To all members and friends: Purim is nearly here, and our shul is celebrating the holiday, of course. But please note a necessary change in our plans: OUR PURIM PARTY THIS MONDAY, MARCH 2, WILL BE A ZOOM EVENT ONLY, AT 6 P.M. Please join us on Zoom for the Purim story we all know, plus some PG-rated schpiel (oh, my goodness) from Chuck Simon. Be sure to download the Book of Esther from the Internet so you [...]
The body of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli still unaccounted for after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, was returned from Gaza, ending more than two years of waiting. Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer killed while defending Kibbutz Alumum, was brought home for burial 843 days after he was taken captive. “The first to go, the last to leave,” his mother posted on Facebook. “Our hero.” Israel is now expected to reopen the Rafah [...]
A Jewish American fighter pilot, whose plane was shot down in the Chinese theater during World War II, was given a proper burial 82 years after his plane went down, according to the United States Department of Defense. The remains of Lt. Morton Sher were buried in Greenville, SC, on Dec. 14 on what would have been his 105th birthday. Sher was a member of the pilot group known as the “Flying Tigers,” formed to [...]
Growing up in Fez, Morocco, Yona Elfassi was always aware of the history of the city, a center of culture and home to great minds, including Maimonides. Only about 2,500 Jews remain in the country; about a million Moroccan Jews make up one of Israel’s largest ethnic groups. Elfassi, a sociologist, now teaches a hybrid course in Darija, the Moroccan Arabic dialect, to allow diaspora Moroccan Jews to connect with their ancestors through language and [...]
• Fewer than 200,000 Holocaust survivors — half in Israel — are still alive worldwide, according to data released by the Times of Israel. The number is down from about 220,000 only one year ago. New York is home to the largest population of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel, with an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 living in the metropolitan area. • Ilana Kantorowicz Shalem, 81, is one of the youngest living survivors of the [...]
Julie Menin is the first Jew to be elected speaker of the New Yor City Council, the second-most powerful government position in America’s largest city. Mainstream Jewish leaders see Menin as a check on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a potential guardrail on his actions, according to The Forward.
By Len Berk The whole story of Barbra Streisand and the sturgeon began a few months ago on a Thursday when I was at my regular spot at the fish counter. A pleasant, attractive woman ordered a pound of Nova and, before Slim, my sharp slicing knife, and I started our journey through the salmon, she said, “I’m buying this for Barbra Streisand.” I was skeptical, so I asked her what her relationship was with [...]
Dick Zimmer, a three-term Republican congressman from New Jersey, who sponsored the landmark legislation known as Megan’s Law, requiring states to disclose where convicted sex offenders are living, died on Dec. 30, 2025, at a nursing care facility in Flemington, NJ. He was 81. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1990, Mr. Zimmer sponsored Megan’s Law after the 1994 rape and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka in Hamilton Township, NJ. Her family had [...]
Gary Graffman, a former child prodigy whose successful international career as a concert pianist was cut short when a rare neurological disorder cost him the use of his right hand in his 50s, setting him on a new and distinguished path as a teacher and administrator, died on Dec. 27 at his home in New York. He was 97. His performing career lasted until the early 1980s, when he began to suffer from focal dystonia. [...]
Eva Schloss, an Auschwitz survivor who dedicated her life to speaking out against prejudice and to preserving the legacy of her stepsister Anne Frank, died on Jan. 10 in London. She was 96. “We hope her legacy will continue to inspire through the books, films and resources she leaves behind,” Ms. Schloss’s family said in a statement published by the Anne Frank Trust UK, an organization she co-founded to challenge intolerance and educate young people [...]
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