• Facebook
  • X (Twitter)
  • Subscribe
Northern New Jersey’s Jewish Voice Since 1931
Open Search form
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Blogs
  • Jewish Standard Newsletter
  • Submissions
    • SUGGEST A STORY
    • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
    • COMMUNITY / CALENDAR / PRESS RELEASES
    • SUBMIT A SIMCHA
    • SUBMIT AN OBITUARY
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Partners
    • Atlanta
      Atlanta Jewish Times
    • North New Jersey
      The Jewish Standard
    • Pittsburgh
      Jewish Chronicle
    • United Kingdom
      The Jewish News
    • Australia
      The Australian Jewish News
    • For Publishers
      Become a Times of Israel Partner
  • search
Israelis receive an Extreme Alert several minutes before an air-raid siren is likely to wail. Translation: “Alerts are expected to be received in your area in the next few minutes. You need to improve your location for optimum protection nearby. In the event of receiving an alert, you must enter the protected area and remain there until you receive a new message. -- Home Front Command – lifesaving instructions”
Letter from Israel
By Abigail Klein Leichman
When the best-laid plans go awry … again
Local
see more
Elie Y. Katz and his son Ziggy in Israel this week.
‘We’re all in this together’
By Joanne Palmer
Teaneck official and family among thousands trying to find an exit strategy
Jordyn Engel
‘I’ve never felt like this before’
By Joanne Palmer
Young IDF lone soldier from Springfield describes how she got there
The Allens are at a family simcha last year.
‘Thank God, the kids are very resilient’
By Joanne Palmer
Rabbi Ely Allen, who made aliyah from Bergen County, describes a special Israeli solidarity
Rachel Lissack and her fiance, Idan Zipris.
‘Resilience — it’s like in the water here’
By Joanne Palmer
Olah from South Orange talks about life in Israel now
Cellphones have upended student life, as this stock photo shows. (Freepik)
Several Jewish high schools ban cellphones
By Abigail Klein Leichman
Collaborative decision is aimed at making students ‘fully present’
These are the adult b’nai mitzvah students at Shomrei Emunah.
Being very adult about b’nai mitzvah class
By Merrill Silver
What it’s like to help grown-ups prepare for their delayed rite of passage
Lenny Mandel, right, with his friend Seymour Shaw.
‘Say it loud’
By Cantor/Rabbi Lenny Mandel
Our correspondent recalls his brushes with antisemitism
Israel attacked targets in Iran, including in Tehran, as shown here, on the morning of Friday, June 13. (WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinion of sheep
By Joanne Palmer
JEWS FOR NJ.ORG
By Joanne Palmer
New initiative will help community connect
NASCK’s director of outreach and Project Last Kindness, Yael Davidowitz, is at the lectern.
‘We act with respect for a body that housed a soul’
By Abigail Klein Leichman
Participants report on the Women’s Chevra Kadisha leadership conference in Iselin
Mixed Metaphors 19 (All art and photos By Miriam Stern)
Selling art, feeding the hungry
By Joanne Palmer
Miriam Stern of Teaneck offers work online; proceeds go to charity
Deb Breslow stands behind her Aunt Ruth.
More than just an epitaph
By Deb Breslow
Looking back at loving and losing the last of her generation
Daddy and daughters on the beach.
‘Hope you like these socks’
An ode to my daughters’ father on Father’s Day
Assemblywoman Garnet Hall, JESPY board president Dr. Ahadi Bugg-Levine, South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum, and JESPY executive director Audrey Winkler. (Elise Campbell Photography)
JESPY breaks ground on its new center
An Israeli and an Iranian face off in a judo match in “Tatami.”
Can an Iranian fight an Israeli?
By Curt Schleier
‘Tatami,’ a film about judo, explores such a confrontation
Calendar
see more
Choral concert in Tenafly
Sunday, June 22, 3 p.m.
Get-together in Leonia
Sunday, June 22, 4-6 p.m.
Concert in Wayne
Sunday, June 22, 7 p.m.
JCC turns 100
Tuesday, June 24
Talking about antisemitism
Wednesday, June 25, Noon
Chabad Center celebrates
Thursday, June 26
Goddess online
Friday, June 27, 10 a.m.
Next-generation singer in Wayne
Friday, June 27, 7:30 p.m.
Hospice cabaret in Upper Nyack
Sunday, June 29, 1:30 p.m.
Jeremy Lentz (Barbara Balkin)
Pride Shabbat in Teaneck
Friday, June 13, 8 p.m.
Second-generation survivors meet
Wednesday, June 18, noon-2 p.m.
Marking Juneteenth
Thursday, June 19, 12:30 p.m.
Get-together in Leonia
Sunday, June 22, 4–6 p.m.
Concert in Wayne
Sunday, June 22, 7 p.m.
Honorary dinner
Tuesday, June 24, 6:30 p.m.
Yiddish music in Manhattan
Sunday, June 15, 1 p.m.
Community
see more
Teaneck shul open house set for July 4
Rabbi Chaim and Sara M. Brafman
Chabad Center of Northwest NJ celebrates 37 years on June 26
Toby Rosenthal, the daughter of the late Gail Hirsch Rosenthal, shovels dirt onto a tree sapling planted at Stockton University. (Bernard DeLury/Stockton University)
Sapling from ‘Anne Frank Tree’ planted to honor Holocaust educator 
On Sunday June 8, Rabbi Simeon Cohen, center, was escorted into the TBS sanctuary before he was installed as the temple’s rabbi. Holding the poles, from left, are his mother Lori Cohen, his father-in-law Dr. Michael Fein, his father Harlan Cohen, and his mother-in-law Beverly Fein.  (Jerry Siskind)
Rabbi Simeon Cohen celebrated as senior rabbi at Livingston’s Temple Beth Shalom
Holocaust Institute holding annual online summer book series
Opinion
see more
Searching for peace, finding no peace
By Joanne Palmer
Where are you, God?
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
A Jewish cry of protest amid Iranian missiles and Hamas massacres
War and weddings, weddings and war
By Rosanne Skopp
The pain of victory
By Rabbi David Seth Kirshner
Remembering Judi and Gadi
By Elliot B. Karp
The Frazzled Housewife
Dear God…
By Banji Ganchrow
Joanne Palmer
Editorial
Joanne Palmer
Honesty matters
Column
Shammai Englemayer
The anti-Zionism absurdity
Joseph C. Kaplan
Opinion
Joseph C. Kaplan
Playing telephone is for children
Max L. Kleinman
Opinion
Max L. Kleinman
A tale of two wars
Lauren Cherkas
Opinion
Lauren Cherkas
Coming home by going home
Sarah Kukin Gretah
Opinion
Sarah Kukin Gretah
‘My heart yearns for our Jewish homeland’
Rabbi Mendy Kaminker
Opinion
Rabbi Mendy Kaminker
Jewish women and girls: the world needs your light
Gila Fortinsky
Opinion
Gila Fortinsky
The radicals have ruined Yiddish New York
Beha’alotecha: ‘The Blessing of Friends’
By Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser
Letters
Banji Ganchrow
Banji Ganchrow
It’s summertime
In previous columns I have reminisced about how, when you have kids at home, the changing of the seasons is defined by what activities they have. For example, you know it is fall when they have soccer, and you are watching them play in the freezing cold, long after the sun has gone down. And you know it is summer when you start buying supplies for camp. Lots and lots of socks and underwear. The newest style of t-shirt-dry fit, cotton… With boys it was always easy and never... Continue Reading
Latest Cover Stories
ON THE COVER: Gedaliah Dimbert of Teaneck, a Nitzavim Fellow, stands on a hilltop in Israel. (Nitzavim Fellowship)
Learning leadership
By Abigail Klein Leichman
Local students go to Israel on Nitzavim Fellowship
Sacred music from Sepharad
By Joanne Palmer
Jews live all over the world. This is not news. Nor is it news that Jews pick up influences from the cultures in which we live — Jewish food in Italy, say, isn’t the same as Jewish food in Morocco. The Jewish music with which most of us are... Continue Reading
Israel Day on Fifth
Tens of thousands of people marched up Fifth Avenue on Sunday. The crowd, marchers and onlookers alike, was estimated at more than 50,000 as the Israel Day on Fifth parade, with floats, bands, and large numbers of students and faculty from local day schools, including many from... Continue Reading
Tzofim
How does he do that?
By Joanne Palmer
Dani Shachar from the Jewish Institute for the Blind shows what he can do
READ FULL JEWISH STANDARD ISSUE
Jewish Standard, June 20, 2025
View recent print issues SUBSCRIBE FOR MAIL DELIVERY
Latest Articles
  • 3 days ago
    Dear God…
  • 3 days ago
    Choral concert in Tenafly
  • 3 days ago
    Get-together in Leonia
  • 3 days ago
    Concert in Wayne
  • 3 days ago
    JCC turns 100
  • 3 days ago
    Talking about antisemitism
  • 3 days ago
    Chabad Center celebrates
  • 3 days ago
    Goddess online
  • 3 days ago
    Next-generation singer in Wayne
  • 3 days ago
    Hospice cabaret in Upper Nyack
  • 3 days ago
    Remembering Judi and Gadi
  • 3 days ago
    The pain of victory
  • 3 days ago
    War and weddings, weddings and war
  • 3 days ago
    Where are you, God?
  • 3 days ago
    Searching for peace, finding no peace
  • 3 days ago
    ‘Resilience — it’s like in the water here’
  • 3 days ago
    ‘Thank God, the kids are very resilient’
  • 3 days ago
    ‘I’ve never felt like this before’
  • 3 days ago
    ‘We’re all in this together’
  • 3 days ago
    Letter from Israel
See All
Latest Blogs
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Playing Telephone is for Children
  • Tani Foger
    Tani Foger
    When an Act of Solidarity Becomes...
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Our Most Precious Right – Part II
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Trump, Ben-Gvir, and my Vanished ...
  • Maayan Aviv
    Maayan Aviv
    Trauma Is a Shared Burden — and...
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Famous Last Words
  • Maayan Aviv
    Maayan Aviv
    Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healing
  • Tani Foger
    Tani Foger
    Doom-Scrolling or Allyship?
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Freedom of Speech and Assembly ...
  • Maayan Aviv
    Maayan Aviv
    A Mental Health Crisis Like No Ot...
See All
Latest Blogs
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    June 12, 2025, 11:28 PM
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Playing Telephone is for Children
  • Tani Foger
    June 9, 2025, 1:43 AM
    Tani Foger
    When an Act of Solidarity Becomes...
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    May 16, 2025, 6:16 AM
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Our Most Precious Right – Part II
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    May 9, 2025, 12:26 AM
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Trump, Ben-Gvir, and my Vanished ...
  • Maayan Aviv
    May 5, 2025, 9:32 PM
    Maayan Aviv
    Trauma Is a Shared Burden — and...
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    April 10, 2025, 11:30 PM
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Famous Last Words
  • Maayan Aviv
    April 9, 2025, 10:52 PM
    Maayan Aviv
    Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healing
  • Tani Foger
    April 8, 2025, 6:04 AM
    Tani Foger
    Doom-Scrolling or Allyship?
  • Joseph C. Kaplan
    March 20, 2025, 11:03 PM
    Joseph C. Kaplan
    Freedom of Speech and Assembly ...
  • Maayan Aviv
    March 18, 2025, 12:08 AM
    Maayan Aviv
    A Mental Health Crisis Like No Ot...
See All
Jewish Standard
Daily Edition
Free to Your Inbox
The email is either missing or invalid.
By signing up, you agree to our terms You hereby accept the Jewish Standard Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and you agree to receive the latest news & offers from the Jewish Standard and its partners or ad sponsors.
Specialty Publications
Our Children, June 2025 Events & Celebrations, May 2025 Our Children, May 2025 Our Children, April 2025
View all magazines
Page 3
  • (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
    Israel’s Yuval Raphael comes in second at Eurovision
    By Philissa Cramer
  • Yuval Raphael, representing Israel, walks the Turquoise Carpet at the opening of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, on May 11. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)
    Israel’s Eurovision contestant, Yuval Raphael, is focused on music, not protests
    By Philissa Cramer
  • How not to get home for the seder
    By Larry Yudelson
  • A sinister seder set
    By Larry Yudelson
  • YU makes baseball history in Teaneck
    By Larry Yudelson
  • Head coach Jon Scheyer of the Duke Blue Devils celebrates after cutting the net following an 85-65 victory against Alabama in the Elite Eight round of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament at the Prudential Center on March 29 in Newark. (Lance King/Getty Images)
    NCAA men’s Final Four features 3 Jewish coaches
    By Ben Sales
  • The time Bob Dylan doodled a yarmulkaed man waiting for a 1 train
    By Larry Yudelson
  • A wild week of Jewish Dylanology
    By Larry Yudelson
  • A career-spanning retrospective of Jewish comics legend Will Eisner is on view at Philippe Labaune Gallery in Chelsea. (Will Eisner, courtesy of Philippe Labaune Gallery)
    Influential Jewish comics legend Will Eisner gets a retrospective in Chelsea
    By Lisa Keys
  • Kafka, davka across the GWB
    By Larry Yudelson and Lisa Keys
  • A Springsteen gig you might have missed
    By Larry Yudelson
  • Women vampires, time travel win at Jewish children’s book awards
    By Penny Schwartz
  • For sale: ‘the most complete Jewish baseball card collection in the world’
    By Jacob Gurvis
  • Are you ready for olive pasta?
    By John Jeffay
  • Elissa Slotkin sworn into U.S. Senate on Reform women’s Torah commentary
    By Philissa Cramer
  • A sample of the works from Salvador Dali’s “Aliyah, the Rebirth of Israel” series, currently on view at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County. From left, “Orah, Horah,” “On the Shores of Freedom,” which depicts the Eliyahu Golomb refugee ship, and “A Moment in History” which shows David Ben Gurion reading Israel’s Declaration of Independence. (Courtesy the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center)
    Shalom, Dali!
    By Jackie Hajdenberg
  • The biggest Chanukah merch fails of the season — part 2
    By Rabbi Yael Buechler
  • The biggest Chanukah merch fails of the season — part 1
    By Rabbi Yael Buechler
  • Manischewitz scores first sports hero endorsement
    By Jacob Gurvis
  • The warm backstory of this year’s Chanukah stamp 
    By Jackie Hajdenberg
Community
  • Rabbi Chaim and Sara M. Brafman
    Chabad Center of Northwest NJ celebrates 37 years on June 26
  • Toby Rosenthal, the daughter of the late Gail Hirsch Rosenthal, shovels dirt onto a tree sapling planted at Stockton University. (Bernard DeLury/Stockton University)
    Sapling from ‘Anne Frank Tree’ planted to honor Holocaust educator 
  • On Sunday June 8, Rabbi Simeon Cohen, center, was escorted into the TBS sanctuary before he was installed as the temple’s rabbi. Holding the poles, from left, are his mother Lori Cohen, his father-in-law Dr. Michael Fein, his father Harlan Cohen, and his mother-in-law Beverly Fein.  (Jerry Siskind)
    Rabbi Simeon Cohen celebrated as senior rabbi at Livingston’s Temple Beth Shalom
  • Holocaust Institute holding annual online summer book series
  • Tzofim Friendship Caravan (Courtesy JNF)
    Israeli Scouts to perform in Livingston
  • Cemetery Association to reinstall veterans memorial plaques
  • Sophia Paul places a flag on her great-grandfather’s grave. (Photos courtesy JFNNJ)
    Federation honors Memorial Day
  • Author talks about her book
  • Chabad course explores extraordinary Jews
  • Rabbi Levi and Esty Grossbaum, Assemblywoman Rosie Bagolie, State Senator John McKeon, Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, and Toba Grossbaum (Courtesy Friendship Circle)
    Friendship Circle holds gala banquet for LifeTown
  • Itay Vilosny, left, and Valerie Berezin (Photos courtesy Birthright Israel)
    Birthright Israel includes local participants
  • Professor Daniel Levin on a previous walking tour
    Walking tour about WWII mid-air collision over Teaneck
  • The Dryermans’ son, Max, reads from the Torah dedicated in memory of his parents and sister. (Courtesy TEPV)
    Woodcliff Lake shul dedicates Torah in memory of the Dryerman family
  • Lois Bruno
    Outdoor concert in Englewood
  • Lori Lippitz (Courtesy Kol Rina)
    Exploring klezmer on Zoom for Kol Rina
  • Students at Sinai Schools at work. (Courtesy Sinai Schools)
    Sinai Schools recommended for Middle States re-accreditation
  • Congregant Deborah Veach, 
left, and former State Senator 
Loretta Weinberg (Barbara Balkin)
    Temple Emeth honors Loretta Weinberg
  • Steve Witkoff
    United Hatzalah New York gala
  • Author Susan Horowitz Cain signs copies of her book, “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole.”
    Best-selling author comes to River Vale
  • Rabbi Elazar Mayer Teitz z”l
    Honoring Rabbi Teitz z”l
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
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Blogs
  • Jewish Standard Newsletter
  • Spotlight
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Facebook
  • X (Twitter)
  • RSS
subscribe to the daily edition
The email is either missing or invalid
© 2025 Jewish Standard, all rights reserved
Concept, design & development by
Powered by