Tag: Judaism
PURIM: Only a Jew Know his History
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all the Jews. This took place in the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire. The story is recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther. It is also known as the Feast of Lots.
‘We will not accept converts under new reform,’ Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi warns
Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef harshly criticized Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana on Tuesday for spearheading conversion and kashrut reforms Yosef claims go against Jewish law.
Speaking at a massive rabbinical gathering, Yosef accused...
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi: ‘The Knesset won’t decide who is a Jew’
“I’m still a little weak. A few days ago I got over COVID,” Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau apologizes at the beginning of a conversation with Israel Hayom.
A few hundreds meters from the bustling...
500-year-old letter offers rare look into the life of a legendary Kabbalist
The National Library of Israel is making available to the public for the first time a 500-year-old letter shedding light on the life of one of the most influential kabbalists in Jewish history.
The letter,...
Yeshiva University establishes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Center for Values and Leadership
With the commemoration of the first yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who served as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Yeshiva University announced the creation of the Rabbi...
Shining a light on one of Judaism’s most enigmatic scholars
For Israeli Philosophy Professor Shalom Rosenberg, the world is divided into two kinds of people: those who had the privilege of meeting Monsieur Choucani and those who did not.
An enigmatic scholar, Choucani taught many...
In first, Israeli court backs ‘silent’ Jewish prayer on Temple Mount
Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Bilha Yahalom ruled on Wednesday that the silent prayer of Jews on the Temple Mount is allowed, saying it cannot be deemed a “criminal act.”
The ruling was the first by...
Music for Yom Kippur: Kol Nidrei, The History of a Song and a Prayer
Kol Nidrei is an Aramaic phrase which means far more than its literal translation, “All Vows.” This statement of annulment of vows has become such a dominant part of the Jewish religious psyche that it...
Bahrain celebrates first bar mitzvah in 16 years
The first bar mitzvah in Bahrain in 16 years was held over the weekend at the House of Ten Commandments, the oldest and only operational synagogue in a Gulf Cooperation Council country.
The bar mitzvah...
Historian claims founding father Alexander Hamilton had Jewish upbringing
A historian is claiming that Alexander Hamilton, the country’s first Treasury Secretary who was instrumental in the ratification of the Constitution and whose popularity has risen in recent years due to the musical “Hamilton,”...