Short Takes

Shalit: ‘Thank You’

07/03/2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Gilad Shalit, the 25-year-old Israeli soldier freed by Hamas terrorists in a prisoner exchange in October, thanked the Jewish community here last week for its support during his more than five years of captivity.

“I want to thank everybody for their efforts — here in the U.S. and all over the world,” he said in Hebrew at a special meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Star Philly Chef Going Glatt

06/26/2012 | George Medovoy/Philadelphia | Special To The Jewish Week

I have a standing invitation from Chef Michael Solomonov to bake Iraqi-style laffa bread with him at Zahav, where he and his business partner, Steven Cook, offer classic Israeli tastes in a modern setting near the historic cobblestones of Dock Street in downtown Philadelphia.

Moving Memorial Plaques To A Different Kind Of Wall

06/19/2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Memorial plaques placed on the walls of synagogues serve as touchstones for the bereaved. But a new website takes those plaques to the next level by not only allowing people to create them in cyberspace but also to write tributes to their loved ones, as well as post pictures and eventually videos.

When Work And Religion Collide

06/12/2012 | Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

Two religious accommodation cases last week that involved Orthodox Jews — a prospective Sabbath-observant employee of a New York-based consulting firm, and a chasidic Jew whose beard threatens to keep him out of the New York Police Department — are part of an ongoing tug of war between employers and religious workers, says the veteran lawyer who has advocated on behalf of Shabbat-observant Jews for more than four decades.

Sign Of The Times: Gays March, ‘No One Cared’

06/05/2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Even as the brilliantly sunny Sunday of the Celebrate Israel Parade turned into an overcast and chilly start to the workweek, excitement persisted over the long-sought inclusion of a coalition of organizations representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Jews.

Honoring ‘The Queen’ Of Yiddish Preservation

06/05/2012 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week

Chana Mlotek admits that at 90 she’s a little less productive than she used to be.

“My legs don’t go as fast as they did,” she says, her eyes twinkling. “But I can still work three times a week at YIVO, I still write a column for the Forverts, and the work is always interesting.”