muslim content is flourishing on TikTok, report finds

Houses of Worship Struggle Back, and Tread Lightly on Vaccines

August 25, 2021

The weekly rhythms of Catholic life have started to return at Our Lady of Lourdes in Harlem. The pews are packed on Sunday mornings, prayer groups meet after work and the collection plate is almost as full as it was before the coronavirus pandemic began.

But parishioners are starting to worry about the virus again.

“For a little while everyone felt more free, not using masks and things like that,” said the Rev. Gilberto Ángel-Neri, the pastor. “But now that we hear all the news about the Delta variant, everyone is using masks again.”

Source:...

Read more about Houses of Worship Struggle Back, and Tread Lightly on Vaccines

Synagogues hoped to be in person this year. Now they're not so sure.

August 18, 2021

Two weeks ago, Rabbi Steven Engel and his staff at Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando, Florida, had a solid pandemic safety plan for the best-attended services of the year: Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

The plan called for:

  • Doubling the number of services to allow the congregation’s 1,500 members to distance from one another.
  • Members only in attendance.
  • Advance reservations required.
  • Outdoor-only services for unvaccinated children.
  • No members on the...
Read more about Synagogues hoped to be in person this year. Now they're not so sure.

Study: Jews of color love Judaism but often experience racism in Jewish settings

August 12, 2021

A groundbreaking study of the experiences of more than 1,100 American Jews of color finds many feel a strong sense of belonging to the larger white Jewish establishment but 80% said they have also suffered discrimination or racism in Jewish settings.

The study, the first of its kind, was undertaken by 16 scholars, many at...

Read more about Study: Jews of color love Judaism but often experience racism in Jewish settings

White House appoints liaison to Jewish community

August 6, 2021

(RNS) — The White House has tapped an Orthodox Jewish man who served as President Barack Obama’s Jewish liaison during his last year in office to fill that role again in the Biden administration.

Chanan Weissman, 37, currently director for technology and democracy for the National Security Council, will pick up his old job, the White House announced Friday (Aug. 6). Weissman has worked for the State Department for most of his career, more recently for the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

Source: ...

Read more about White House appoints liaison to Jewish community

Marc Lieberman, Who Brought Jews and Buddhists Together, Dies at 72

August 8, 2021

Dr. Marc Lieberman, an ophthalmologist and self-proclaimed “Jewish Buddhist” who, when he wasn’t treating glaucoma, organized a dialogue between Jewish scholars and the Dalai Lama, and who later brought sight back to thousands of Tibetans stricken by cataracts, died on Aug. 2 at his home in San Francisco. He was 72.

His son, Michael, said the cause was prostate cancer.

Dr. Lieberman, who called himself a “JuBu,” retained his Jewish faith but incorporated aspects of Buddhist teachings and practices. He kept kosher and observed the sabbath, but he also meditated...

Read more about Marc Lieberman, Who Brought Jews and Buddhists Together, Dies at 72

Game changer: How mahjong helped Jewish and Asian Americans overcome racism

July 13, 2021

(RNS) — A century ago, marginalized Americans seeking to be assimilated into the country’s “melting pot” gravitated to an Asian game of chance that one Chinese critic considered to be as morally dangerous as footbinding and opium.

Today, a new book on mahjong and its cultural journey in the U.S. suggests that there is much to learn from the game’s history, particularly how to put the rising anti-Asian and anti-Jewish hatred of our time in context. 

Mahjong was born in mid- to late-19th-century Chinese gambling houses, where men clacked its game tiles, bearing...

Read more about Game changer: How mahjong helped Jewish and Asian Americans overcome racism

U.S. seizes Jewish funeral scrolls, manuscripts thought 'lost for all time' in Holocaust

July 22, 2021

The Justice Department on Thursday announced the seizure of 17 funeral scrolls, manuscripts and community records that were looted from Eastern European Jewish communities annihilated in the Holocaust more than three-quarters of a century ago.

The artifacts were found through a New York City auction house that offered them for sale, the Justice Department said in a statement.

According to an affidavit in the case, "until they were recently discovered as being offered for sale at the Auction, the Manuscripts and Scrolls were believed to have been lost for all time...

Read more about U.S. seizes Jewish funeral scrolls, manuscripts thought 'lost for all time' in Holocaust

The Changing Faces of American Rabbis

July 22, 2021

When famous artists like Chagall depict rabbis, they are painted as bearded men, often hunched over ancient texts or wrapped in their prayer shawls. When depicted in film, a rabbi is almost always shown as a saintly older man, most often with a European accent, with Hollywood representations almost exclusively always showing rabbis as men. This stereotype is so common that American Sign Language’s word for “Jew” borrows from this imagery, showing the mimicking of running one’s fingers through beard hair.

In contrast to these traditional rabbinic images, Rabba Sara Hurwitz—who...

Read more about The Changing Faces of American Rabbis

Pages