Winter officially began last Tuesday, but the forecast this weekend will be positively spring-like. Here’s an idea for outdoor activities to take advantage of the mild weather: hiking and biking. Since many businesses will be closed over the Christmas...

Orthodox Brooklyn native Chana Wircberg always knew she wanted to be a physician. Shortly after marrying and becoming a young mother, Wircberg made her dream come true, graduating in May from Touro’s New York Medical College. Now 27, Wircberg is...

Five decades ago, when preemie care was still a new science, I was born at 30 weeks and weighed 3 pounds, 4 ounces. My grandmother said she’d bought bigger chickens. Since I was an itty-bitty thing and a picky eater, everyone worried I’d starve to...

(JTA) — Israel will likely begin administering a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine to seniors, immunocompromised people, and healthcare workers in an effort to stem the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The move was recommended...

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Before most New Yorkers had ever heard the word “coronavirus,” another public health scare dominated local news: the measles outbreak of 2019, which shared key parallels with the pandemic to come. In 2019, when...

CHICAGO (JTA) — This year’s Association of Jewish Studies conference was supposed to be a triumphal post-pandemic gathering for Jewish studies scholars and enthusiasts. But instead of a carefree Super Bowl of Jewish scholarship, the conference,...

(JTA) — Israel’s Health Ministry recommended barring Israelis from traveling to the United States due to the coronavirus outbreak of the Omicron variant there. The government is set to vote on the recommendation Sunday evening and, if the recommendation...

(JTA) — Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the top haredi Orthodox rabbinical authorities in Israel, and his family have received threats from anti-vaxxers after Kanievsky came out in support of vaccinating children ages 5-11 to protect against the coronavirus. The...

(JTA) — Just days after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a vaccine mandate for employees of private schools — including religious schools — a major Hasidic leader in Israel has instructed his followers in Brooklyn to comply with the...

It’s hard to believe we never heard of Omicron until a week ago. It was November 26 when the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variant B.1.1.529 a “variant of concern” and named it Omicron after the 15th letter...

(JTA) — When Elad Maor tested negative for the coronavirus upon returning to Israel from abroad last month, he thought he was in the clear to get back to work and see friends and family. After all, he had been vaccinated three times and had tested...

(JTA) — As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Washington on the most significant abortion case to reach the court in decades, Israel’s health minister laid out his plans to simplify what he called Israel’s “chauvinistic”...