Judaism

Graduate of one-year rabbinical program leads services on the web

NEW YORK (Press Release)–As a scientist, educator, and one of seven children raised in a close African American Jewish family in upstate New York, Rabbi Deborah McKenzie fulfills her childhood dream to become a spiritual leader, and shepherds summer Ma’ariv Monday services for Sim Shalom, the online synagogue, to refresh spirituality each week.  (Sim Shalom

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Jewish Religion, USA

Chief Rabbi Lau: Ivanka Trump conversion legitimate

The brouhaha surrounding the recognition of Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism by Israel may be nearing it’s end. Trump, the daughter of US presidential candidate Donald Trump, converted to Judaism under the auspices of Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein. Recently, it was announced that a Rabbinical Court in Israel had ruled that Rabbi Lookstein’s conversions are

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Jewish Religion, Middle East, USA

Poland commemorates ‘bestial’ massacre of Holocaust survivors

President Andrzej Duda on Monday pledged to fight racism and anti-Semitism 70 years after dozens of Polish Holocaust survivors were massacred in a brutal pogrom. “It’s the army and militia that opened fire first” on the Jewish inhabitants of the southern city of Kielce, Duda said during ceremonies marking the anniversary. He described the communist

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International, Jewish History

Students learn about Jewish civil rights activism — in Japan

Miyuki Kita, an American Studies professor at the University of Kitakyushu in southern Japan, has focused her entire academic career on Jewish political activism in the United States. Her town has no Jewish community. “Japanese students know only Martin Luther King, Jr., and regard him as the only hero of the civil rights movement,” said

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International, Jewish History, USA

‘Bad Jews’ depicts split between religious and secular

By Cynthia Citron HOLLYWOOD — The play has such a despicable name that you would think it would attract every neo-Nazi, Aryan Nation, Skinheaded anti-Semite in southern California.  The play is called Bad Jews.  But, surprisingly, playwright Joshua Harmon’s four-person diatribe is actually a perceptive reflection of the way in which many modern Jews relate

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Cynthia Citron, Jewish Religion, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Israeli presidents past and present bid farewell to Elie Wiesel

Tributes have been pouring in since news broke of the passing of world-renowned Holocaust survivor, writer, activist and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel on Saturday. Among those paying their respects were Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, who spoke of his immense sadness over Wiesel’s death, who he dubbed “a giant of humanity.” “Tonight we bid farewell

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International, Jewish History, Middle East