Benjamin Shwartz wants to apologize for his English. The 38-year-old Mexico City-based composer and founder of the Latin-infused klezmer band Klezmerson can certainly be forgiven for his rusty skills, as he has never played a concert in the United States before.
Word went out from the congregation that a longtime member was nearing the end of her life. She has no partner and no children, but, on the day after Yom Kippur, 17 friends from the congregation came to visit her, including current and former clergy, and grown children she used to baby-sit.
On the fifth night of Sukkot, a panel gathered in The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ Wilshire Boulevard headquarters to discuss how to handle hunger both at home and across the country. Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino explained that it was an auspicious date for such a conversation.
When Noah prayed\nYou sent him a flood\nand charged him with the safety\nof all animal life.
Iran’s recently elected President Hassan Rouhani may have reached out to Iranian-American Jews during his visit last month to New York, but Iranian-American Jews aren’t returning the gesture.
On a visit to Budapest earlier this year, my wife and I asked the concierge at our hotel for a restaurant where we could find authentic Hungarian fare. As we took our seats in the bustling little place he recommended, I was encouraged to see a house band tucked away in the corner, and our meal was accompanied by what I assumed to be traditional Hungarian and Roma tunes.
In 2007, my three daughters asked me if they could go to summer camp along with their school friends. For the previous several years, I had always said no. It was far, it was costly. And summer was the only time I had vacation from work, and I wanted to spend that time with my children. I said I would think about it.
The wheel of history has come full circle for Otto Meyerhof (1884-1951), a biochemist who was once the pride of Germany as a Nobel laureate, then a Jewish refugee, and now rehabilitated and honored by his native country.
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