Новости за 16.10.2018

Lenny and Diana Miller were married just one year before America entered World War II. They vowed to write to one another daily after Lenny enlisted in 1943. As he made his way through basic training in Mississippi, to the beaches of Normandy, and eventually to the Battle of the Bulge, Diana struggled financially, giving up her job as a machinist to become a mother. Their correspondence, scrupulously edited by their daughter, Elizabeth Fox, was recently published by SUNY Press under the title We Are Going To Be Lucky. Читать дальше...

Just yesterday, Hillary Clinton insisted that Bill did not abuse any power when he allowed his intern, Monica Lewinsky, who was half his age, to sexually service him. Hillary’s words are beyond belief and beyond embarrassing.

A hastily assembled two-day synod concluded in the Belarusian capital of Minsk yesterday—the city chosen as neutral ground for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow—with a declaration from the Russian Orthodox Church of its immediate intention to sunder all bonds with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The split between the churches, which could end a tradition stretching back almost two millennia, has been driven largely by political enmity and is widely viewed as a proxy conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Читать дальше...

The words “baal teshuvah” have a lot of weight for Jews. For the observant, it can feel celebratory, the phrase literally translates to “master of return.” Some Jew from a less religious background has found Orthodoxy. For others, they’ll say that a friend or family member “flipped out,” left them behind as they pursue a lifestyle that can seem alien, even hostile.

The words “baal teshuvah” have a lot of weight for Jews. For the observant, it can feel celebratory, the phrase literally translates to “master of return.” Some Jew from a less religious background has found Orthodoxy. For others, they’ll say that a friend or family member “flipped out,” left them behind as they pursue a lifestyle that can seem alien, even hostile.

Literary critic Adam Kirsch is reading a page of Talmud a day, along with Jews around the world.

Since he first spoke about his experiences in the 1990s, Holocaust survivor Ivor Perl has come across a lack of understanding with increasing frequency. Perl was 12 years old when he stepped out onto the ramp at Auschwitz. He has been active in promoting the memory of what happened to Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust across schools in the United Kingdom but now feels that there is no point in continuing to speak about his life.

Starting about 2013, the staff at the Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania wondered what they were doing wrong. Each year, the number of students at their High Holiday services, Passover seders, and the first annual Shabbat dinner of the year seemed to be smaller than in years past. “We thought we just hit this wall, where 15 years ago the people who didn’t want to go to services did so, even if out of guilt, and today they don’t,” said Michael Uram, the Hillel executive director and campus rabbi. Читать дальше...