April 09, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN
For Congregation Gates of Prayer cantorial soloist Jordan Lawrence, her love of music and of Jewish liturgical music has had to an unexpected and strange nexus. Tonight she will skip her usual Friday night services role in order to don a nun’s habit and perform on stage as Sister Amnesia, one of the five starring roles in “Nunsense” being performed at Rivertown Theaters...
April 09, 2021
By CNAAN LIPSHIZ and RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Prince Philip, perhaps the closest member of the British royal family to Jews and Jewish causes, has died at 99.
Buckingham Palace announced his death on Friday. Philip, who had been married to Queen Elizabeth II for 74 years, since five years before she ascended to the throne, had been in declining health for some time.
Also known as the Duke of...
April 08, 2021
The Greater New Orleans Jewish community is invited to join tonight, April 8, in a virtual memorial to Yom Ha’Shoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, at 6:30 p.m.
The centerpiece of the program administered by the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial Committee is to honor those Holocaust survivors who settled in New Orleans as well as their progeny.
The link to register for the program is required. The link can...
April 02, 2021
By BARRI BRONSTON
When the fundraising committee of the Jewish Children’s Regional Service (JCRS) was brainstorming ideas for its 2021 virtual gala, it didn’t take long for the group to look to one of its own.
Lawyer and author Marlene Trestman is not only a JCRS “success story,” having received aid from the agency when she was orphaned at 11 years old, but she was in the process of...
April 02, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN
Rabbi Peter Hyman, a highly-regarded American Jewish Scouting leader, was announced as the sole recipient for the Bronze Wolf Award, the highest Scouting award in the world and the only award given by the World Scout Committee on Tuesday, March 30. It acknowledges the significant work of an individual to the World Scout movement.
Rabbi Hyman became the 377th individual to who have...
April 02, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Political activists, including Rep. Madison Cawthorn and a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, are comparing the idea of “vaccine passports” to Nazi Germany, with many invoking the yellow Stars of David that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust.
Vaccine passports refer to documentation that would allow those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to access public spaces such as gyms, malls,...
March 29, 2021
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
(JTA) — When it comes to consuming matzah, the Jews of the former Soviet Union are in a league of their own.
At the top of the chart are Azerbaijan’s 8,000 Jews, who this year are expected to consume 10 tons of the unleavened bread cracker that Jews eat on the week of Passover to commemorate their ancestors’ hurried flight out of Egypt.
That’s a provision of...
March 26, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
The story of “God of Vengeance” (“Got auf Nekome”), the three-act drama in Yiddish by Sholem Asch was famously recounted in 2017 with Paula Vogel’s Indecent. That remarkable Tony Award-winning work spoke about the playwright, the success of his work, its controversial 1923 Broadway run that was shut down due to alleged immorality and its ill-fated cast.
Directed by Bruce Bierman, the Yiddish...
March 23, 2021
(JNS.org) – Initial exit polls from Israel’s national election on Tuesday indicate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with support from his right-wing bloc—if the Yamina Party is included—would have a narrow Knesset majority, giving the Israeli leader an unprecedented sixth term in office.
Exit polls show Netanyahu’s Likud winning 31 to 33 seats, with his wider right-wing bloc of around 53 to 54 seats. While this is short...
March 21, 2021
By ALAN SMASON
If JOTT TV CEO Jeremy Wootliff has his way about it, JEWZY.TV, his Jewish streaming service with high end movies, news and other features, will be a part of every Jewish home worldwide.
His vision has taken him to the United States first because it is, after all, the world’s biggest TV market, but he is moving into phase two of his operations and setting up the...
