Pondering the state of American Jewry
Kosher consumers are confronting a chicken shortage, just in time for Pesach. So dire is the shortage that Facebook groups have sprung up to alert followers when a store restocks its shelves. In the stores themselves, customers police other shoppers’ carts, if it looks like someone is guilty of stockpiling, leaving that much fewer chicken …
Were you hoping to be in Jerusalem for Passover this year? If so, you’re in luck. The Omicron wave is winding down in Israel, and it’s been decided that tourists are welcome to enter the country beginning March 1, no matter their vaccination status. You still have to have a negative PCR test before you …
Blake Zavadsky was attacked in broad daylight in Brooklyn for the crime of wearing an IDF sweatshirt. The assailant called Zavadsky and his friend, Ilan Kaganovich, “dirty Jews,” and demanded that the former remove his sweatshirt. When Zavadsky refused, his assailant punched him several times and also poured coffee on his sweatshirt. On at 12/26/21, …
Beverly Hills residents had a surprise when they woke up on the first day of Chanuka: antisemitic flyers papering their yards. Local police got a call at 6 AM from someone reporting a flyer with hate speech. After canvassing the area, police officers determined that the flyers had been widely distributed, covering several blocks of …
The Pittsburgh suburb known as Mt. Lebanon has a miniscule Jewish population. Only 1.4 percent of the residents of this former farming community are Jewish. And yet somehow, students at Jefferson Middle School found themselves confronted with a swastika made out of masking tape on the dry erase board of an 8th grade classroom. As …
According to the latest FBI statistics, Jews are the target in 58 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States. This is despite the fact that Jews comprise only two percent of the population of America. While the 2020 numbers are grim, the percentage of antisemitic hate crimes has actually dipped in …
Jacob Steinmetz, a 17-year-old Orthodox Jew from Long Island, is expected to be chosen in the Major League Baseball draft this Sunday. Steinmetz already won a scholarship to Fordham University and is 181 in his draft class. But can he make it in the big leagues as a Shomer Shabbos, Shomer Kashrus Yid? A graduate …
A bullet was fired into the window of Brooklyn synagogue Khal Zichron Mordechai on Shabbos afternoon (June 26, 2021). It was just before 3 PM, too late for Shacharis, and too early for Mincha, so thank God, no one was hurt. But it was scary to see the bullet hole in the window, and not …
Yair Lapid, the new alternate prime minister and head of Israel’s Foreign Ministry revealed his upcoming agenda in a handover ceremony on Monday. Lapid described his intention to focus on fixing the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. He mentioned the various streams of American Jewry: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox, suggesting that all are of …
The Tree of Life massacre was a terrible thing: a tragedy of mammoth proportions. Not only did the entire city of Pittsburgh support the Jewish community after the horrific event, but the world took note and tried to help, however they could. That means money—lots of money—flowed into the coffers of the synagogue, which had …