Jewish news feeds from Jewish sources
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It's a matter of perspective. In addition to whatever other media you get your news about Jewish events from, it's good to add Jewish news media to the mix for balance and for depth that general or secular media can't aim for.
This is especially the case with news from Israel. The Israeli media is quite vigorous - a very free press, indeed! - and by visiting Jewish Feeds, you'll find a variety of sources that cover Israel and the Jewish world in a depth and balance that you won't find elsewhere.
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Here are some of the top stories today at Jewish Feeds. For more Jewish and Israeli news and other feeds (that's "web sites that publish Jewish or Israeli XML/RSS feeds"), click the category links at the bottom of the page. And enjoy noshing at Jewish Feeds.
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Judaism and Torah Feeds
Judaism Articles from About.comHigh Fashion Meets the High Holidays (Sep 2, 2010 10:52 AM)According to the New York Post , Chabad of the West 60's is hosting a special Rosh HaShanah service this year just for fashionistas. Fashion Week is coming to the Lincoln Center next week and the schul hopes to "provide a home" for those who want to celebrate a "clothing extravaganza" while also celebrating the New Year. Prayers will be offered for Jewish designers such as Zac Posen and Diane von Furstenberg. High Fashion Meets the High Holidays originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 10:52:03. Permalink | Comment | Email this Should High Holiday Services Be Free? (Aug 31, 2010 10:08 PM) The High Holidays begin next week and with them comes the annual question: Where will we go for High Holiday services? Even Jews who rarely attend synagogue services are often interested in attending them for Rosh HaShanah or Yom Kippur - yet this is the one time of year when they encounter the most barriers. In many synagogues, a seat at High Holiday services requires paid membership or the purchase of expensive one-off tickets. Ushers stand at the doors to ensure that everyone who shows up has purchased their seat, and even then participants are often asked to make donations to the synagogue during services. The above model is the norm in North America, which is what made a recent article in the Forward so intriguing. Titled "High Holy Days Are Free at Some Shuls, And Worshipers Flock," the article explores a new model that some synagogues are experimenting with - one in which High Holiday services are free and, in some cases, membership is never required. Washington-based synagogue Sixth and I is one example. It has a no-dues and free-high-holidays policy that has resulted in congregational growth so profound that they had to book the Chinese Community Church across the street to handle the expected overflow for their High Holiday services this year. Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, is quoted in the article as saying that this new model will never be the standard in America. Synagogues could only offer free services by cutting back on staffing and programming costs, or by relying on major donors as Sixth and I does. "Eventually, you get what you pay for and Jewish institutions in America can never be free," said Sarna. Still, many synagogues have experimented with some form of free "teasers" - offering free tickets to young families, young professionals or newcomers in the hopes of enticing them to join the synagogue and pay yearly dues. You can read the entire article on the Forward's website by clicking here . What do you think: Should High Holiday services be free? Should High Holiday Services Be Free? originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 22:08:17. Permalink | Comment | Email this Fun Honey Factoids for Rosh HaShanah (Aug 25, 2010 8:53 PM) Traditionally honey is one of the quintessential Rosh HaShanah foods . That being the case, I thought it would be fun to post a few honey "factoids" that can be shared around the Rosh HaShanah table (or in the classroom, for the teachers among us!). These bits of honey trivia are courtesy of the National Honey Board : How many flowers must honey bees tap to make one pound of honey? About two million flowers, give or take. How far does a hive of bees fly to bring you one pound of honey? More than 55,000 miles. How much honey does the average worker honey bee make in her lifetime? About 1/12 of a teaspoon. How fast does a honey bee fly? About 15 miles per hour. How much honey would it take to fuel a bee's flight around the world? About one ounce (or two Tablespoons); no carry-on luggage is allowed! Click here to read the National Honey Board's complete list of honey factoids and also to learn more about bees and varieties of honey. Photo credit: Getty Images / Lauren Burke Fun Honey Factoids for Rosh HaShanah originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 20:53:28. Permalink | Comment | Email this DNA Reveals Hitler May Have Had Jewish and African Roots (Aug 24, 2010 10:58 AM) DNA tests on the saliva of Hitler's living relatives recently revealed that he was "biologically linked to the 'sub-human' races he sought to exterminate." The DNA samples were taken from 39 of Hitler's family members, among them an Austrian farmer identified only as Norbert H. Researchers discovered the presence of a chromosome called Haplopgroup E1b1b (Y-DNA) in the samples, which is a rare chromosome commonly found among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. It is also found in the DNA of Berbers in Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. As the Daily Mail notes, this is not the first time it has been suggested that Hitler had Jewish ancestry. His father, Alois, might have been the illegitimate child of a maid named Maria Schickelgruber and a Jewish man with the last name of Frankenberger. If true, Hitler would have been one quarter Jewish. DNA tests reveal 'Hitler was descended from the Jews and Africans he hated' [Daily Mail] Hitler Likely Had Jewish and African Roots [Forward] DNA Reveals Hitler May Have Had Jewish and African Roots originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 10:58:53. Permalink | Comment | Email this A Film Unfinished (Aug 20, 2010 12:35 PM) An Israeli documentary titled "A Film Unfinished" opens in the U.S. this week and promises to shed new light on an unfinished Nazi propaganda film titled "Das Ghetto." Meant to show the differences between how rich and poor Jews lived in the ghetto, for years the Nazi film was viewed as a record of ghetto life. However, as "A Film Unfinished" reveals, many scenes in "Das Ghetto" were choreographed by Nazi officers. "A Film Unfinished" was directed by Yael Hersonski who, together with producer Noemi Schory, decided to piece together the true story behind "Das Ghetto" using outtake footage discovered in 1998. The footage showed officers directing passers-by to ignore corpses and telling well-dressed Jews to enter a butcher shop with children begging for food outside. There are other scenes as well, all with one purpose: to show how well-off Jews routinely ignored the suffering of their Jewish brothers and sisters. Remarkably, Hersonki decided to invite five survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto to view the footage and then taped their reactions for the documentary. "When did you ever see a flower? We would have eaten a flower!" remarked one survivor upon seeing images of flowers in the Nazi film. "A Film Unfinished" premiered at the Sundance Film festival this year and has since been distributed to movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles. You can see a trailer for the documentary here. A Film Unfinished [NYT] Movie Review: A Film Unfinished [LA Times] Israeli documentary on rare Holocaust footage airs in U.S. [Haaretz] A Film Unfinished originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 12:35:32. Permalink | Comment | Email this Former Israeli Soldier Defends Facebook Photos (Aug 18, 2010 10:34 AM) Former Israeli soldier Eden Abergil recently made headlines when she posted photos on her Facebook profile showing her posing next to blindfolded Palestinian detainees. The pictures were part of an album titled "The Army... the most beautiful time of my life :)" and were quickly picked up by Israeli bloggers who posted the controversial images elsewhere. "Theses pictures really do speak for themselves," said Israeli blogger Dimi Reider, "Abergil is no better or worse than thousands of other Israeli soldiers, and I'd like to hope a few years from now she'll be appalled, rather than amused by the memories." In an interview with an Israeli Army radio station on Tuesday Abergil said she "still [didn't] understand what's wrong" with the photos and that she had no idea they "would be problematic." Reider remarked that Abergil's situation reminded him of a 2007 documentary titled "To See If I'm Smiling," which was produced by former Israeli soldier Tamar Yarom. The film is based on the stories of six women who struggle with memories of their time in the Israeli military and demonstrates how "memories of military service can shift with time." One of the women, Meytal Sandler, had posed next to the body of a Palestinian man. After describing the situation in which the film was taken she reflected: "I'm not sure when it was, but at some point, I became very ashamed of that picture." The entire documentary can be viewed for free online . Israeli Bloggers Copy Controversial Images From Facebook [NYT] Israeli Ex-Soldier Defends Her Facebook Snapshots [NYT] To See If I'm Smiling [Documentary @ LinkTV] Photo via the New York Times Former Israeli Soldier Defends Facebook Photos originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 10:34:18. Permalink | Comment | Email this Rabbis Ban the Jewish Burka (Aug 16, 2010 11:25 AM) Three years ago a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women living in the town of Beit Shemesh began wearing burkas as a way to protect their modesty. Since then the trend has spread to five other towns in Israel, prompting religious leaders to take a closer look at the phenomenon of Jewish women wearing a garment that is usually associated with some Muslim traditions. A burka is an outer garment that completely covers a woman's body (see photo) and is worn over the woman's regular clothing in public. Modesty rules in ultra-Orthodox Judaism require women to cover their heads with a scarf, hat or wig while in public, but in 2007 a Beit Shemesh group decided head covering was not enough. "At first, I just wore a wig," said a burka-wearing woman. "Now when I see a woman with a wig, I pray to God to forgive her for wearing that thing on her head." Although rabbis largely ignored this trend for years, complaints from the husbands have prompted members of the ultra-Orthodox Eda Charedit rabbinic council to decide that burka wearing "a sexual fetish that is as promiscuous as wearing too little." A formal ruling will be released in the coming weeks. Israeli rabbis clamp down on burka [Telegraph] Ban Jewish burka, say Israeli rabbis [Jewish Chronicle] Photo credit: Getty Images/ Zubin Shroff Rabbis Ban the Jewish Burka originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 11:25:42. Permalink | Comment | Email this Wordless Wednesday: The Bride Rode a Motorcycle (Aug 11, 2010 3:03 PM) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - JULY 25: (ISRAEL OUT) Bride Yulia Tagil smiles on the backseat of a motorcycle as she arrives to her alternative wedding ceremony, on July 25, 2010 at a square in Tel Aviv, Israel. Tagil and her husband, Stas Granin, held the public wedding to protest the Jewish guidelines stating that the only way for Jews to marry by law is through the standards set by the Chief Rabbinate. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) Wordless Wednesday: The Bride Rode a Motorcycle originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 15:03:59. Permalink | Comment | Email this Ask the Rabbi: Do I Have to Fast for Yom Kippur? (Aug 9, 2010 3:22 PM) This week Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser answers a question about the upcoming Yom Kippur fast. As always, respectful comments are welcome. Q. I am a Reform Jew who feels strong ties to the Jewish people and to Judaism. I don't go to synagogue very often, but do make it a point to attend High Holiday services every year. In years past I have fasted for Yom Kippur but this year I'm questioning this practice. I have never found starving myself to be spiritually rewarding. If anything, being hungry and thirsty prevents me from contemplating the big questions that we're supposed to be grappling with during the High Holidays. In your opinion, would it be wrong for me not to fast this year? Or is that an essential part of the Yom Kippur experience? (If the latter, please explain to me why.) I would not eat in front of anyone who is fasting, of course. A. Thanks for your question. You say that you have found fasting at Yom Kippur to be only a distraction from contemplating the "big questions" we're supposed to confront on this day of introspection, repentance and forgiveness. You ask if it would be okay to not observe the fast because you believe that this would make the day more meaningful for you. The fast of Yom Kippur is an important obligation in traditional Judaism. Jewish law allows leniency in the fast for those who would face serious health problems by fasting. However, outside of such a threat, Jewish tradition regards the fast as entirely mandatory for all Jewish adults. Why is there such an emphasis on fasting during Yom Kippur? Why would the tradition insist that we intentionally weaken ourselves on the one day when we need all of our spiritual strength for the daunting task of sincerely regretting, confessing and repenting our faults and making a solemn commitment not to repeat them? According to many commentators, the purpose of the fast on Yom Kippur is not to create a distraction that makes repentance more difficult. Rather, the purpose of the fast is to make true repentance actually possible. This seems counter-intuitive, because, in our psychological age, we usually think about making changes in our lives as something that requires analysis, thought and determination - all things that demand focused attention which can be distracted and muddled by fasting. However, the Jewish idea of repentance - teshuvah , in Hebrew - is not primarily an intellectual experience. It is not accomplished by the power of logical inference, calculation and determination. Rather, the process of teshuvah is primarily an act of letting go of our stubborn determination to maintain tight control over ourselves. The genius of insight behind Yom Kippur is that it is a day designed to break down the strength of our egos. It is a day for recognizing that much of the suffering we experience in life comes from our irrational need to be in constant control over ourselves and the people and things around us. Yom Kippur is designed to helps us ween ourselves away from the illusion that we are in charge of our own lives so that we can discover ourselves to be, miraculously, in world that we did not create and do not control, but which is given to us as a temporary gift. That is why the fast is so important to Yom Kippur. That nagging, gnawing feeling in your gut as the fading sunlight brings us closer to the end of the day is not there to make it harder for you to concentrate. It is there to remind you of your humanity, your fragility and your dependence upon something outside of yourself. It is there to break down the resistance of your ego that wants to keep believing that, by sheer will power, you can remain in charge of your world. It is there to give you the chance to recognize that the world is not all about you and that you are commanded by the most improbable miracle of being alive to submit yourself to something greater than yourself. My advice to you is that you use your reluctance to fast as a tool to lead you toward teshuvah on this Yom Kippur. Allow yourself to ponder what part of your ego resists the command to put your physical needs aside for one day. If you hear your own mind saying, "This is ridiculous. Why do I have to make myself suffer like this?", practice answering yourself by saying, "Is it so hard? Is there something so important about me that I can't allow myself to feel hunger for even a few more hours?" You may find, by the time of the final shofar blast, that Yom Kippur has given you the gift of discovering that it is within your power to let go of your control of yourself and discover a deeper and more meaningful connection to the world around you. With every best wish for a meaningful Yom Kippur, and an easy fast, Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser Ask the Rabbi: Do I Have to Fast for Yom Kippur? originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Monday, August 9th, 2010 at 15:22:35. Permalink | Comment | Email this Israeli Film Captures the Experience Tank Warfare (Aug 8, 2010 3:33 PM) A new Israeli film titled "Lebanon" gives viewers a glimpse of what it was like to be a soldier inside a tank during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and is based upon the experiences of Samuel Moaz, who wrote and directed the film. Moaz is portrayed in the film as a young Israeli soldier named Shmulik, who operates the main gun of the tank. The New York Times recently published an article about "Lebanon" that describes an early scene: Shmulik... has orders to shoot a fast-approaching car. Through his viewfinder he can see the faces of the driver and passengers, and the fact of their humanity paralyzes his hand, preventing him from firing. The men, enemy fighters, are killed anyway, and Shmulik's hesitation causes the gruesome death - which he also witnesses through the scope - of a soldier on his own side. A bit later, Shmulik masters his terror and fires a shell into another vehicle, blowing up what appears to be an innocent chicken farmer. In a few seconds the young man's ethical universe has been dismantled and replaced by a cruder set of imperatives: keep moving; do what you can to survive; obey orders; when in doubt, shoot to kill. With the exception of the opening and closing scenes, the entirety of "Lebanon" takes place inside the tank, which "becomes both a cauldron of psychological distress and something of a metaphor." The soldiers who operate it are isolated from the world, with only the tank scope and a crackly radio to offer them glimpses of the destruction outside. At approximately 90 minutes long "Lebanon" sounds like a uniquely compelling film. I first learned about it while listening to the radio and hearing a critic describe it as the best war film he'd ever seen. You can view a trailer for the film on the NYT website by clicking here . The View From the Lens of an Israeli Tank's Scope [NYT] Israeli Film Captures the Experience Tank Warfare originally appeared on About.com Judaism on Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at 15:33:47. Permalink | Comment | Email this  |
Weekly Torah and Parsha Columns from Ohr SomayachThe Human Side of the Story : Keeping a Promise (Sep 4, 2010)True Stories Kinder Torah : Parshat Netzavim - Vayelech (Sep 4, 2010) For parents to read to their children on the weekly Torah portion (in PDF format) The Weekly Daf : Avodah Zarah 23 - 29 (Sep 4, 2010) Insights into a week of Daf Yomi learning Torah Weekly : Parshat Netzavim - Vayelech (Sep 4, 2010) Highlights of the weekly Torah portion Ask! : Clothes of the Deceased (Sep 4, 2010) Your Jewish Information Resource TalmuDigest : Avodah Zarah 23 - 29 (Sep 4, 2010) Topics from the week's Daf Yomi Israel Forever : Last Shabbat of the Year (Sep 4, 2010) Ohr Somayach's update on the Past, Present & Future of Israel Ethics : Wedding Woes (Sep 4, 2010) Social and business ethics, questions and answers. Love of the Land : Ayelet Hashachar – Tale of a Name (Sep 4, 2010) Selections from classical Torah sources which express the special relationship between the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael Ohrnet : Parshat Netzavim - Vayelech (Sep 4, 2010) A multi-page publication in Adobe Acrobat PDF format including Torah Weekly, Parsha Q&A, TalmuDigest and Ask The Rabbi. S P E C I A L S : Clarification (Sep 4, 2010) Parsha Q&A : Parshat Netzavim - Vayelech (Sep 4, 2010) In-depth questions on Parashat HaShavua with Rashi Ask! : Out to Lunch (Aug 28, 2010) Your Jewish Information Resource TalmuDigest : Avodah Zarah 16 - 22 (Aug 28, 2010) Topics from the week's Daf Yomi Israel Forever : We Keeping Kosher – Kosher Keeping Us (Aug 28, 2010) Ohr Somayach's update on the Past, Present & Future of Israel Ethics : Sharing News of Illness (Aug 28, 2010) Social and business ethics, questions and answers. Love of the Land : Wadi Ara – Echoes of the Past (Aug 28, 2010) Selections from classical Torah sources which express the special relationship between the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael The Human Side of the Story : Turned Down a Million (Aug 28, 2010) True Stories Kinder Torah : Parshat Ki Tavo (Aug 28, 2010) For parents to read to their children on the weekly Torah portion (in PDF format) Torah Weekly : Parshat Ki Tavo (Aug 28, 2010) Highlights of the weekly Torah portion  |
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