October 30, 2020
By SEAN SAVAGE
(JNS.org) – Over the last several months, the coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming presidential election have left many Americans feeling confused and uncertain about the future. With normal social interaction limited, many have shifted towards the digital world to connect, share, discuss and debate.
During the 2016 election, tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google came under fire for becoming venues for the spread of...
October 28, 2020
By ALAN SMASON
After six near misses from previous named hurricanes or tropical storms this very long hurricane season, New Orleans appears to be in the crosshairs of a direct hit by a better organized Hurricane Zeta, which strengthened overnight from a tropical storm to a hurricane.
Forecasters altered their predictions for both the intensity and the predicted path of the storm early Wednesday. The expected spot where the storm...
October 27, 2020
By ALAN SMASON
With Halloween on tap this weekend, Mother Nature appears ready to frighten the Louisiana Gulf Coast with the seventh named storm in the region and the third to make a predicted landfall in Louisiana.
At 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, the loosely organized center of Tropical Storm Zeta was located at 21.6 N and 89.5 W or approximately 520 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving...
October 25, 2020
By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN
It’s hard enough to run a national Jewish service corps like Avodah in a typical year. But 2020 has been anything but a typical year.
Adding a global pandemic into the mix has made national service corps director Dani Levine quite anxious as she and her national staff have been finding ways to keep service corps members safe in shared living spaces across...
October 23, 2020
By RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sudan will become the third Arab country in the past two months to normalize ties with Israel, continuing the trend of Arab states’ willingness to advance ties with the Jewish state even without a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
President Donald Trump announced the agreement on Friday. According to a joint statement released by Israel, Sudan and the U.S., the two countries will “end...
October 18, 2020
Israel today signed several Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with the Kingdom of Bahrain signifying their moving forward with the establishment of peaceful relations.
National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat, who is leading the Israeli delegation in Manama and Bahraini Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, signed a joint communique on the establishment of diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Israel...
October 18, 2020
Mexican-Canadian singer-songwriter Monika Schwartzman headlines today’s Hadassah Virtual Mask-erade at 4 p.m., an attempt to raise needed funds via Zoom during the current pandemic.
The entire Jewish community in invited to participate safely in the novel fundraiser in the event via Zoom. For those wishing to gain access to the virtual event, contact event co-chair Charisse Sands.
The other co-chair, Marcela Totah, adds that the event will include a mask...
October 16, 2020
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — If you’re in Arizona or Florida and a 585 area code pops up on your phone, you might want to answer: It could be a Jewish volunteer in Rochester, New York, whose mission it is to help you vote. The Greater Rochester Jewish Federation is one of a number of local and national Jewish organizations endeavoring to make sure eligible voters — Jewish and not...
October 09, 2020
By ALAN SMASON
There is a minor, but pivotal moment in Marcus H. Rosenmüeller’s film “The Keeper” where a rabbi makes a major and dramatic declaration. Based on the real life story of Bert (Bernd) Trautmann, the film recounts how Rabbi Alexander Altmann, a noted, former German-Jewish scholar who had fled the Nazis, advocates his fellow Manchester citizens accept Trautmann, a former decorated Nazi soldier, as the goalkeeper for their...
October 08, 2020
By ALAN SMASON
Hurricane Delta lost some of its punch on Wednesday after slamming into the Yucatan peninsula, but is rapidly intensifying again today as it moves into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The latest (10 a.m. CDT) notification from the National Weather Service puts the center of the storm at 24.0 North and 92.7 West, or 400 miles south of Cameron, LA, moving to the northwest...
