As a professional recruiter, the COVID pandemic brought Dovi Halpern’s career to a total standstill. No one was hiring, he recalls. “People thought the world would end tomorrow. I was sitting around with no work to do.” And at that early stage in the pandemic, he also had no shul to go to either. “There […]
As Joe Biden was inaugurated today, there has been a lot of concern about increased tension in the world – between near and distant brothers and sisters – stemming from political disagreements. But of course, arguments between siblings are nothing new. A striking midrash highlights this universal phenomenon with several dramatic dramatic examples: “From the […]
Dear JITC- I never said a blessing on another vaccine. Why are people saying one now? Thanks, Rochie Dear Rochie- Thanks for your question. Before we discuss the possibility of reciting a bracha upon receiving the vaccination for COVID-19, I’d like to address some principles of brachos generally. The fact that we recite brachos is […]
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once called Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel “a great prophet.” In the photo, Heschel presented King with the Judaism and World Peace Award. How did the leader of the civil rights movement come to form such a deep bond with an Orthodox Jewish rabbi? Heschel was a Polish-born American […]
Just days after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, the former Ashkenazi chief rabbi. Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, 83, has tested positive for Covid-19. Because there is a delay in showing a positive result in testing, it is thought that the Rav may have contracted it from his wife, who came down with […]
Miriam Adar, one of eleven children, born and bred in Lakewood, New Jersey, has been a lifelong artist. On a whim, she baked a fancy cake for her daughter’s birthday seven years ago. From there, she discovered that fancy fondant cake making was her new artistic passion. She opened a business in South Florida, and […]
