Thursday, May 24, 2012
|
Hella Winston
|
Special To The Jewish Week
After months of equivocal statements about Agudath Israel’s longstanding position that — with very limited exception — child sexual abuse allegations must first be investigated by rabbis, the Brooklyn district attorney has issued a clear warning to the haredi umbrella organization that its policy puts rabbis at risk of running afoul of the law.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
|
Julie Wiener
|
Associate Editor
Does Hebrew school sound a little too 20th century for your third grader?
How about eight weeks of “Talmudic Stories In Stop-Motion Animation,” a session of “Create Your Own Hip-Hop Siddur” or a winter break spent doing Jewish theater? Or perhaps your child would prefer to learn Hebrew through a Saturday-night ropes course taught by a former Israel Defense Forces lieutenant?
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
|
Ari L. Goldman
|
Special To The Jewish Week
In Hebrew, English and Yiddish, speaker after speaker inveighed against the evils of the Internet in the most strident of tones before 40,000 haredi men at Citi Field on Sunday night. The Internet was called “a minefield of immorality,” “the opposite of kedusha” [holiness], “shmutz” [filth] and, in the words of Ecclesiastes, “vanity of vanities.”
Before finding the volumes of Jewish titles at the midtown Manhattan store, customers encounter a rotating display of mezuzot on the left, followed by shelves of Kiddush cups and a rack featuring a Hebrew-language version of the word game Bananagrams. Sitting on the colorful shelves to the right are kippot, tallitot and assorted Jewish toys.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
|
Adam Dickter
|
Assistant Managing Editor
The argument over military service for the ultra-Orthodox in Israel is generally framed around fairness.
But as the country’s new unity government works to craft a bill to replace the Tal Law for religious exemptions, which expires Aug. 1, some see economic considerations as well.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
|
Hella Winston
|
Special To The Jewish Week
Under fire for his handling of child sexual abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community, the Brooklyn district attorney will “possibly” involve some members of the advocacy community on his new task force to combat intimidation of witnesses in such cases, according to a spokesman.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
|
Steve Lipman
|
Staff Writer
A year after Paul Simon released his boundary-shattering 1986 “Graceland” album, which he recorded with several black singers and groups when apartheid still reigned in South Africa, Brooklyn-born music lover Mitch Goldstein went to a Simon concert at Radio City Music Hall.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
|
Julie Wiener
|
Associate Editor
In the past year, Brooklyn’s Hannah Senesh Community Day School has launched two major initiatives: increasing its outreach to Brownstone Brooklyn’s largely unaffiliated Jewish population (growing numbers of whom are Israeli) and improving its Hebrew curriculum.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
|
Stewart Ain
|
Staff Writer
Although the U.S. Court of Appeals last week upheld New York’s kosher law, Rabbi Moses Birnbaum said he believes the way it is enforced is “ridiculous.”
“I have patronized a bakery since I was in college and it is under the highest kosher supervision,” he said. “Yet it was cited because someone bought a pastry and it didn’t have a [kosher] label on it. The whole store is kosher, but if I buy a loose pastry they will have to bag it and put a label on it. This is like aggressive enforcement of traffic regulations.”
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
|
Jonathan Mark
|
Associate Editor
Before there was a Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalyim), there was the day before.
Yehuda Avner, then an aide to Israel’s prime minister, Levi Eshkol, has said, “An Arab sword of Damocles hung over Israel’s neck in June 1967, and so perilous was its blade that foreign capitals spoke chillingly of the country’s imminent slaughter.”
