Thanks to the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest, memorabilia from the 110-year-old Newark Beth Israel Medical Center will highlight an exhibit at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York. The exhibition, titled “Trail of the Magic Bullet: The Jewish Encounter with Modern Medicine,” will run from Feb. 26 to Aug. 8. Read More »
The New York Times Book Review had a little graphic recently charting sales of Heaven is for Real , a father’s account of his four-year-old son’s near-death experience and his three-minute trip to heaven. The book has been sitting atop the Times paperback nonfiction list for 53 weeks (non-consecutively). Read More »
How best to respond to the annual hate fest known as “Israel Apartheid Week”? Each year, the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement revs up on campuses to try to isolate Israel and its supporters. Its victories are few and far between, but its activists manage to rile Jewish leaders on campus and off. Read More »
America has faced crises in the Middle East ever since the Barbary pirates attacked U.S. merchant ships sailing the Mediterranean Sea during the first decades of the 19th century. It took the U.S. Navy to put an end to the raids. Read More »
Rick, Danny, Jonah, Mark, and Brad. One might think this is a list of possible names for your new baby boy. No, these are the first names of the top ranking individuals in the Union for Reform Judaism. And no, this is not a page from our history — this is 2012. Read More »
Rutgers Hillel is gearing up for “Israel Apartheid Week” with programming meant to counter pro-Palestinian groups’ calls for an anti-Israel boycott. With both sides set to begin their programming on Monday, Feb. 27, Hillel will invite Israelis from diverse backgrounds to speak to students about Israel’s “melting pot. Read More »
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) offered a stern warning to Latin American leaders as he chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee hearing on the Iranian government’s activities in the Western hemisphere. Read More »
When the adult education group of the Summit Jewish Community Center turns its attention to the Middle East, the discussion is enriched with a very personal perspective. Congregation president Maurice de Picciotto grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, as a member of the city’s Sephardi Jewish community. Read More »
When her son Luke was just a few months old, Joan Weinstein of Denville, 33, was looking for a way to meet other Jewish new moms. Read More »
The Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks has been recognized for “meritorious cooperation and mutual support” in the furtherance of Outstanding Federation-Synagogue Partnerships by the Union for Reform Judaism. PMB was one of 10 federations nationwide to be cited in December by the URJ’s Synagogue-Federation Relations Committee. Read More »
Escorted by a very special tour guide, 10 Princeton University undergraduates and one graduate student spent eight days in Israel for a firsthand exploration at the country’s most critical foreign and domestic issues. Their leader was Daniel Kurtzer, who has been the United States ambassador to both Israel and Egypt. Their Dec. Read More »
Bozenna Urbanowicz Gilbride is a Catholic who grew up in Poland. Inge Auerbacher is a Jew from Germany. These two 77-year-old women — so different in background, yet so similar in experience — have been close friends for the past 20 years, after discovering they both endured imprisonment during the Holocaust. Read More »
For the first time since opening its doors in 1939, Greenwood House in Ewing has become a nonsectarian nursing facility. It is the last of seven homes in New Jersey — and possibly the entire nation — to drop its status as an all-Jewish nursing home. Read More »
Almost seven decades ago, David Wisnia left Auschwitz-Birkenau, an emaciated teenager on a death march. On Jan. 27 of this year, now 85, and a revered cantor, he returned — to perform on International Holocaust Remembrance Day at a ceremony commemorating the 67th anniversary of the liberation of the massive death camp. Read More »
A campaign to encourage merchants and shoppers in Bucks and Mercer counties to buy and sell goods made in Israel has received a “BIG” boost via a grant from the Jewish Federations of North America. The $7,000 award to the Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks is helping to fund a program called Buy Israeli Goods. Read More »
More than 100 Princeton University alumni and current students gathered on Feb. 12 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yavneh House, the university’s Orthodox Jewish student organization. Read More »
With the Super Bowl behind us, I can at last put aside the numerical complexities of football: three-point field goal, six-point touchdown, one-point conversion, two-point safety, two-minute rule, four downs — the list goes on and on. I am, however, taken by the time-out regulations. Read More »
A few years back, when Hillside accountant Alvin Levine learned that he had cancer, he began methodically settling his affairs. His beloved wife, Gertrude, had died in 2003, and they had no children. He decided to leave their three-bedroom house on a quiet street in Hillside to Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey. Levine died on Oct. Read More »
A Cranford synagogue has reenlisted in a national effort to “turn Friday night into Shabbat.” On March 2, Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim will join hundreds of synagogues in North America in the 16th annual Shabbat Across America, an effort of the National Jewish Outreach Program. Read More »
When a camera crew stopped in to film the exhibition of hasidic art he organized in Brooklyn during Sukkot last year, Rabbi Yitzchok Moully was pleased. When they mentioned that they were working with Oprah Winfrey on her documentary about hasidic life, he was, he said, intrigued — but not particularly excited. Read More »
Asked where the first garden in the world was, a student stepped up to the mike and answered shyly. Applause erupted from her classmates around her — and from the computer in front of her, where the screen showed a crowd of other students, half a world away. Read More »
“Linsanity” has captured the hearts and minds of sports fans across the world. It is, indeed, a great story about perseverance and a testament to New York Knicks’ rookie Jeremy Lin’s hard work and dedication. Read More »
After nearly two years of sometime acrimonious debate and heated public hearings, the Millburn Township Zoning Board of Adjustment denied the Chai Center’s bid to build a 16,350-square-foot structure on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Old Short Hills Road. Read More »
As the military correspondent and defense analyst for the Jerusalem Post and the Israel correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly , Yaakov Katz has contacts deep in Israel’s military establishment. His access has enabled him to write Israel vs. Iran — The Shadow War , a 2011 book that will be published in the United States in May by Potomac Press. Read More »
A minister and national expert in faith and disability, the Rev. William Gaventa praised the Jewish community for its advances in including individuals with special needs. Read More »
Eric Cantor, Republican leader of the House of Representatives and the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, told an off-the-record gathering of pro-Israel supporters that other Middle Eastern countries share Israel’s distress over Iran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. Speaking in Teaneck Feb. Read More »
Gilad Shalit made a long-awaited visit last month to the home of his late commander, Hanan Barak, and told Barak’s family emotional stories about the June 25, 2006, incident in which Shalit was kidnapped and Barak was killed. Read More »
A last-minute effort by Orthodox opponents had no apparent effect as the New Jersey State Senate passed a measure legalizing gay marriage by a wider than expected 24-16 margin. A vote in the State Assembly was scheduled for Feb. 16. Gov. Read More »
It’s always a relief when The New York Times publishes an op-ed that energizes the pro-Israel community for all the right reasons. Read More »
It is no surprise that the Orthodox Union is opposed to same-sex marriage and the legislation approving it that passed this week in the New Jersey State Senate. The subject of homosexuality drives a sharp wedge between Orthodox groups and most members of the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist denominations. Read More »
Almost a year ago, I wrote about the Obama Doctrine and the “Right to Protect” (R2P) as it was applied to Libya (“Obama’s intervention: Today Libya, tomorrow Israel?” March 30, 2011). Read More »
Spring semester on North American campuses is well known to have an elevated level of anti-Israel activity. Between the annual Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Conference which occurred this month at the University of Pennsylvania; Israel Apartheid Week, coming to campuses Feb. Read More »
Heeding Andrew Carnegie’s maxim that “he who dies rich dies in disgrace,” Leon Cooperman and his wife, Toby, have made what is believed to be the largest single contribution the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest NJ has ever received. The JCF has been named beneficiary of the Coopermans’ $20 million life insurance policy. Read More »
Iran expert Patrick Clawson said the international sanctions campaign has gained real momentum, and he expressed cautious optimism that it might succeed in preempting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. However, he told an audience in Whippany on Feb. Read More »
Crossing state lines to tackle international issues, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that “America should stand by its friends and its democratic allies even, and sometimes especially, when it’s unpopular to do so.” Christie was widely quoted at a technically off-the-record Feb. Read More »
Egypt has marked the first anniversary of its uprising against the autocratic rule of President Mubarak by declaring war on U.S.-based nonprofit organizations that work to spread democracy. The transformation of Egypt’s “Arab Spring” into a new form of repression should concern all who cherish democratic values and human rights. Read More »
The first time the rabbi stopped by the Freehold Kia dealership, offering hallah and a chance to put on tefillin , no one was more surprised than owner Jay Brichke. Brichke, 56, of Livingston said, “For the first time in my life I put on tefillin , and I found myself really embracing it. Read More »
Members of the Sephardi community in Deal continue efforts to rescue the financially strapped Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County. In the meantime the facility remains open, operating on donations from community members. Read More »
The generosity of the local Jewish community has freed an East Brunswick man from “jail” after almost four years. Steve Weinraub’s imprisonment, however, did not involve cells or guards, but rather his physical disability, which prevented the 31-year-old from leaving his home without assistance. Read More »
Law enforcement officials briefed Jewish leaders at a Feb. 9 security seminar held at the South River offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County. Local police chiefs urged Jewish institutions to be more vigilant, to take steps to protect themselves, and to form alliances with law enforcement. Read More »
For some participants of the Monmouth Federation Taglit-Birthright Israel trip, the moment of true connection came when they gathered under a prayer shawl on the Haas Promenade, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. In a ceremony led by Rabbi Steve Bernstein of Kibbutz Gezer on Jan. Read More »
Three years after it was granted permission to open a state-of-the-art Jewish nursing home in Freehold, the Village for Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Workmen’s Circle is looking for investors to revive the stalled project. Organizers hope to determine by spring whether they will be able to break ground on the ambitious construction project. Read More »
The aged and ailing rabbi exclaimed: “This is the most shocking and astounding phrase in the entire Torah!” These words were uttered, in Hebrew, by Rabbi Simcha Zissel Broida, then dean of the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem, who was visiting Baltimore, Read More »
Avishai Bokovza thought it was odd when he saw a car driving without lights on his Negev ranch at 2 a.m. Bokovza followed the car to the tent of a nearby Bedouin family and warned them that he would hold them responsible for stealing if he found them on his property again. Read More »
The discourse about Israel — that conducted by those who see themselves as Israel’s friends — seems to come in either of two varieties. Read More »
Thanks to the parents of slain terrorist victim Alisa Flatow, a secular Israel high school will dedicate space to a Torah scroll. Read More »
Although the Feb. 13 meeting of the Millburn Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to be the “final hearing” on the Chai Center’s bid to build a new synagogue in Millburn, neither side is holding its breath. The effort by Rabbi Mendel Bogomilsky and his wife Rivkah to build a 16,000-square-foot building on a combined 1. Read More »
Protected by plastic goggles and rubber gloves, some 75 students from Golda Och Academy poured doses of sodium silicate into glass cylinders; mixed in salt, water, and colored granules; and then transferred the brew into containers the size of peanut butter jars. It was a lesson that had as much to do with Israeli history as it did with chemistry. Read More »
Sidney Schlosser was president of the board of Beth Israel cemetery in Cedar Knolls when a young man died unexpectedly. His father was Jewish but his mother was not. The family, members of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown, wanted to bury him at Beth Israel. Read More »
Students of three faiths joined together at Rutgers University to share how their vision of God influences their relationships with others and the world. The Jan. Read More »
Autism. In recent years, the word has attracted considerable attention, often relating to children with autism. Read More »
For years, people urged Joel Glazer to write a book about the lessons he learned as a social studies teacher. Despite the volumes he has had students write over his 51 years in the classroom, he found it hard to sit down to complete an assignment of his own. Read More »
Israel’s media operate technologically in the 21st century, but their content sometimes resembles a weekly local paper in pre-television, small-town America. Israelis have always craved news. Read More »
About 400 times a day, United Hatzalah of Israel dispatches one of its ambucycles to help someone in urgent need of help, free of charge. Mark Gerson points out that about 10 percent of those calls involve saving a life — around 146,000 a year. Read More »
It’s been a rough few months, deservedly so, for the most militant members of Israel’s fervently Orthodox community and their enablers. Read More »
Anyone who purports to have the “right” solution to containing a nuclear Iran is either lying or delusional. We’d like to think a heavy sanctions regime will compel Tehran into abandoning its nuclear ambitions, and we still hold out hope that it will, but so far its leaders have shown no signs of backing down in the face of harsh economic pressure. Read More »
Believing a new political party can help calm religious tensions in his country, an iconoclastic haredi — or fervently Orthodox — rabbi from Israel appealed for financial and moral support from Jews in New Jersey. Speaking in Hebrew in a crowded conference room on the Aidekman Family Jewish Campus in Whippany Feb. Read More »
Sen. Robert Menendez addressed the inaugural testimonial dinner at the Center for Jewish Life on Jan. 15, praising the Marlboro synagogue’s mission to its mainly Russian immigrant membership and stressing the need to eradicate religious intolerance. “Tonight we are here to celebrate religious freedom, but we are not naive. Read More »
When Rhonda Lillianthal became its director six years ago, the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School at JCC MetroWest was winding down after a five-year run and had a limited life expectancy. Read More »
Opponents and proponents of the Chai Center Shul at Short Hills will have to wait a few weeks before voicing their opinions on the synagogue’s application for permission to build. Public comment on the shul’s request for variances, scheduled for the Jan. Read More »
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