יום שלישי, כ״א אב תשפ״וTuesday, August 4, 2026
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As Former Congressman Ted Deutch moves over to the AJC, he talks about Israeli elections, the Iran nuclear deal, and the many voices among American Jewry.
By Eve Glover
There can be no lawful basis for a public institution to exclude anyone on the basis of race or ethnicity from any of the opportunities that the institution affords.
By Eve Glover
The story so deeply affected Stolarz that, 50 years later, he took his friend Péter Hajdú up on his suggestion to run for 11 days to honor the 11 massacre victims.
Under what circumstances would it go before the full nine-justice panel – and would that help or hurt your chances?
It thus follows that Jewish law does differ in theory and to some important degree in practice from the Catholic and Evangelical approaches to the question...
By Rachel Kohn
Formal recognition of a student group does not equate to endorsement of that group’s message, wrote the judge.
By Baruch Lytle
On the question whether singles felt that the Orthodox system of dating was going well, Nishma found that most singles had an unfavorable view.
By Aryeh Werth
It’s heartwarming to see such a huge crowd, said Robin Feit of Long Island, N.Y., whose son, Marc, was marching with his school. It’s a real morale boost and pride to know there’s so much support for Israel.
An ordinary man who led an extraordinary life, Rabbi Wallerstein was never one who chased the limelight or enjoyed the trappings of fame.
By Sandy Eller
If you are a doctor, once you start working you can’t just pull away from your rounds to go daven, even if you do it on your own without a minyan.
By Rachel Kohn
There is a person who has nobody else to look up to and he’s being broken, and G-d puts his heart in order, taking off everything superfluous from his heart and breaking his heart a little bit.
By Rachel Kohn
When the sirens begin — “and they are barely audible,” he noted — people head down into utility rooms under the ground floors of apartment buildings because there are no bomb shelters.
By Rachel Kohn
Slowly we started realizing that this is real war – that there are ground invasions, that there are bombings, and that it’s getting more tense and scarier – so my husband started working really hard on just helping people leave, Esther said.
By Rachel Kohn
When the threats [of invasion] came out, what was the first meeting the Israeli government had? How can we prepare for aliyah… How about what can we do to help the Jews of Ukraine?
By Rachel Kohn
The worst kind of vulnerability is if unauthorized people get into your building, David Pollock said. What we all need to do is to figure out a system where we can be both warm and welcoming, and keep everyone inside safe and secure.
By Dr. Najat Al Saeed and Dan Feferman
The attacks on MBS by Western officials weaken his reformist camp – and empower the conservative camp and its supporters.
By Baruch Lytle
Washington’s IBSI is not a religious organization. Its signature program is called the PEACE Initiative (Plan for Education, Advocacy, and Community Engagement).
Dear Julia, Congratulations – your salacious Netflix show “My Unorthodox Life” has successfully prompted countless Orthodox Jewish women to examine their Orthodox Jewish lives and to unequivocally recommit themselves to their G-d and to their frum lifestyles. I find it deliciously ironic that your show dropped during the Nine Days. In a time period when […]
Seuss’s wartime cartoons denounced American discrimination against Jews and called attention to the early stages of the Holocaust.
“Until there’s a final decision or a final count, we won’t welcome anyone to office,” Rabbi David Katz said.
The most significant portion of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943, which was the third day of Chol HaMoed Pessach, and ended on May 16, 1943.
So too in our times we must invest our blood - our effort and our toil - in serving Hashem.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
We would start our morning roll call in Hannah Szenes Hall, hold afternoon activities in Haviva Reik House, and finish off the day with an evening campfire outside Enzo Sereni Cabin.
Marcus held a reserve commission as a field artillery officer, but because of his prominent legal career, he was persuaded to transfer to the JAG corps, where he became Judge Advocate of his Army National Guard unit (1940).
Jews were not gassed or cremated in Transnistria. No; in Transnistria Jews perished from hunger, cold, and typhus.
Israel annually issues a set of “Moadim L’Simcha” stamps commemorating the Jewish New Year, which are always among my favorites, but it also periodically issues stamps commemorating the other Jewish holidays, including Purim.
Megillat Esther is the sole book of Tanach in which God’s name is not mentioned. This too can only be understood as an irony which confirms His pervasive, but hidden, presence.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Finding ourselves with a large merged family as a result of our marriage, we had little chance to contemplate a honeymoon of any kind.
Levy’s historic seafaring career began rather inauspiciously when, at age 10, he ran away from his Philadelphia home to join the trading ship New Jerusalem as a cabin boy, returning to his family for his bar mitzvah at Mikveh Israel, where he read the Torah.
The more I read, the more confused I became. The sefer followed the same order of the Shulchan Aruch, chapter by chapter, but unlike the Shulchan Aruch’s matter-of-fact approach, this sefer included the reason behind each halacha.
The fifteenth day of the month of Shevat was designated for calculating the age of trees both for harvesting and tithing purposes, and this “Jewish Arbor Day” was celebrated at least as far back as Talmudic times.
About a thousand years ago, a large group of Yemenite Jews decided to leave the diaspora. One cannot imagine the hardships these pioneers encountered.
By Rhona Lewis
“How? How do you go on? You have to,” she says with a simplicity that hides more than it reveals.
By Nathan Lewin
In denying a request from an AgriProcessors employee that she recuse herself from his criminal case, Judge Reade did not disclose to him or to Rubashkin’s trial lawyers that she had participated in the planning of the raid.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Just as had happened when I was working on my grandmother’s book, here, too, previously unknown family members and those with whom my mother-in-law had lost touch suddenly emerged.
Patton not only showed utter contempt, even hatred, for Jewish survivors, he also expressed a kind of admiration for the Nazi prisoners of war under his watch and bitterly criticized attempts to bring Nazi leaders to justice for war crimes.
By Bezalel Naor and Yehudit Jessica Singer
Like Rabbi Akiva of old, Rav Kook was able to laugh in the face of adversity, while his contemporaries could only cry.
As this story illustrates, there is a huge difference between spending time with your children and offering them quality time.
Brooks predicted that Jerusalem would be liberated in 1917, an idea that intrigued Allenby, who began to view his own role in Eretz Yisrael in prophetic terms.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Unlike other retirees of their generation, they never considered Florida a possible venue – despite the Northeast’s cold winters.
No, it is not to such bloodthirsty jackals that we look to understand why terrorist incidents in Israel have significantly decreased since the early- and mid-2000s.
One of the proximate results of the Balfour Declaration was an influx of Jewish immigrants, primarily from Eastern Europe, which only served to exacerbate Arab opposition to the Declaration.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
It was a war that would change the country's destiny. It would also change the destiny of Joshua Schwartz of Teaneck, New Jersey.
By Allen Fagin
The flight represented the remarkable diversity of the Jewish people, united by a common thread: each passenger was fulfilling a dream to live in Eretz Yisrael and contribute to its culture and its burgeoning economy.
We have neither of the mitzvos at this point. The tefillin were sold and the esrog is invalid. Let us at least have shalom bayis [marital accord and harmony].
It is a world in need of atonement, which means a redirection of its energies and objectives.
Moses, when he saw the frenzied partying and dancing before the calf, threw down the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments in a fit of rage, shattering them into small fragments.
Why are our concerns during the rest of the year limited to ourselves and our close family, to our own narrow social group and to our immediate geographical environment?
Most of these cards were hand-drawn and, as such, uniquely reflect the thoughts of writers extending holiday wishes from the depths of hell.
By Jason Maoz
Shandler acknowledges that in the years immediately following the war, the Nazis’ systematic assault on Jews was not yet understood as a singularly distinct historical phenomenon.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Living more than two miles from the only Orthodox shul in Teaneck, the family joined the Conservative Teaneck Jewish Center a few blocks away.
By Jason Maoz
Whatever else can be said of Johnson, he proved a true friend to Jews and Israel.
Though he frankly admitted that he expected to make a fortune on his investment, his primary motive was to create a short-term haven for persecuted Jews.
By Jason Maoz
His voice had the strength of a pipe organ and the gentleness of a violin, but most of all it had the power to make men weep.
By Jason Maoz
It is a story that should serve as the ultimate cautionary tale for any Jewish community tempted to mistake a period of vibrancy for a guarantee of immortality.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
For Jews in the United States, the 1950s were years of opportunity and challenge.
Wise was especially furious when Silver helped persuade Republican leaders to insert a pro-Zionist plank in their 1944 party platform.
The regimental forces were unable to defend Zion, and international agreements and alliances could not save Israel in a time of crisis.
Even during the renaissance of modern Hebrew poetry, virtually none of it was written by women.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Despite owning some of the important businesses in town, the Jews of Nyack continued to remain a small minority, and in each high school graduating class there was only a handful of Jewish students.
We all know the towering Jews of secular history, figures such as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud and David Ben-Gurion. There are, however, plenty of lesser-known Jews who were accomplished or celebrated in their lifetimes but largely forgotten over time. The following brief sketches highlight several Jews who have not received much attention in the […]
Throughout Europe these hideous libels persisted and gave rise to the persecution of innocent Jews.
Though Resnik in 1984 became the second American woman to travel in space – Sally Ride was the first – she is perhaps better known as the first Jewish woman in space.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
At age 26 and having completed her graduate studies, Bernice returned to the Bronx Y, this time in a paid professional capacity.
Most animals are born once. But birds are born twice. First, the egg is laid by the mother. But where is the baby? Still inside the egg.
The Midrash tells us that Mount Sinai was neither the highest nor the most splendid mountain. In fact it is described as being the lowest and humblest in its vicinity.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
There are accounts of battles, rebellions, and collective failures of nerve, and a strange story about a pagan prophet and a talking donkey.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Today’s young travelers rarely meet Israeli statesmen and functionaries. This, though, was the first group of its kind and, as such, of great interest to both American and Israeli officials.
His deep affection for the Jewish people may have had its origins in the kindness of an elderly Jewish neighbor, a Mrs. Golden, who occasionally cared for him during his lonely boyhood.
Strong listeners better understand others’ opinions and attitudes and are able to take this information into consideration when making decisions.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Only after seeing a picture of the stately building online did I fully understand her emphatic reply.
Young children, who in another time and place would have had nothing more serious to contemplate than their schoolwork, grew all too familiar with death as a daily occurrence.
We did not simply recount what occurred to our forefathers three thousand years ago.
Scholars still debate whether he yielded to pressure from his publisher or to pressure from British politicians pursuing a policy of appeasement with Hitler’s Germany.
Our family and friends became contemporary versions of the twelve tribes joined by kinship, common faith, and mutual hopes and dreams.
In preparation for my new book, The Brooklyn Nobody Knows, I walked most of Brooklyn, 816 miles.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
It wasn’t every day that a young woman from a traditional Jewish family volunteered for farm labor, but for Bernice, the decision was an easy one.
The moment we focus on our physical satisfaction, we are extremely vulnerable to destructive influences.
The following are some unusual items and associated stories involving the celebration of Purim in pre-state Eretz Yisrael.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
It didn't bother me having new classmates every year. I loved school, was curious, and enjoyed learning everything I could.
The proximate cause of the Grant’s order to expel the Jews was the dire cotton shortage in the North, which gave rise to a wild black market in Southern cotton.
I was 20 at the time of my first escape attempt. It was unsuccessful – someone had informed the authorities of my plan – and I was sent home from the Czech - German border, back to my prison of invisible bars. That only made me more determined.
The film dramatically documents the outcry in Europe, the United States, and Israel, with twenty-four governments and the Vatican intervening on behalf of the defendants, demanding their freedom.
Could rabbi cards become a denomination of classroom currency, a reward for good behavior and test scores?
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Now in her mid-90s, Bernice’s recollections of that time give us a glimpse into a world somewhat familiar to our readers from the Freida Sima series, but told here from the perspective of the immigrant generation's American-born children.
The following four artistic depictions of this most sacred Jewish site from my collection are among my personal favorites.
The first component began taking shape more than sixty-eight years ago when, as was my custom, I joined my father at Shabbat morning services in his synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side.
Shimon swore loyalty to the new leader. Alexander, out of respect and gratitude, preserved the Jews’ political and religious rights, both in Judah and throughout the new kingdom.
Behind each is a tale of time and place that, framed against various religious, political, social, cultural, and artistic milieus, can provide deep insight into Jewish historical leitmotifs.
Resolution 242 does not in itself strengthen the already strong legitimacy in international law for Israel’s claim to the territories. But it is relevant in several respects.
My mother had the glow of Shabbos on her face at all times and her appearance was that of a real Queen Esther, with all the royalty and regalness conveyed by the title.
The World's Fair is in a way a reflection of mankind, its work and aspirations.
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
The desire to keep my grandmother's memory and voice alive inspired me to write an article about her for The Jewish Press.
Avraham’s ability to instill in others a fidelity to righteousness stemmed from a deep sense of connection, a paternalistic drive to ensure the transference of his deepest values.
Whenever I see people, of whatever religion or background, who are joyfully coming together after a long separation, I feel spellbound, and I must stand by and witness that pure innocent joy as long as I can.
Though initially motivated by money, Schindler was appalled by the Nazi murder of many of his Jewish workers and he thereafter used all his skills to protect his Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews).
By Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
Like numerous women of her generation, she was able to whip up a three-course meal out of nothing and make a one-week Depression paycheck last for six months.
So we dance, and do hakafot with the Torah in appreciation and gratitude for the divine gift to the Jewish people.
Many of our greatest artists have produced striking graphic works on these subjects; what follows is a selection of original artwork from my Sukkot collection.
So if we have people like that to look to for guidance and direction in terms of how to deal with others’ actions, why is it that so many of us struggle in this area?
July 31, 2026 
