Susan Goldberg, rabbi of Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park and Eagle Rock, grew up in nearby Echo Park. “There were no Jewish families around when I was growing up,” Goldberg, 38, said. Now that these neighborhoods are being gentrified, and a young, creative crowd is moving in, the Jews are coming, too.
The Chicago Jewish community grew by 8 percent over the past decade, or more than 21,000 people, according to a new demographic study.
Israel\’s Sephardic chief rabbi wrote that he is concerned that non-Orthodox Jews are taking over Israel.
It is said that there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the Galilee village of Peki\’in since the days of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
A new study gives fairly concrete evidence that the American Jewish population could be more than 1 million people larger than believed — but if so, it means efforts to engage them may have been less successful than the community realized.
Briefs
On July 18, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon festively proposed to \”all the Jews of France\” \”to move to Israel immediately … because in France today, one of the wildest forms of anti-Semitism is spreading.\”
Sharon is wrong — not in his concern about a real rise in anti-Semitism in France, but because he explains it too simplistically.
Ten percent of the French population is of Muslim origin. Most are not fundamentalists who feel solidarity with the Hamas suicide bomb campaigns.
There is a country whose Jewish community involves nearly all its young people, elects its leaders by democratic vote on the basis of character rather than wealth and is not driven by political and religious divisions.
When I first met Sarah, she was bent over her walker intently making her way through the gardens of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging (JHA). While her steps were merely a shuffle, her brown eyes were lively.
I often walk through our Grancell Village and Eisenberg Village campuses to visit with our 800 residents. I frequently ask the question: \”What makes the Jewish Home Jewish?\”
Sarah had a ready answer.
President Bush\’s Jan. 7 proposal to dramatically expand immigration to the United States ignited a national debate about this highly emotional issue. While this is a critical policy that will profoundly affect all Americans, it is a policy that must be of particular concern to American Jews.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.