Jewish Religion

Sonduck warns against divisions in Jewish community

By Donald H. Harrison LA JOLLA, California – Michael Sonduck, soon to retire as chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, on Sunday, June 10, urged a roomful of well-wishers representing boards, staffs, and financial supporters of some 120 local Jewish organizations in the county, to look beyond their individual organizations […]

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, USA

Fix it! say American Jews; like Israelis, they differ how

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It’s good that American Jews still concern themselves with Israel. One can hope for better information among them, and more sanity at the extremes. Being Jews, however, those are probably hopes to be frustrated. The range of what we hear isn’t all that different from what Israelis express. Likewise, the

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Ira Sharkansky, Jewish Religion, Middle East, USA

‘Just Kidding:’ ‘Queen of Shiva’ helps mourners

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — A company has been formed to help Jewish mourners properly observe the requirements of their  first-week mourning period. Called Queen of Shiva, the firm offers to handle some of the details of observance required of those who have suffered the loss of a loved one. The firm’s founder, who asked

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Jewish Religion, Joel H. Cohen, Trivia, Humor & Satire

June 1 Farhud Day recalls Nazi – Arab Shoah alliance

By Edwin Black WASHINGTON, D.C. — When International Farhud Day was proclaimed at a conference convened at the United Nations headquarters on June 1, 2015, its proponents wanted to achieve more than merely establish a commemoration of the ghastly 1941 Arab-Nazi pogrom in Baghdad that killed and injured hundreds of Iraqi Jews. Farhud means violent dispossession.

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Edwin Black, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Royal wedding invoked Hebrew imagery

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — As befits an English woman living abroad, I watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on television, and reveled in the pomp and circumstance of each shot and every angle. I loved the sight of the beautiful mixed-race bride, her dress, the bridesmaids and page-boys, the various

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

60 deaf students join joint bar/ bat mitzvah rites

JERUSALEM (Press Release) — Sixty deaf and hearing impaired young adults from all over Israel participated in the annual Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration ceremony organized by the International Young Israel Movement (IYIM) on May 7 in the Beit Yaakov Synagogue in Jerusalem. This event was held in cooperation with Acha (The Association of the Deaf in

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Jewish Religion, Middle East