Features On The Jewish World

Baden-Powell supporters reason that given its emphasis on discipline and the supremacy of the “greater good” and his belief that “every boy ought to learn how to shoot and obey orders,” it is hardly surprising that authoritarian governments were drawn to some aspects of Scouting philosophy.

In the summer of 1798, Napoleon conquered Egypt and, leading an army through the Sinai Peninsula into Eretz Yisrael, took control of Jaffa and commenced a siege of Acre (1799), hoping to provoke a Syrian insurgence against the Ottomans and threaten British rule in India.

WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO---It's not everyday, or every year, or every decade, or even every century, that a beautifully-designed, 180-seat, air-conditioned synagogue rises in the Caribbean, let alone a modern Orthodox one.

The sounds of summer echo through the tight hallway and past the front door that leads to the parking lot connecting the trailers and storefront school in a strip mall in Lakewood, New Jersey.

What we saw was Arab arrogance, audacity, and terror that was completely out of control.

Indeed, your Esther scroll with case dates to 1953. It is unclear if Barton’s Chocolate Company kept re-releasing this Esther scroll every Purim throughout the 1950s and 60s...

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly held his annual pre-Passover meeting with rabbis and community leaders Tuesday to discuss preparations for the upcoming holiday.

What was published, though, was nearly all after his passing, and much of it is obscured in the murkiness of what was authentic, what less so, what was expounded from his teachings and what was a commentary by his disciples.

After diamonds were discovered in South Africa in the mid-1800s, Antwerp regained its prominence as the diamond capital of the world.

Among your members in the Knesset are people from whom nothing is withheld and who, in their empty speech, are capable of achieving the most difficult assignments.

Permission was granted and he traveled to China, meticulously recording the customs, life, and habits of the natives he encountered.

Though a vicious civil war divided nationalist Ukrainians, Bolsheviks, and anti-Bolsheviks, they were somehow able to unite in committing atrocities against Ukraine’s one million Jews.

Through his sharp wit, much of Offenbach’s work mocked the establishment, attacked political governance, and satirized societal norms, including parodies of traditional musical forms and specific works by other composers.

Yet all are part of one neshamah, planted in rich, verdant soil, determined to grow. May our garden continue to produce a glorious assortment of flowers and trees, each attached firmly to its roots. Our diverse southern vegetation flourishes and grows into different trees, flowers, and fruits, and a rainbow of glorious shades and hues appears. Yet each shoot is rooted in the same soil, stretching its branches and blossoms heavenward in an endless pursuit of growth and connection to the One above.

While it is not the purpose of this article to present a dissertation on the Torah’s views on evolution, suffice it to say this is a very controversial topic and that strong arguments exist on both sides.

Innumerable bizarre theories are still floating around regarding the identity of Jack the Ripper, including one that identifies Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland)...

LBJ was an important initiator in providing American aid to Israel. As early as 1951, with Israel in desperate need of money and material to settle the massive influx of Jewish immigrants, he successfully lobbied the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for $150 million (equivalent to $1.66 billion in 2022 dollars) in support.

He recorded the information he compiled regarding sefarim and their authors in Shem Hagedolim, which contains an alphabetical list of authors of sefarim followed by a list of known sefarim.

The Joint Distribution Committee cared for the refugees, directed the care of children, renewed educational facilities, undertook the rebuilding of destroyed houses, etc. Through the year 1930 the Joint Committee distributed over $80 million to the different branches of its relief work, and even distributed aid via affiliated charities to Jewish agricultural settlements in the USSR.

“My name is Itzhak Hazan. I was raised in a traditional Jewish family in France. I initially came to Israel in 1977 as a lone backpacker and felt an immediate attachment to the people and country. I realized that there was a difference between the French culture in which I was raised and Jewish culture.

This Letter was written by Rabbi Chaim Oizer Grodzinsky, dated 1938, a few months before his passing.

George’s embrace of his German-Jewish origins is particularly ironic – and foreboding – taking place as it does during years that will soon see the birth of Nazi Germany and the looming Holocaust.

When Dr. David Shashar of Ramat Gan was called out to serve in the Paratrooper reserves during the Second Lebanon War of 2006, his goal was to help heal wounded soldiers. He never thought that he would become one himself. When two Hizbullah anti-tank missiles hit the house he was staying in, killing nine soldiers, he was among the 30 to be seriously injured. Dr. Shashar was hospitalized for the next three months in an attempt to save his arm from amputation. He underwent numerous reconstruction operations over the next three years, a number of which were in Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. The Ministry of Defense referred him to ROFEH International - a comprehensive medical referral and bikur cholim service founded by the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, zt"l.

In August of 1945, US Army Chaplain Major Aaron Paperman was stationed in Rome, Italy, and sent a telegram to the Agudath Israel Youth...

During Israel’s early years, the general public mostly accepted the Status Quo Agreement for several reasons, including that most Jews who were not observant were still generally traditional; there was broader interest in preserving unity in the young country...

The 10th Annual Rebbetzin's Conference sponsored by the Task Force on Families and Children at Risk, which took place last week, was one of the best ever. Rebbetzins come from far and wide to participate in this yearly program and leave with newfound strength.

Mrs. R. hurls the violin at the couch, screeching, “It’s horrible! I sound so horrible!” and again runs out of the room, sobbing.

Once a week for the past seven years, New York State Supreme Court Justice Martin Schulman has made the trip from his courthouse chambers in Jamaica, Queens to Yeshiva University’s Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music on YU’s Washington Heights Wilf Campus.

While Cardozo accepted membership in the Century Club, an elite and exclusive Washington club that discriminated against Jews – for which he was criticized by Felix Frankfurter, his later successor on the Supreme Court, and others – he also proudly joined the Judean Club.

A keen and careful observer, he noted in detail Yemenite Jewish life, including its educational system, manner of dress, minhagim, and unique pronunciation of Hebrew.