05 Apr
Latest

Women Warned Not to Say Kaddish at the Western Wall

  The Jerusalem police commissioner sent a letter to Women of the Wall today warning that it would enforce the law prohibiting women's public prayer at the Western Wall, including the recitation of the mourner's kaddish. The group's chairperson, Anat Hoffman, called the warning a "shanda."  Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who oversees the Western Wall, " has, without a doubt, crossed a clear red line, as women’s right to say Kaddish is respected and accepted by the entire Jewish world, including Orthodox factions." Jewish Agency Chair Natan Sharansky, who has been charged with finding a solution to the controversy surrouniding Women of the Wall, said that Rabinowitz assured him during a meeting that contrary to the letter, no woman would be arrested for reciting Kaddish at the Kotel. Hoffman, a former champion swimmer, is taking on Israel's Orthodox establishment...

Continue reading

21 Mar
Latest

Rabbi to Seek Out “Lost Jews” of Italy

An Italian rabbi has been appointed a new emissary for the "lost Jews" in Sicily and southern Italy. Rabbi Pinchas Punturello, 36, will work on behalf of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization that aims to strengthen ties between Israel and the descendants of Jews around the world. The bnei anusim, as they are known, are descendants of Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity, but clung to their Jewish roots nonetheless. “The Bnei Anousim in southern Italy need to be helped from a cultural point of view, as well as in a spiritual way, and we are here to guide them in this journey,” said Punterello, who was born in Naples. “After all, to come home after 500 or 600 years is not easy, but it's wonderful.” As part of his work, Punterello will organize prayer services and classes on Jewish...

Continue reading

20 Mar
Latest

From the Moment Bookshelf: A Review of Yitzhak Orpaz

Death of Lysanda: Two Novellas Yitzhak Orpaz, translated by Richard Flint and David Zaraf Dalkey Archive Press $14.00 By Katie McGinnis Dalkey Archive’s publication of Yitzhak Orpaz’s Death of Lysanda and Ants earns a place as one of the most important translations of Hebrew literature into English in a decade, and the raw talents of Richard Flint and David Zaraf make this publication a particular treat. The rich prose will prove an inviting respite for readers who are frustrated with translations’ stereotypical lack of elasticity, and others will find the quasi-mystical and darkly whimsical qualities of Orpaz’s narratives, in the tradition of  S.Y. Abramovitsh and I.L. Peretz, a delightful continuation of tradtional Hasidic folklore. If one takes nothing else away from Orpaz, it is that Yiddish literature is alive and well in the 21st century, both in Hebrew and...

Continue reading

15 Mar
Latest

Muslim Brotherhood: “Women Should be Controlled by Man of the House”

  Statements about the role of women from top officials in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood are garnering criticism and shedding a spotlight on an organization that until now, has been largely secretive. A “family expert” from the Brotherhood recently said that a “woman needs to be confined within a framework that is controlled by the man of the house,” according to a recent New York Times article. Osama Yehia Abu Salama also said that if a husband beats his wife, she should be shown that she “had a role in what happened to her.” The Brotherhood, an underground Islamist movement that has recently come to power in Egypt, has also said that women cannot press charged against their husbands for rape and that men must approve their wives’ decisions in “matters like travel, work or use of contraception.”   Moment provided...

Continue reading

15 Mar
Latest

Haggadah 2.0: New Website Makes Passover Story Personal

A California-based start-up is aiming to make the traditional seder Haggadah more relevant by offering users the chance to create a text that incorporates everything from “Passover yoga poses” to poetry by Langston Hughes, all in a single book that includes traditional religious liturgy as well. Currently Haggadot.com has more than 230 contributors who have added a total of 1,500 pieces of content. The site includes options for Ashkenazi and Sephardi families that include both traditions in one haggadah; poetry by A. E. Housman, and Yehuda Amichai's reflections on the memorable Seder song, “Chad Gadya” (One Goat). This year, the group has also launched a crowd-sourced Haggadah, called Neverending Haggadah, is a partnership with Schusterman Philanthropic Network. In the days leading up to Passover, users around the world are invited to contribute content to and download crowd-sourced Haggadah. For...

Continue reading

14 Mar
Latest

A New Pope and the Genetic Legacy of Jewish Catholics

  The Catholic world has elected a new Pope, the world’s first Latin American to hold the position. Francis, as he will be known, was born and bred in Argentina. But did you know that many Catholics from Latin America are genetically Jewish? Read Moment’s science watch article on the generic legacy of Jewish Catholics here. As Bennett Greenspan, president and CEO of Family Tree DNA, a genetic testing service, said, "There are a lot of Catholics running around who have Jewish descent."

Continue reading

13 Mar
Latest

The View from Istanbul: When Did Hatred Become a Religion?

    When did hatred become religion? By Aylin Kocaman   For some, religious devotion has long been “hatred”. If a Muslim hates Jews, Christians, Zionists and Freemasons, then that is considered being devout. Some religious teachers and people who claim to be scholars have enjoyed a great deal of success in that way; they have made a   niche for themselves and so much so that the more they have expressed a policy of hatred of Jews, the more crimes they have laid at America’s door, and the more damage they have inflicted on other schools, the more admiration they have acquired. People have come to admire these people, not because they are devout, but because they imagine that this is what religion is. The more a Muslim country is opposed to Israel and America, the more prestige it has...

Continue reading

12 Mar
Latest

Female MKs Join Women of the Wall in Jerusalem

Female members of Knesset joined Women of the Wall at their monthly gathering at Jerusalem's Western Wall this morning and used their parliamentary immunity to wear the tallit, or prayer shawl. No arrests were made and the service drew widespread media attention as well as heckling from ultra-Orthodox men, who chanted and blew the shofar to drown out the women's prayers. The MKS, Stav Shaffir (Labor), Michal Rozin (Meretz) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) were initially denied entry to the Kotel plaza, according to reports. "It's my duty to protect the rights of all to pray as they desire and believe," Shaffir tweeted, adding "Western Wall today with Women of the Wall Nashot HaKotel" Women of the Wall advocates for the right of women to pray at the Western Wall with traditional religious garments such as the tallit-- which is currently...

Continue reading

12 Mar
Latest

Lunch with an Auschwitz Tour Guide: A Personal Essay

By Arielle Silver “I used to be a tour guide at Auschwitz,” Timo said, and then rested his fork on the edge of his Panang curry. Timo’s a Dutch composer who has lived in Los Angeles for almost longer than I’ve been alive. He writes for the music production library where I work, and invited me out for lunch one day last Fall. In a lull between trailer music and soundtrack banter, the conversation somehow slipped down this dark side alley. “There’s a ski resort nearby,” he continued. “Toward the end of their holiday tourists sometimes wanted to get serious for an afternoon, so I’d bring them to the Camp. They always sang songs on the bus ride there.” He shuffled his cup across the water mark on the table, and then added, “Afterwards, on the ride...

Continue reading

08 Mar
Arts & Culture, Latest

Israeli Soccer Player and Pianist to Perform in Venezuela

By Ilona Oltuski Pianist Elisha Abas – Scriabin in the Genes The ante has just been upped: at the personal request of powerhouse conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, pianist Elisha Abas will perform with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Caracas in July of 2013. Says Abas: “We have a great rapport and I feel Dudamel’s contagious energy.  I am sure it’s going to be an extraordinary experience.” After hearing Abas perform in his native Israel in 2011, Dudamel had invited Abas for the first time, but as a result of last minute changes he himself was replaced by Venezuelan conductor Eduardo Marturet. Aba played, nevertheless, and was full of praise for the youth orchestra that, as he experienced it, “carries the same enthusiasm that Dudamel himself embodies so explicitly.” Abas and Dudamel will be performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto no....

Continue reading

123›»