JITC Branches
From the archives
For many years during the Passover seder I have struggled with how to handle “the wicked son.” We are told that there are four sons: wise, wicked, simple and one who doesn’t know how to ask. Says the hagaddah: “What does the wicked son say? ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ To you and […]
Dear Jew in the City- Harry Potter was just translated into Yiddish but isn’t witchcraft prohibited in the Torah? How is this book okay to read? -MM Dear MM- Why should it not be okay to read? Witchcraft is prohibited in the Torah, reading about witchcraft isn’t. Along similar lines, murder is prohibited by the […]
Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz runs a Chabad synagogue just two blocks from where the shooting happened on Monday, which targeted Highland Park, one of the most Jewish neighborhoods in Chicago, according to JTA and began in the middle of a klezmer band playing. A few weeks before the massacre, antisemitic flyers had been distributed throughout community, sources […]
Dear Jew in the City- I was raised to see Rosh Hashana as a terrifying time of year, that I would be judged by God in (aka Who Will Live and Who Will Die). I’ve obviously made a lot of mistakes, but I’ve met people who approach the holiday in a more positive way. What’s […]
Popular videos
In a world obsessed with devices, it occurred to me that we are living in an age where silence dominates many situations. Silence between couples, silence between families, silence everywhere you turn as people tap, tap, tap on their devices. What an isolating existence. But what if there was an antidote to silence? What if […]
Big Bang Theory star, Mayim Bialik, asks Jew in the City can science and religion work together in a Jewish framework? While there are some Orthodox Jews who believe in a literal account of the creation story, many of us hold that the events must be understood another way. RAMBAM, also known as Maimonides, stated […]
Recent videos
It’s not commonplace to reach the highest rungs of the U.S. government. Rarer still? A Chinese-speaking Hasidic Jew being Senate-confirmed to a top role. That’s the story of Mitchell Silk, who served as Assistant Secretary for International Markets at the U.S. Department of Treasury — the first Hasidic Jew to hold a presidentially-nominated, Senate-confirmed position. […]
At JITC’s 2nd Jewish Media Awards, held at Lincoln Center on November 12, 2024, the groundbreaking documentary “Jews Don’t Count” received the Keter Shem Tov Award for its courageous storytelling. In his acceptance speech, creator David Baddiel said: “I made the film before October 7th, 2023. And it seems to me that what’s happened since […]
