MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/AFP/Getty Images
• Published December 13, 2018
Danish soldiers guard the Jewish Synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 29, 2017. Danish soldiers took to the streets of Copenhagen for the first time on Friday, September 29, 2017, replacing the police to protect the synagogue and the Israeli...
Mourners seen holding candles in the aftermath of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, on Oct. 27, 2018. The shooter espoused an anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic ideology online. (Aaron Jackendoff/SOPA Images/LightRocket...
By Eric Berger, Staff Writer
• Published January 17, 2018
The rabbi’s secretary at Congregation Shaare Emeth sometimes asked Susan Lipstein if she wanted to sit on the bimah during services.That honor is something Jews usually look forward to. But Lipstein, who has multiple sclerosis, was “always reluctant...
Eric Berger, Staff Writer
• Published October 18, 2017
In 1995, Gail Lipe called a member of Temple Israel in Alton and told her she was interested in joining. Lipe said she wanted her two daughters to attend Sunday school. “The first thing she said was, ‘What class do you want to teach?’” recalls...
By Eric Berger, Staff Writer
• Published July 26, 2017
If Rabbi Hyim Shafner encounters Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., he already has a line planned: “Hmmm... are you related to the Teaneck Trumps?” Shafner is preparing to become head rabbi at Kesher...
By Rabbi Joel E. Hoffman, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 26, 2016
I have always wondered why bar/bat mitzvah lessons consists of learning trope, how to chant a section of the Torah and Haftarah, and how to lead parts of the service, especially because we know that 99 percent will never again read from the Torah or Haftarah...
Hundreds of Israelis mourn at the funeral of three of the victims killed earlier in the day when two Palestinian terrorists from east Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, with pistols and axes,...
Hundreds of Israelis mourn at the funeral of three of the victims killed earlier in the day when two Palestinian terrorists from east Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, with pistols and axes,...
Everything came together all at once, a couple of years ago. My mom passed away. My son moved away. A beloved pet died. My ex-husband, my friend, talked about relocating. My husband’s state-government job was on the line again. And I could barely tolerate...
Growing up, I was always taught that rabbis were an exalted lot. These were holy men—there weren’t any women rabbis at the time—who seemed above and different from the rest of us. Bigger than life, they were learned and authoritative with a special...
By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published March 7, 2012
More than a year after stalling with no apparent resolution, merger talks between Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel and Shaare Zedek Synagogue appear to have reignited last week. “I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t predict anything,” said Susan Cort,...
A second man was charged with attacks on two northern New Jersey synagogues, including one that injured a rabbi who was living in the synagogue residence. Aakash Dalal, 19, was charged March 2 with conspiracy, aggravated arson, bias intimidation and...
