Meet the Israeli bureaucrat who decides who can marry in the Jewish state

January 07, 2014

By BEN SALES

JERUSALEM (JTA) — To be married in Israel, immigrants must prove their Jewish ancestry to the country’s Chief Rabbinate.

Couples can solicit a letter from their hometown rabbis or present their parents’ Jewish marriage contracts. Sometimes they...

Likud’s Moshe Feiglin: Cool on Palestinians, hot for pot

November 28, 2013

By BEN SALES

TEL AVIV (JTA) — On the bustling bourgeoisie avenue of Ibn Gvirol, beneath a portico and next to a high-end hair salon, it smells like college.

Aside from a small green sign, the clinic is unidentifiable, its...

Steadfast opposition to public prayer took small-town litigant to Supreme Court

November 12, 2013

By RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The need for a firm barrier between church and state is as clear now for Susan Galloway as it was in grade school, when she was expected to sing carols at the Christmas show.

Yellen’s rise to Fed chief gains more attention for gender than faith

October 17, 2013

By RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Janet Yellen is soft-spoken, tough, methodological, flexible — and Jewish.

President Obama’s announcement last week that he had tapped Yellen, 67, to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve made news in...

Former Baptist Sunday school teacher designing for the frum fashionista

September 25, 2013

By TALIA LAVIN

(JTA) — Just before Maria Patricia de Sousa set out for a yearlong stint at a seminary in Jerusalem seven years ago, she stopped by the house of an Orthodox Jewish woman in her home city of...

Dialing the dead: Rebecca Rosen is psychic to the stars

September 13, 2013

By TALIA LAVIN

(JTA) — Many Jews feel a connection with their ancestors, but how many have regular conversations with them?

Rebecca Rosen, a 36-year-old mother of two, is one who does.

Rosen lists her profession as “psychic medium,” and...

Husband of terror victim pens memoir of quest to meet bomber

September 01, 2013

By TALIA LAVIN

NEW YORK (JTA) — David Harris-Gershon, author of the forthcoming memoir “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?,” is frank about the contradictions in his personality.

An admitted “natural...

Struck by lightning at camp, Ethan Kadish battling catastrophic injury

August 20, 2013

By TALIA LAVIN

NEW YORK (JTA) — On Saturday, two weeks after Ethan Kadish’s 13th birthday, the members of his family will gather around a Torah scroll in the chapel of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for a small ceremony marking his...

Hadassa Margolese, fighter for religious tolerance, quits Beit Shemesh

August 13, 2013

By BEN SALES

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Two years ago, Hadassa Margolese became a symbol of resistance to haredi Orthodox domination after she allowed her 8-year-old daughter to tell an Israeli reporter how religious men had spit on her as...

‘Homeland’ writer’s work shaped by IDF service, Jewish heritage

July 25, 2013

By ROBERT GLUCK

(JNS.org) – Israeli-born writer and director Gideon Raff knows the cost of war. That knowledge, as well as his Jewish background, helped him create two of television’s most compelling dramas.

Raff’s “Prisoners of War” series on Israel’s Channel 2 won...