(JTA) — From the coronavirus pandemic to the fires that have ravaged California to the anxiety of our politically polarized moment, there was no shortage of current events for rabbis to mine in their High Holiday sermons this year.
But the topic that stood out this year on Yom Kippur, the day of atoning for one’s sins, was racial injustice and the worldwide protest movement trying to...
(JTA) – In synagogues and in their parking lots, in backyard tent services and on Zoom, Jews around the world spent the Yom Kippur holiday offering one last plea to avert death and be inscribed in the book of life for the year to come.
Their prayers came amid a spike in COVID cases in Jewish communities in New York, Israel and around the...
(JTA) — This year, you can quiet a congregation of Jews with a press of your mute button. It’s hard to believe.
During a normal High Holiday season, synagogues are packed, and services are accompanied by a cacophony of on- and off-key singing, random coughs, babies crying and an impatient chorus of “Is it over yet?” from both children and bubbes.
It is now the period of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This ten-day period is known as the ten days of Teshuvah, or repentance. During this time Jews become more contemplative,...
Each year we wonder, “who will live and who will die?” We know that the question is genuine, but this year it feels more urgent than it has in my lifetime.
By most measures human life has grown better, more prosperous and longer. Hunger and disease — the pandemic obviously aside — have declined. These processes are gradual, and don’t make the morning paper. Humanity as a...
Yom Kippur’s “Martyrology” service is a moving tribute to those Jews who, in times of persecution throughout history, gave their lives for our faith. In unsparing, graphic detail, the liturgy describes the tortured deaths of Rabbis Akiba, Chanina ben Teradyon, Yehudah ben Bava, and other Sages.
The Martyrology takes its Hebrew name from the Biblical verse with which it opens: “Eileh Ezkerah – These I...
(JTA via The Nosher) – All our holidays are a little bit different this year. Most synagogue services will be conducted online. Many people are feeling disconnected from both the ritual of holidays and their communities. And if you are lucky enough to gather with close family or friends outdoors, these break-fasts or other meals are decidedly smaller and more intimate than during a normal year. At...
BERLIN (JTA) — The protective locked door had kept out the shooter.
One year ago, that was the bright spot in the aftermath of the attempted synagogue shooting on Yom Kippur in Halle, a sleepy city of 240,000 located about 100 miles southwest of Berlin.
It was the most frightening terrorist attack targeting Jews on German soil in recent memory, and many saw it as symbolic of...
