I just saw “Joker,” the Todd Phillips movie tracing the roots of the DC Comics supervillain character. Perhaps the most succinctly accurate movie review I read was the following:“‘Joker’ left me feeling conflicted. Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant,...
Changes in BoliviaI write regarding the Dec. 13 commentary “Changes in Bolivia are Good for the Jews.” I have researched and lived in Bolivia on and off for over 25 years. The writer misrepresents president Evo Morales and events that led to his ouster. Morales...
BY CHAIM SILBERSTEIN
• Published December 27, 2019
BEIT EL, West Bank — I watched the news of the terrible Jersey City shooting last week with both horror and a sense of déjà vu. Sadly, violent attacks against Jews, wherever we live, have become all too common. We can no longer assume our communal...
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The horrific shooting in Jersey City was unfortunately the third deadly anti-Semitic attack at a Jewish institution in recent years. The victims of this attack were members of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar movement, a HASIDIC community...
LOS ANGELES — Another Jewish community has sustained a bloody attack that left Jews everywhere reeling. Last Tuesday, a small enclave of Hasidic Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey had their worlds shaken and disrupted during a frightening siege. Schools...
BY SINDY SMITH-KUBITSCHEK
• Published December 19, 2019
As a small child, I remember seeing the Star of David in the stained glass windows of the Agudas Achim Beth Israel in my hometown of Belleville as I walked past the synagogue with my maternal grandfather who helped raise me. I was drawn to the design...
BEIT EL, West Bank (JTA) — I watched the news of the terrible Jersey City shooting last week with both horror and a sense of deja vu. Sadly, violent attacks against Jews, wherever we live, have become all too common. We can no longer assume our communal...
By Cathleen Kronemer, NSCA-CPT, Certified Health Coach
• Published December 18, 2019
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away (a.k.a. when I attended Sunday School as a child), I recall grasping the parallel between Hanukkah’s miracle of a vial of oil lasting 8 days and frying latkes in oil. It made sense then just as it does in my adulthood.However,...
The more recent news from my native country Bolivia, where almost all my family lives, is good for democracy and good for the Jews. When I was living in that central South American country in 2006, the newly elected “indigenous” socialist President...
Last month, on a below freezing day, I rode the Amtrak train from my home in Chicago to my childhood home of St. Louis. I was on my way to a Breaking the Silence event at Congregation B’nai Amoona. Breaking the Silence is an organization of former...
Embarrassment, dismay at company’s practicesAs a volunteer tutor through OASIS, I recently had the privilege of attending a workshop presented by Bruce Hunter, a former school principal and facilitator for “CharacterPlus.” A program initiated by...
RAMLA, Israel — This year, American Thanksgiving and the Ethiopian-Israeli Sigd Festival fell just one day apart. The Sigd Festival is celebrated each year on the Hebrew date of 29 Heshvan, 50 days after Yom Kippur. It is the “festival of supplication,”...
