Don\’t be alarmed if you visit the Newark headquarters of telecommunications giant IDT, open the coat closet and stumble upon a lanky man in jeans, a wrinkled work shirt and running shoes. That\’s just Howard Jonas, the company\’s 48-year-old founder, chairman and controlling shareholder.
Since the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) reported that 52 percent of Jews were marrying non-Jews, the American Jewish community has been split on how to respond. While many on the left have called for greater outreach and acceptance for interfaith families, others have urged the community to more aggressively promote \”inmarriage.\”
Many Jewish early childhood programs are not as effective as they might be at teaching Judaism, because their educators lack strong backgrounds in Jewish education and the programs\’ goals for religious education are often vague.
The North American Jewish federation system has designated five priority areas for allocating funds from its Israel emergency campaign.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, David Novak reassessed his life and decided to become a rabbi.
In a campaign reminiscent of one undertaken during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel\’s survival was at stake, the North American federation system is hoping to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Israel in the coming months.
Robert Schrayer, chair of the United Jewish Appeal Federation Campaign of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), said the situation in Israel now \”may be even more drastic than things were in 1973.\”
\”It\’s different because it\’s a different kind of conflict, but just as serious, if not more so,\” he said.
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, a Conservative school, is raising its tuition by $1,000 for next year — more than twice the usual rate of increase — to make up for shortfalls in its endowment revenues.
A new study reporting decreased identification with Judaism and rising intermarriage rates is generating concern, but not shock, in the Jewish community.
Instead, many leaders see the new findings, released last week, as a continuation of trends reported in the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. Rather than viewing the study as a call to radically change course, most see it as a signal to step up existing efforts to strengthen Jewish continuity.
U.S. Orthodox Jewish leaders are outraged by an Israeli Reform leader\’s comments drawing comparisons between fervently Orthodox Jews and the Islamic fundamentalists who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.