Monaco’s Growing Frum Community & Other Orthodox Jews in the News

Outside of Israel, Tiny Monaco Has the Highest Ratio of Jews in the World. Here’s Why the Community is Growing.
This tiny wealthy country on France’s southeastern coast is famous for its beautiful beaches, coastal mansions and splendid casinos. Outside of Israel, Monaco also has the highest ratio of Jewish inhabitants of any country in the world, at over 5%, according to statistics provided by its two rabbis, both of whom run Orthodox shuls for its 2,000 Jews.

In an Ashkenazi World, I’m Struggling to Connect to My Bukharian Heritage
I still struggle with feeling as though the Sephardi and Bukharian practices that I’m now trying to learn are, in a way, inferior because they aren’t Ashkenazi. I can’t help but feel that I’ve lost so much time, so much knowledge, and so much pride. I want to be able to sing and dance and speak in the way that my ancestors used to — and not to feel less Jewish for doing so.

Yossi: Kosher Cool
Situated near Marseille’s most prominent synagogue and the Rue Saint-Suffren, Yossi is a kosher restaurant serving up Israeli comfort food in an industrial chic space that bears all the markers of cosmopolitan cool: exposed pipes, brass light fixtures and an open kitchen decked out in subway tiles. At night, a playlist pumps raï (a type of Algerian folk music), pop and other upbeat tunes.

From the Backwoods to Israel’s Torah
If you met this young mom in her sukkah in the city of Modi’in, her blond hair chastely covered, singing holiday songs with her husband and children, it would be hard to guess that Bracha Simcha Cramer grew up in the backwoods of America: in Virginia, North Carolina and Idaho. The slight slanting of her blue eyes might intrigue you, especially if she told you her maternal grandfather was part Native American.

NYC Imposes Additional Requirements on Private Schools in Predominantly Jewish Neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn
The City did not impose restrictions on similarly situated, non-Jewish neighborhoods in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. An attorney in New York has stated that if read literally, it is impossible to comply with these rules.

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