An attacker rammed a car into people outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, a synagogue in Manchester, England, then went on a stabbing spree on Thursday, Oct. 2, killing two people and wounding three others in what the police called an act of terrorism on Yom Kippur, the holiest Day of the Jewish calendar. Police said officers responded in minutes and shot and killed the attacker whom they identified as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a British [...]

So, Woody Allen has written a novel. So what. It’s true, more recently, his personal life has overshadowed his brilliance as a scriptwriter and filmmaker, but let’s remember his brilliance as a scriptwriter and filmmaker. So, now that he has written a novel, maybe we should see what he has to say in that novel. This item is not intended for you to rush out and purchase it. But because it’s Woody, and because he [...]

The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia has returned an Israeli flag to its façade after two incidents of vandalism. The flag, which hangs on an exterior wall of the museum with the words “The Weitzman stands with Israel,” was vandalized with red spray paint. The museum had planned to swap the damaged flag with a hostage-focused sign, but drew criticism on the premise that by removing the Israeli flag, the vandals [...]

Behind an inconspicuous wooden door, the Jewish Theological Seminary in downtown Budapest harbors one of the largest and most valuable Jewish book collections in Europe, according to an article in the Sept. 9 issue of The New York Times. But about 20,000 books and many valuable manuscripts have been missing since German troops marched into the city and seized books. Now more than 80 years later, the books are slowly returning to the 150-year-old seminary, [...]

Caught On Shabbat at Yankee Stadium: A Personal Story Do you remember the illicit embrace caught on camera at last summer’s Coldplay concert in Boston? Andy Byron, the former CEO of the tech company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company’s chief human resources officer, were embracing on the concert’s kiss cam; both were married to other people at the time. The incident gave me a shudder and sent me back 24 years to when I, [...]

About 12 years ago, Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar began researching mezuzah traces — imprints left in the wood of Jewish homes before WWII. In pre-war Poland, mezuzahs were placed in a groove in the wood and covered with a metal plate. Czernek and Prugar capture the indentations with silicone, which they then use to create plaster molds. At their Mi Polin Judaica studio, they make bronze cast replicas of the original mezuzahs. On trips [...]

  At the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games that took place last month at the University of Pittsburgh, 2,000 Jewish teens from around the world competed in events that included ice hockey, swimming, basketball, soccer and dance. According to the event’s organizers, the games are intended as a welcome reprieve from rising antisemitism. Founded in 1982 through the JCC Association of North America, the JCC Maccabi Games has become the largest Jewish youth sporting event in [...]

  Hundreds of thousands of Israelis packed Tel Aviv on the night of August 17 — blocking several main roadways — for one of the largest rallies since the war against Hamas began. The protesters urged the government to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the hostages’ release. An estimated half a million joined the protest in Tel Aviv, and more than a million participated nationwide as rallies and strikes swept Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba [...]

Facing budget cuts and swindling enrollment, Brandeis University said it would place its Yiddish program “on hiatus” after next year — a move that would effectively eliminate the role of Ellen Kellman, the university’s sole Yiddish professor for nearly three decades. But the decision sparked an outcry. Within days, current www.ctigreenport.com and former students mobilized, firing off emails to the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Jeffrey Shoulson. The response was overwhelming — and effective. Moved [...]

When the Tel Aviv light rail opened in the summer of 2023, it shaved travel time from the city’s southern neighborhoods to the haredi Orthodox city of Bnei Brak to just 20 minutes. For some, the new route increased access to a burgeoning Thursday night tradition — sitting down for steaming bowls of cholent, the slow-cooked Ashkenazi Shabbat stew.             “For me, having a bowl of cholent on Thursday night adds a little bit of [...]