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 throughout Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus and Romania, they have collected more than 165 traces.

“Every single mezuzah trace can be recognized as a fingerprint of those who made this mezuzah 100 or 130 years ago,” Prugar said. “Every single mezuzah trace is like a small particle of Polish Jewish DNA.”

Czernek described mezuzah hunting as “addicting.” Anywhere she goes, if she sees buildings from the pre-War era, she stops and looks for traces. “Some of these buildings are in bad shape but still carry stories of the pre-War era with them,” she said.

In 2024, they opened a museum in Warsaw to share with the public what they’ve discovered. Although most of their visitors are Jewish, a significant number of non-Jews tour the center to learn about mezuzahs.

[Excerpted from The Forward article by Olivia Haynie]

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 the world. Each year, the organization hosts two weeklong summer competitions for thousands of Jewish teens across the spectrum of religious observance. In fact, athletics aren’t truly the main event; rather, sports are the vehicle for fostering Jewish unity and pride.

Danielle Rose Nurko, a 16-year-old tennis player told Religion News Service that the annual Olympic-style competition for Jewish teens isn’t just about winning. “It makes me feel more attached to my religion,” she said. “It’s not only competing and meeting new people; I know that all these people have had the same experiences I’ve had.”

Groups are introduced during the opening ceremony as  attendees cheer on the athletes.    Kathryn Post photos

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 and other cities.

Coverage by AP, The New York Times, Times of Israel

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 by the deluge, Shoulson persuaded university leadership to reverse course and keep the program going, though on a more limited scale.

Students are hoping the program’s survival marks a turning point. “The story of Yiddish is similar to the story of the Jewish community as a whole,” said Ian Jacobs, a senior linguistics major at Brandeis. “Despite everything, despite external and internal pressure to stop, despite the institutional pressures, and genocides, and everything, Yiddish has managed to survive.”

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 Shabbat’s holiness into the end of the week, and deepens my connection to the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and people,” said Eliyahu Freedman, who travels with his friends from his home in Jaffa to Bnei Brak for the stew. So when a ruling from a prominent Haredi rabbi cast doubt on the permissibility of eating cholent outside Shabbat, Freedman said he was “shocked and disappointed.”

The rabbi, Yitzchok Zilberstein, addressed the issue in his weekly bulletin on Jewish law, where he responded to a question from yeshiva students concerned about whether weekday consumption of cholent diminishes the sanctity of Shabbat.

Citing Talmudic, Kabbalistic and later rabbinic sources, Zilberstein wrote that it is “appropriate not to eat cholent on weekdays, so that one can delight in it on Shabbat.” He went on to note that cholent is not only spiritually designated for Shabbat, but that its heavy ingredients may even pose a health risk when eaten without the merit of the holy day.

The simmering public response to Zilberstein’s ruling — on the street, on Facebook, in yeshivas, in the 70-some cholent restaurants throughout Israel — was enough to prompt a partial retraction. The rabbi’s grandson, Rabbi Chaim Malin, said the original response was intended as a recommendation to elevate the uniqueness of Shabbat.

The statement noted that cholent served at mitzvah meals — weddings, bar mitzvahs and other religious celebrations — is fully permitted, as is the Thursday night practice of serving it in yeshivas.

For now, the stew remains safe — not from the cholesterol, but at least from halachic rebuke.

A man attacked and burned 12 people with Molotov cocktails and a makeshift flamethrower during a peaceful June 1 march in Boulder, CO, calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The victims ranged in age from 67 to 88, and several were hospitalized, one with life-threatening injuries.

Arrested was Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, who was pointed out to law enforcement officers by witnesses. Witnesses described a horrific scene at a plaza located along a popular downtown promenade. The man arrested was seen lighting people on fire with gasoline and throwing Molotov cocktails.

The attack was quickly condemned by local and national elected officials. Jared Polis, Colorado’s Democratic governor, who is Jewish, said “it is unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot.

The assault came roughly 10 days after a 31-year-old man was arrested for shooting and killing two Israeli Embassy staffers outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in that case, allegedly said that he “did it for Gaza.”

People place flags and flowers outside the Boulder County Courthouse, where the flamethrower attacked those marching for the release of the hostages held in Gaza.                                                Chet Strange/Getty Images

Israel marked Day 600 of the Israel-Hamas War at 6:29 a.m. — the same time that Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attack — by gathering in various spots across the country to form human displays of the yellow ribbon hostage symbol.                                                                                                            Times of Israel photo