Judaism News Archives

In the chapel of Congregation B'nai Israel, Rabbi Edward Garsek carefully wrapped leather straps around his arm and forehead, demonstrating the Jewish ritual of putting on tefillin, while across the hall Cantor Evan Rubin taught a lesson on the Book of Genesis.

Message to Israelis disgruntled with President Barack Obama's Middle East policies: you've got used to U.S. presidents pouring affection on you.

Israel has never recovered from Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. Sadly, the firebrand rhetoric that led to his death is still prevalent In Jewish communities throughout Israel and the Diaspora, everyone remembers where they were the night Yitzhak Rabin was killed .

A A Judaism Jews pray at the Mount of Olives, matzoh is baked in Brooklyn, and thousands of rabbis pose for a group photo.

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. And I'm Melissa Block.

An unlikely relationship between different faiths is setting an example in northern Virginia.

Britain's most successful Jewish school told the supreme court today it had discriminated against a 12-year-old boy on religious rather than racial grounds.

Sometimes embracing a faith is easier than living with the people who profess that faith.

According to People , Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism before getting married. I know several of these "converts" to Judaism.

In this photo taken Oct. 22, 2009 two religious Jewish women wait for the elevator at the Mamilla mall just outside Jerusalem's Old City.

A flurry of books bashing religion are making best-seller lists and grabbing a lot of attention a ' so much so that anti-religion publications seem to have become a lucrative genre all their own.

Israeli police fired stun grenades at Arab youths who threw rocks at them in the compound of Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City on Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

ANWAR Khatib has been harvesting olives for four decades, but this year the crop is especially sparse and bitter.

As complex as religions are, there is usually one core concept that emerges as the central pillar upon which all else rests.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai referred Thursday evening blamed Reform Judaism for the assimilation among Jews.

Jewish activists concerned with Darfur are giving high marks to the new U.S. policy toward Sudan, but some are cautioning that the real test is how the strategy is implemented.

The Union for Reform Judaism convenes early next month in Toronto for its Biennial Convention, and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism will follow with its biennial in December.

THE competition to find a good deed for the Times Series team to carry out is coming to a close.

Saving the group or individuals? Cartoonist Regan "We're the same, and it's just one God." That is so true, but the religions have dissimilar philosophical approaches and agendas and sometimes unsavory track records to always sustain that spiritual ideal.

Ex-reality TV dad Jon Gosselin, who has been rumored to be considering converting to Judiasm, sought the advice of an esteemed rabbi over the weekend on how to raise his kids, according to Usmagazine.com . "My question is, obviously I'm going through a divorce, and it's pretty public," Gosselin said, addressing panelists at Manhattan's Central ...

When Benjamin Sklaver was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on October 2, he was just 32 years old but had already made a remarkable impact on the world.

The October 25 conference in Washington D.C. of left-leaning lobby group J Street is just one week away, but Israela TMs ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, is still not saying whether he will attend or not.

There is just as much passion and lust in the Old Testament as there is in real life, said a local rabbi, who has put together a lecture series to examine that topic and others relevant to modern life.

A Torah scroll that was donated to a federal prison in Springfield 45 years ago has been returned to its St.

October 10, 2009 By Tony Castro The idea of Francis Siciliano learning Hebrew, studying the Torah and observing Jewish services in a synagogue doesn't seem out of the ordinary on the Westside of Los Angeles.

Las Vegas Herald Wednesday 14th October, 2009 Nevada , Oct 14 : Hindus and Jews have asked United Nations to direct Malta to treat all religions and denominations equally in front of the law.

Please don't take this personally but you must know that Reformed and Conservative "Judaism" are fraudulent 19th century movements which were formed by assimilated German Jews who were ashamed of their Jewish heritage and wanted to assimilate and gradually disappear into the general German culture.

JERUSALEM - A 96-year-old woman and 12 other residents of an Ohio retirement community celebrated a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony in Jerusalem on Thursday - decades late, perhaps, but with a spirit that only a lifetime of experience can bring.

Last month, a controversy erupted over a commercial on Israeli television promoting the Jewish Agency's Masa program, which brings young Jews to Israel for sustained periods of work, study, and volunteering.

Today, their group - Chabad - includes more than 100 members and is run from the 6,000 sq.

Photograph by Mark Kitaoka BATTER UP: Reuven recalls a street game between himself as a boy and Danny .

Hoping to get better food, Brian Dugan changed religions after he was transferred to the DuPage County Jail to stand trial for the murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.

On October 8, 2009 at the 92nd Street Y, two of the nation's most provocative voices on issues surrounding Judaism and the Middle East conflict, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz and talk radio host Dennis Prager, debated "The Left, the Right and Judaism in America." Prager leaves no room for misinterpretation on where he stands by declaring, ...

Claims that Israel was digging, or intending to dig, under the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem were an "outright lie" disseminated by an "extremist minority," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

The precise nature of this thing we call 'Judaism' is more complex than we assume.

Reprinted with permission from Jewish Action, the magazine of the Orthodox Union .

The Guardian on Monday dismissed a recent report by another British newspaper claiming Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's family converted to Islam from Judaism after his birth.

"You never get too good for the basics." Some such caution will be familiar to anyone who has trained in a sport, musical instrument or language.

An atmosphere of fantasy pervaded US President Barack Obama's Middle East peace processor George Mitchell's meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday.

We asked area religious leaders from the major faiths to discuss suicide. Here's what they had to say: Chris Tiger, senior pastor, First United Methodist Church of Owasso: "I believe that the person's soul is safe.

One of Israel's top rabbis said Thursday that religious law prevented Jews from entering the Temple Mount / Noble Sanctuary compound in Jerusalem's Old City.

Beginning Hebrew and Basic Judaism classes will be offered for six weeks beginning Tuesday at B'nai Zion Congregation, 245 Southfield Road in Shreveport.

We've come to expect the unexpected from the Coen brothers, but "A Serious Man" has to be their most bizarre entry yet.

A Jew is a constituent of the longest-running, most confounding, hardest to categorize, most widely-scattered, historically hunted and murdered, nomadic, demographically-challenged, resilient, despised, and admired faith community without a firmly-set liturgy in history.

Israel is committed to safeguarding Islamic holy places in its jurisdiction, President Shimon Peres said Wednesday, in response to days of tension and rioting in Jerusalem centering around the flashpoint Temple Mount/Holy Sanctuary compound.

It begins with parchment, ink, a hand-sharpened feather quill, and a scribe who states out loud the intention to write a Torah scroll, the most holy and important object in Judaism.

NAZARETH // Tensions over control of the Haram al Sharif compound of mosques in Jerusalem's Old City has reached a pitch unseen since clashes at the site sparked the second intifada nine years ago.

Sunday night I went home and took a spin through Job. Earlier in the evening, I had attended a screening of the remarkable new Coen brothers film, " A Serious Man ,'' hosted at Brandeis by the National Center for Jewish Film .

Articles 01:19 10/06/2009 Distracting the world community permits Israel to continue its illegal maneuvers.

Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address.

Caveats Sunday, October 04, 2009 Philosophical Vindication of Judaism in IV Maccabees This is a repost, slightly revised, of a 2008 post.

The recent clarification by the Director of Public Prosecutions on the question of assisted suicide is closer to the thick than the thin end of the wedge.

A few hours before the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, Iranian television showed Iranian missiles blasting from land-based batteries.

The recently discovered Jeselsohn Stone features a controversial apocalyptic inscription known as "Gabriel's Revelation." Click to enlarge If You Go What: "Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures" When: Jan.

Tel Aviv, Sep 27 At least 4 Palestinians were wounded Sunday when Israel police attacked demonstrators who were responding to a provocation of Israeli tourists in Jerusalem Old City, reported the local media Sunday.

An anti-Semitic pamphleteer who terrorized Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill last week brought his hateful message to Bay Ridge overnight on Sept.