A hundred rabbis gathered to rally for reproductive rights on Nov. 9, 2022, in St. Louis’ Memorial Park Plaza. The rabbis were part of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.                       Photo/Rabbinical Assembly

Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, workers remove prayer notes left by visitors in the gaps between the stones at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The notes are buried in a nearby cemetery according to Jewish tradition.

The operation is carried out twice a year, before Rosh Hashanah in the fall, and before Passover in the spring.

AP photo/Illean

Jews attend a blessing ceremony for Sukkot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.                   AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov

 The United States Postal Service has issued a new forever stamp that celebrates Hanukkah. The first day of issue was Oct. 20, at Temple Emanu El in Orange Village, Ohio, at 11 a.m. The issue date was scheduled to allow purchase and use of the stamp in time for Hanukkah 2022, which begins on Dec. 18.

The stamp features an original fiber arts wall hanging — hand-dyed, appliquéd and quilted to form an abstract image of a hanukkiah. Stamp artists/designers were Ethel Kessler and Jeannette Kuvin Oren.

The Hanukkah stamp is being issued in panes of 20 for first-class mail, first ounce.

The Center for Hope, Humanity, and Holocaust Education, inspired by the work of artist Robert Sutz, is slated to open in Phoenix, AZ, in 2025. To date, Sutz has created more than 145 sculptural busts called “life masks” and pastel portraits of survivors, liberators, and righteous gentiles.

“I want future generations to know that these people are beautiful,” Sutz says. “I feel as though I am still in a race against time; the survivors are leaving us and with them their beautiful faces and unbelievable stories and memories.”

When the 17,000-square-foot facility opens, it will include a gallery filled with Sutz’s artwork, also galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions.

The Israeli government has allocated approximately $6 million, to be combined with another $12 million to be raised by Hebrew University, for a museum to house the world’s largest collection of Albert Einstein documents. The museum will be built on the university’s Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem.

Einstein, one of the founding fathers of Hebrew University, was a nonresident governor of the institution. Einstein, arguably one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time, died in 1955, at the age of 76. He had bequeathed his archives to the university. Curator Roni Grosz said its 85,000 items make it the world’s most extensive collection of Einstein documents.

Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity revolutionized the field by introducing new ways of looking at the movement of objects in space and time. He also made major contributions to quantum mechanics theory. Einstein won the Nobel physics prize in 1921.

• Russ & Daughters, the legendary appetizing café, is moving to 50 Hudson Yards in New York City. Grand opening is set for spring 2023. The new 4,500-square-foot space will feature 30 counter seats that will become a Champagne and caviar bar in the evening, an area for baking bagels on view to the public, an event space and, of course, the famous appetizing counter. Also in the works is a scripted TV series and a new Russ & Daughters cookbook that will debut in 2025.             Foster + Partners rendering

• Sprinkled throughout the laughs and hijinks of the “Seinfeld” TV show is food — central to many of Seinfeld’s memorable moments in the show’s nine-season run. And now, with the recent release of Seinfeld: The Official Cookbook, fans of “Seinfeld” will be able to bring the comfort food of the show into their own kitchens. Penned by Julie Tremaine and Brendan Kirby, the book features more than 60 recipes from the “Seinfeld” kitchen to the eats at Monk’s café, including George’s tuna on toast, a chocolate-peppermint milkshake, the black and white cookie, the Big Salad, and chocolate babka.