Judaism

Mohels warned to get checked for herpes after babies infected

Two babies were hospitalized at Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petach Tikva for being infected with herpes during circumcision, Kikar HaShabbat reports Wednesday night – and a prominent mohel has demanded that fellow mohels get checked for the disease before performing the ceremony. Mohel Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud told the daily that mohels must “check themselves first […]

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Jewish Religion, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

It took this man 10 years to realize he was living in a synagogue

In 1990, Jihad Al-Mohammed moved into an abandoned building in the old city of Sidon in south Lebanon. The Lebanese civil war had just come to end. The Palestinian refugees who had been sheltering in the centuries-old structure had gone. “But it was filled with rats and garbage,” says Mohammed. “So I cleaned it up.”

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Jewish Religion, Middle East

Bamberger book is author’s ‘obsession’

Jewish historian pens bio of ‘seminal figure’ of the 20th century Linda Forgosh holds a copy of her new book, Louis Bamberger: Department Store Innovator and Philanthropist. Photo by Robert Wiener Louis Bamberger, center, with shovel, at the ground breaking of The Newark Museum in 1930. Photos courtesy Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey A

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, USA

He found Judaism at 14. Today he’s at the forefront of Poland’s Jewish revival

WARSAW — On the face of it, Maciej Pawlak is an unlikely Jewish day school principal. Born in Szezecin, in northwestern Poland, he was raised in an atheist household and did not even realize he was Jewish until he was a teenager. His father, Zbigniew, was Catholic, and his mother, Alina, was Jewish. “I suspected

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International, Jewish Religion

Lag Ba’Omer bonfires caused Thursday’s major wildfires

Lag Ba’Omer fires may have sparked the massive blazes in Emek HaArazim, Ramot, and Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood the Fire Department announced Monday. A campfire in Emek HaArazim, near Ramot, probably started the blaze as Lag Ba’Omer festivities ended, spreading due to northwest winds at approximately 12:05 pm Thursday, the Investigative Department of the Jerusalem Fire

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Jewish Religion, Middle East

Autistic teen celebrates Bar Mitzvah in special ceremony

A unique celebration took place at the Yeshivat Hesder Meir Harel in Modi’in Thursday, on Lag Ba’Omer: a special needs boy celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. The Bar Mitzvah boy, an autistic teen, was the first to celebrate the milestone since the inception of the Bar Mitzvah program Shahak LeBnei Mitzvah eight years ago, complete with

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Jewish Religion, Middle East