(JTA) — Aliza Gettenberg of Lawrence, New York, knew she wanted to become a dentist after someone’s description of the occupation as the “perfect combination of doctor, engineer and artist” struck a chord with her.
But first she had to find...
(JTA) — In March 2020, around the time B. and her husband started planning to have children, they learned they each carried genetic mutations with significantly elevated risks for a variety of cancers.
BRCA genetic mutations, which are 10 times more...
(JTA) — NEW YORK — When Sasha Chanoff received the $100,000 Charles Bronfman Prize in 2010 for his work helping refugees worldwide find safe haven, jobs and social stability, he used the occasion of the awards ceremony in New York to introduce a family...
Eric Berger, Special To The Jewish Light
• Published January 15, 2023
This story was originally published on January 8, 2021.
When Ben Uchitelle arrived at United Hebrew Temple in the fall of 1960, the synagogue was already packed with more than 2,000 people. Uchitelle could only find a seat on the side of the room.
It...
Eric Berger, Special To The Jewish Light
• Published January 4, 2023
After four decades as a teacher and guidance counselor, Julie Frankel retired in 2014. Like many people, she was unsure what she would do next.
“I felt like I had lost my identity,” said Frankel, who spent 20 years as a guidance counselor in the...
ERIC BERGER, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
• Published December 13, 2022
Leah Beinhaker, a leader of a Jewish-Arab bilingual education organization in Israel, recently offered an optimistic take on how the country’s new right-wing governing coalition could impact relations between Israelis and Palestinians. That’s even...
When the newly established Community Security Initiative in New York began offering active shooter response trainings shortly after it was founded in February 2020, there seemed to be limited interest among synagogues and local Jewish institutions.
Over...
Eric Berger, Special For The Jewish Light
• Published June 1, 2022
Mara Cohen Ioannides, an English professor at Missouri State University, once lived in New York where, she said, “If you want something, you ask for it.” So Cohen Ioannides did not understand when the editor of OzarksWatch magazine approached her...
Eric Berger, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published April 17, 2022
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, is leading the organization’s fight against anti-Semitism and bigotry amidst a spate of recent terrorist attacks in Israel; a spike in hate crimes in the United States; and continual battles on...
ERIC BERGER, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published March 8, 2022
About a year ago, Mike Weinhaus was on the phone with a representative from his insurance company when the person asked, “Are you the family that was on the news with COVID?”
Weinhaus, a member of Congregation Shaare Emeth, was indeed part of the...
ERIC BERGER, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published February 2, 2022
Rabbi Amy Feder of Congregation Temple Israel attended rabbinical school with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and recalls him having a “nonanxious presence.”
So Feder wasn’t surprised to hear that Cytron-Walker remained calm while he and three others...
Eric Berger, Associate Editor
• Published December 2, 2021
If you had asked me until recently about the DeWitt family, I would have told you that they are a wealthy local clan that bought the St. Louis Cardinals from Anheuser-Busch in the 1990s.
Just millionaires buying assets from a large corporation, it...
