By Gabriel Weinstein Students in Hebrew schools and Jewish day schools learn that Hanukkah is the celebration of the Maccabees’ improbable military triumph and the miraculous burning of the Beit Hamikdash’s (Holy Temple's) Menorah for eight days, a holiday for crooning festive tunes and wagering intense...
By Doni Kandel Living in the Old City of Jerusalem for eighteen months was enough for me. While I'm eternally appreciative of Jerusalem, it is loud and overcrowded; the Old City is no exception. However, there is no more significant religious or cultural place...
By Merav Levkowitz For those of us with food allergies and intolerances, social events tend to be awkward and isolating. So many Jewish events revolve around food and involve eating in social settings or at the houses of others. Though many Jews...
By Lily Hoffman Simon Have you ever sat in an empty Chinese restaurant on Christmas day feeling like you are the only person in the whole country not congregating around a tree? For those who keep kosher, resisting the temptation to order shrimp for their fried...
By Steven Philp Friday evening, nearly 3,000 people packed themselves in to the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Canada to witness former-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and author Christopher Hitchens grapple with the merits of religion. The event was part of the Munk Debate series, organized by...
by Daniel Kieval In Howard Jacobson's Booker-prize winning novel, The Finkler Question, Jewish residents of London are increasingly alarmed by the growing number of anti-Semitic attacks worldwide. The characters receive streams of news reports in which anger or hatred toward Israel fuels violence toward Jews everywhere,...
By Gabriel Weinstein Last week a group of twenty cantors from the American Conference of Cantors (ACC) serenaded Catholic officials in Rome with rousing renditions of Adon Olam and other Jewish liturgical melodies. The concert was a part of the Interfaith Information Center’s conference on Catholic-Jewish...
We’ve all been there: the awkward first date. He’s shy. She’s nervous. They wait for a table at a restaurant and try to make small talk, but observations about the weather and the restaurant prove both uninteresting and brief. On their JDate profiles, they seemed...
Religion isn’t hip. It’s not cool, it’s not fun, it’s not trendy. That, at least, was the opinion of one intern at the Moment office. An editor replied that there were no exciting outlets for religious discussion. So, as they are wont to do, members...
By Daniel Kieval Shabbat, the seventh day, the day of rest, is a strange concept to so many today. The long lists of prohibited actions seem to run counter to popular notions of individual choice and freedom, and the idea of temporarily disengaging from the continual...