Jews in Belgium have been feeling less and less welcome in their home country, as the ritual slaughter ban which prohibits shechita, imperative to the making of kosher meat, has been upheld by the highest court in the country. While the law from 2017 makes the creation of kosher (and halal) meat illegal in the […]
Police are actively searching for a person who was seen dousing gasoline on the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School building last night. The gas fueled a fire set by the arsonist, who was seen pouring gas on a fenced-off area. The suspect lit the fire before fleeing the school campus. While the fire, […]
A question about the Shabbos staple delicacy cholent stumped Jeopardy! contestants this week, and observant host Mayim Bialik helped explain the answer. As the $400 “Sabbath” category clue presented was a photo of the traditional slow-cooked stew, alongside the following: “Exodus 35:3 bans doing this on the Sabbath, hence the Jewish dish ‘cholent,’ which can […]
The secular Jewish former editor in chief of the New Republic, Martin Peretz, wrote a favorable review of Dara Horn’s new book “People Love Dead Jews” in the Wall Street Journal. However, his depiction of Orthodox Jews in the review was so unfavorable, that the WSJ has published two poignant responses to his ironic othering […]
Dear Jew in the City- What are shmittah and yovel? Thank you, Shira Dear Shira- Thanks for your question, which I assume was inspired by the fact that this year (Hebrew year 5782) is a shmittah year. Shmittah is a rest for the land of Israel once every seven years, just as Shabbos is a […]
For most of elementary school, I was the only Jewish girl in a class of over eighty kids. There were a couple of Jewish boys. While I was secular during my childhood, everyone in school knew I was a Jew. A neighbor called me a “Jewish jerk” and made guttural noises one day to explain that […]
