Given the high cost of airline tickets to Israel and limited flights as a result of the current situation, rather than traveling there to present at a conference, I opted to stay closer to home and send a recorded presentation I had given at Columbia University a week earlier. Instead, I headed to Washington, D.C., where I’ve been invited each year to participate in a bipartisan Hanukkah celebration at the Library of Congress. This year, [...]
Happy New Year. The word of the year is brain rot. I thought you might want to know that. I hope the word does not reflect accurately on any of you. The Oxford University Press, publisher of the august OED, the Oxford English Dictionary, has chosen “brain rot” as its word of the year. “It was quite a journey for brain rot,” The New York Times said, the word having triumphed over contenders that included [...]
Once again, our shul has shown its generous spirit by filling the big red barrel with toys and games and fun crafts for kids. All was delivered to CAST in time for gift-giving and fun times for kids at Christmas. CAST clients were most grateful, said Veronica Kaliski, chair of the Tikkun Olam committee at our shul, the group that responds to those in need on behalf of the shul. Among other initiatives, the [...]
Bet you weren’t expecting coffee and Danish. And yet... So come to the shul on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 9:30 for hot coffee and delicious Danish pastry to begin a different sort of Shabbat service. You’ll sing a bit, you’ll learn a little Talmud, You’ll say kaddish, you’ll learn the real story about Hanukkah and a so-called miracle...and yes, you’ll enjoy coffee and Danish, too. Join Chuck Simon, a terrific storyteller who will lead [...]
Once again this year, our shul is joining our local North Fork venues that are collecting toys for children of CAST clients. Help make the season brighter for these children by placing unwrapped toys in the big red barrel at the top of the ramp by the kitchen door. The Holiday Toy Drive opened on Nov. 18 and will run through Dec. 16. The shul’s Tikkun Olam group is spearheading the drive for our [...]
The Book Circle will meet on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 3 p.m., in the shul’s community room to discuss Joshua Cohen’s novel, The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family. In this story, Ruben Blum is co-opted onto a college’s hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar. Benzion Netanyahu shows up. The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive [...]
Anti-Israel protesters started a fire inside a tram car in Amsterdam on Nov. 11, and riot police were called to disperse them, days after Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the Dutch capital. Video circulating on social media showed rioters throwing sticks and debris and hurling stones at a stopped tram car. The protesters appeared to be yelling “Free Palestine” and “Cancer Jews,” according to videos from the scene. At one point, smoke in [...]
President-elect Donald Trump has announced the appointment of two prominent Jewish allies to major positions in his incoming administration. Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman elected to serve New York’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023, has been named to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. He has vowed to remove barriers to fossil fuel production, advocate for U.S. energy dominance, and explore the development of artificial intelligence within [...]
By Rabbi Gadi Capela On a sunny day in Pompano Beach, Florida, Monday, November 11, we gathered at the graveside to honor the memory of Paul Birman, A”H, a beloved member and benefactor of Congregation Tifereth Israel, who passed away at the age of 89. His mahogany casket, adorned with the United States Military emblem, was a testament to his service and dedication as a veteran. Fittingly, on Veterans Day, we celebrated Paul’s life, marked [...]
Yehuda Bauer, whose family narrowly escaped the Nazis in their flight to Mandatory Palestine from Czechoslovakia in 1939, and who later drew on that experience in becoming a leading scholar of the Holocaust and antisemitism, died on Oct. 18 at his home in Jerusalem. He was 98. Fluent in German, English, Yiddish and other languages, Dr. Bauer pored over archives and conducted numerous interviews with survivors, material he used in writing some 40 books and [...]
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