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From Paris to Newark
By Joanne Palmer
Rabbi Anne Laurent talks about what drives her
About the cover: Rabbi Anne Laurent, right, and the Reverend Haydee Colon Hernandez of Summit outside Delaney Hall in Newark.
Local
see more
Jaime and Susan Weiss celebrate their MDA ambulance donation with their Boca Raton community. (Photos by American Friends of Magen David Adom)
Donation fulfills dad’s dream
By Abigail Klein Leichman
Fort Lee family presents ambulance to Magen David Adom
Lenny Mandel stands in front of the motorcycle, complete with Iraeli flag, that his friend Bobby rode up to West Point.
Attention! HUA at West Point
By Rabbi/Cantor Lenny Mandel
CBS/FLJC lay leaders went to JTS for Rabbi Bloostein’s ordination: from left, Carol Marcus, Eitan Bloostein, Neil Garflinkle, and Gail Rottenstrich.
Finding God in community
By Joanne Palmer
Congregation Beth Shalom/Fair Lawn Jewish Center welcomes its new rabbi
Allegra Goodman (Joshua Meyer)
Old characters, new lives
By Curt Schleier
Novelist Allegra Goodman talks about ‘Apple Cake’ growing into ‘This Is Not About Us’
Calendar
see more
Rabbi Paul M. Kurland
Shabbat in Rockland
Saturday, July 25
Suburbanite deconstructed
Sunday, August 2
Community
see more
Cantor Laura Breznick (Courtesy TBT)
Beth Tikvah of Wayne has a new cantor
(Courtesy CBI)
Emerson shul installs new board
Yavneh Academy of Paterson’s 1960 graduation class
Yavneh Academy class of 1960 reunites in Paramus
Opinion
see more
Joanne Palmer
Editorial
Joanne Palmer
Nachamu, nachamu, ami
Shammai Engelmayer
Column
Shammai Engelmayer
A lesson the world ignores
Rosanne Skopp
Opinion
Rosanne Skopp
A love story
Opinion
Rabbi Neal I. Borovitz
Civility and the high holy days
Yigal Gross
Opinion
Yigal Gross
It is time to reconsider American Jewry’s political strategy
Banji Ganchrow
Banji Ganchrow
Our hockey room
Have I written about my hockey room before? When we did construction on our house, almost 20 years ago — yikes 20 years, where did that go? — we had the chance to add a basement to the plans. Should we? Shouldn’t we? My mom convinced us that we should. And it was our best decision ever. For years, our basement was the “hockey room.” Technically, it is called knee hockey, but whatever it was called, on many a Shabbos evening the hockey room smelled like boy. Febreze was a great...Continue Reading
D'var Torah
Parshat Vaetchanan/Shabbat Nachamu: A flash of light
By Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser
Latest Cover Stories
Learning to teach about Israel
By Joanne Palmer
Teaching about Israel’s history right now is not a job for the faint-hearted. It is also highly unlikely that anyone would have tried calling visionary educator Tikva Wiener of Teaneck faint-hearted. Not ever. So now Ms. Wiener, through the organization she created and heads, Kadima Coaching, is teaching teachers...Continue Reading
About the cover: ZEI Fellow Jay Schreiber of Northwest Yeshiva High School in Seattle talks about teaching the Jewish people’s connection to Israel; inset, Fellows Nina Cohen of Frisch School, left, and Heather Benjamin of MTA in NY look at a multimedia map of Israel. (Courtesy ZEI)
Welcome to Club Z
By Joanne Palmer
This can be a confusing time to be a Jewish teenager. Cultural assumptions and expectations are changing rapidly in some places; it can be hard for Jewish tweens or teens to figure out their identity. It’s almost a perfect storm for some kids — please note that this...Continue Reading
‘The Penny Is Gone’
By Joanne Palmer
Emil Bezverkhny’s life followed a classic tragic arc. He was brilliant — a wildly creative, innovative physicist and inventor whose gifts would have been welcome anywhere. He was optimistic and resilient, kind and loving. Like all tragic heroes, he had a fatal flaw, but unlike most of them,...Continue Reading
‘Talmud of America’
By Joanne Palmer
We Jews are known for our devotion to text. To say we read carefully is to understate ludicrously. We examine every word, every noun for its solidity and apparent meaning, every verb for its active or passive message, every repetition and alliteration and metaphor for whatever might possibly...Continue Reading
Pardes students consider the Declaration of Independence; above, the institute gathers a diverse group of Jews, all drawn by Torah study. (All photos courtesy Pardes Institute)
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Latest Articles
  • About the cover: Rabbi Anne Laurent, right, and the Reverend Haydee Colon Hernandez of Summit outside Delaney Hall in Newark.
    8 hours ago
    From Paris to Newark
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Page 3
  • Boy George kicks off PRIDE week with a surprise popup DJ set at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan in June. Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)
    ‘If you’re ever confused: I stand with the Jews’
    By Kelly Hartog
  • Amir Wolner of Hakibbutz, left, and Guy Franklin of Israeli Mapped in NY (Courtesy/Ohad Kab)
    Israeli startups open Manhattan ‘kibbutz,’ as tech scene grows despite Mamdani
    By Luke Tress
  • Two former hostages got married last Sunday night.
  • Adam’s an Angel!
  • Left: The 1976 letter telling Norberto Rud that his design had been chosen as the Argentine Football Association’s official crest; at right, Rud’s son Oliver wears a jersey featuring his father’s design.
    Jewish superfan designed Messi’s crest
    By Juan Melamed
  • Celebrating liberty
  • Simba meets a fawn in Paramus.
    Living in the wilds of New Jersey
  • Knicks coach Red Holzman is on the sidelines during game action against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 5, 1977. (Getty Images)
    The Knicks won on 6/13. Coincidence?
    By Philissa Cramer
  • Raz Shabtai
    Kosher restaurant wins a Michelin star!
    By Grace Gilson
  • Israeli wins second place in Eurovision
    By Philissa Cramer
  • Young people work in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood, April 1938. (Avraham Malavsky, KKL-JNF Photo Archive)
    From the Old City to a newsboy — photos from Jerusalem pre- and just-post statehood
  • Israel repatriates two very old coins
  • (Photos by Brenda Sutcliffe)
    It is high, it is far, it is gone!
    By Joanne Palmer
  • These are pages from Wingate’s English/Hebrew notebooks.
    Israel’s national library acquires Wingate’s papers
  • Candidate apologies for Passover ad
    By Philissa Cramer
  • If AI catered your seder…
    By Harriet Einschlag
  • ‘Two Flags’ over Jersey City — and at EWR
    By Joanne Palmer
  • If you ask AI for Moses in a basket…
    By Joanne Palmer
  • Ben Saraf, Deni Avdija and Danny Wolf share the court during the Portland Trail Blazers-Brooklyn Nets matchup on March 16. It was the first NBA game to feature three players with Israeli citizenship. (Grace Yagel)
    NBA game features 3 Israelis — Deni Avdija, Danny Wolf and Ben Saraf
    By Gabe Friedman
  • Signs of the season
Community
  • Cantor Laura Breznick (Courtesy TBT)
    Beth Tikvah of Wayne has a new cantor
  • (Courtesy CBI)
    Emerson shul installs new board
  • Yavneh Academy of Paterson’s 1960 graduation class
    Yavneh Academy class of 1960 reunites in Paramus
  • Rabbi Paul M. Kurland
    Rockland shul honors Rabbi Emeritus Kurland
  • Harry Belafonte at the 1963 March on Washington. Black celebrities worked with Jewish organizations to advance civil rights. Harry Belafonte, of partial Sephardic Jewish descent, and his wife, activist Julie Robinson, attended voting rights events sponsored by the American Jewish Congress. Belafonte was inspired in part by Black performer and activist Paul Robeson, a vocal ally of Jewish Americans. (Image courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society, New York. From the Records of the American Jewish Congress (I-77))
    Exhibit honors Jews and democracy
  • Arthur Barchenko, Ron Foster, Pastor Wayne Coleman, Lynn Cooper, and Leon Moses (Courtesy TBT)
    Commemorating Juneteenth in Wayne
  • Dr. Leah Knapp, left, Debra Tsadok, and Aliza Weinberg
    Planning for the future of siblings with special needs
  • From left: Moshe Indig, vice president of CNC Cabinetry; Moshe Schwartz, president of Schwartz Realty; Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ Dist. 5); Joel Friedman, vice president of JOY Aviation; David Rosenberg, executive director of the NJJBA; Nathan Herzog, president of Royal Wine; Ari Stahl, vice president of Engel Holdings, and Mark Greenbaum, senior advisor to Congresswoman Nellie Pou (D-NJ Dist. 9). (Courtesy NJJBA)
    NJJBA advocacy day in Washington
  • From left: Rabbi Avremy Kanelsky, Rabbi David Wilansky, Rabbi Mendel Groner, Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky, Lenny Kanchik, Felix and Lina Kanchik, and Rebbetzin Shterney Kanelsky
    Bris Avrohom farbrengen 
  • Arielle Greenbaum Saposh
    Arielle Greenbaum Saposh named managing director of Sinai Schools
  • The interfaith choir performs in Wayne (Photos courtesy TBT)
    Interfaith concert in Wayne
  • Howard Jakob and Erica Danziger (Michael Grossberg, Spirited 
Images Photography)
    JCC of Northern NJ celebrates its supporters
  • Online book talk
  • (Photo courtesy of the AJCF)
    Law enforcement leaders go to Poland for training program
  • Micah Cohen, Erez Kahan, Perri Korine, and Albert Babayev (Vladimir Badikov)
    IDF combat medic tells her story at Israel Bonds dinner
  • Incoming president Joan Birnbaum, second from left, with officers and directors being installed. (Courtesy NCJW)
    NCJW Rockland installs officers
  • From left: United Hatzalah chairman Mark Gerson; his wife, Rabbi Erica Gerson; UH board member Alex Witkoff; investor and sports team owner David Blitzer; former hostage Bar Kupershtein; Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer, and United Hatzalah founder and president Eli Beer. (Courtesy United Hatzalah)
    United Hatzalah holds NYC gala
  • Aimee Ginsburg Bikel (Courtesy TBT)
    Theodore Bikel’s widow speaks in Wayne
  • (Courtesy LOTP)
    LOPT travels to the Lubavitcher rebbe’s ohel in Queens
  • A self-portrait of Rachel Banai
    Artist’s 40-year retrospective exhibit in Teaneck
Full CoverageRockland
  • Mr. Hoehmann reads to schoolchildren.
    Promoting tolerance and building bridges
    By Leah Adler
  • Six13 will play at Sons of Israel in Nyack as the community celebrates Chanukah together again.
    A Chanukah party with the sounds of Six13
    By Miriam Allenson
  • Sacred Holocaust scrolls
  • Jewish community leaders and Rockland County officials announcing the security initiative. (L to R) Jewish Federation & Foundation of Rockland County CEO Ari Rosenblum; County Executive Ed Day; Rockland Security Initiative director Ethan Erlich; UJA Federation of New York President and CEO Eric Goldstein; Jewish Community Relations Council New York Community Security Initiative Executive Director Mitch Silber; Jewish Federation & Foundation of Rockland County Board Co-President Marcy Pressman; District Attorney Tom Walsh, and Sheriff’s Captain Tony DeColyse.
    ‘An Iron Dome of protection from Monsey to Montauk’
    By Larry Yudelson
  • The first person in the United States to be diagnosed with polio is an Orthodox Jewish man from Monsey. (Getty/Catherine Falls Commercial)
    First US case of polio in nearly a decade diagnosed
    By Jacob Henry
  • Scott Richman, left, and Ari Rosenblum
    Man charged in drawing swastikas in Monsey synagogue as questions remain
    By Larry Yudelson
  • From left, Jessica Milstein, national director of Israel Bonds’ Women’s Division; Rockland general chair, Sharon Sasson; Rockland Women’s Division chair Pam Greenspan; Tovah Feldshuh; event co-chair Marilyn Soffer; and Lee Schwartz, Israel Bonds’ executive director for Metro NJ and Rockland/Upstate NY. (Photos by Jeff Karg)
    Israel Bonds Rockland Women’s Division has gala brunch
  • Yitzchok Spivak with the other top scorers in the 2022 International Bible Quiz in Jerusalem. (Sceenshot)
    Tackling the Bible Quiz
    By Abigail Klein Leichman
  • A Jewish agency volunteer teaches dance to refugee children at a Jewish Agency hotel in Warsaw.
    As war rages in Ukraine, another visit with the helpers
    By Larry Yudelson
  • Hillel of Rockland delivers
  • Mindy Sayer, representing the Makom religious school, receives the Chromebooks from men’s club co-presidents Eric Zweigbaum, left, Bruce Yore, and Mitch Spiegel
    Rockland shul donates Chromebooks to religious school
  • Scenes from the meta movie “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen.”
    From automats to Anatevka
    By Curt Schleier
  • Jerry Chazen
    Remembering Jerry Chazen
    By Joanne Palmer
  • Virginia Norfleet and Andrea Winograd.
    ‘Better Together’
    By Larry Yudelson
  • Left, these large shackles, made in the 17th and 18th century were found in Haverstraw, along with smaller ones designed for women and children. They display the cruelty of slavery. Chains and cotton are markers of enslavement (Photos courtesy Virginia Norfleet Collection)
    Honoring Black history
  • Rockland County sisterhood honorees, top row, from left, Eileen Nekrich and Shari Winkler, both from Congregation Shir Shalom; and bottom row, Jill Degen from the New City Jewish Center and Diane Goldstein from the Orangetown Jewish Center.
    Women’s League honored four Rockland women 
  • Isamu Noguchi’s Momo Taro stands in Storm King.
    Storm King: Where sculpture reigns supreme
    By Miriam Allenson
  • Erin Santana (right) at an event marking the opening of an exhibit about the history of Brownsville, produced by local youth. Monifa Edwards and Veronica Gee (third and fourth from left) were students there and then.
    Remembering the NYC teacher’s strike of ’68
    By Larry Yudelson
  • Leslie Goldress leads a hybrid class at the Rockland Jewish federation.
    Staying hybrid in Rockland
    By Larry Yudelson
  • Hillel of Rockland
Northern New Jersey’s Jewish Voice Since 1931
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