Jerusalem police arrested a woman praying at the Western Wall for wearing a tallit, according to JTA.
The woman, who was participating in Rosh Chodesh services, was arrested Wednesday based on an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the public must dress according to the customs of the site, Israel Radio reported.
Police came to the site after [...]

If you’re a young artist in grades 1-8 (or a parent or grandparent of a budding artist), check out the details of our Hanuka Cover Contest.
There are some great prizes for the winner and runners-up. The winning artwork will adorn the cover of our Dec. 11 Hanuka special edition.
You can download a PDF file with [...]

Congratulations to Lois Dobrin and Danny Hechter! Both correctly answered our Bob Dylan trivia question and will win copies of “Dylan Different,” the new album of Dylan covers by Madison, Wisc.-based jazz pianist and composer Ben Sidran.
To refresh your memory, the trivia question was:
Robert Allen Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan; but this is not something [...]

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a statement on Tuesday expressing official disapproval of plans to build 900 additional units in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood. Here’s the White House statement:
We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem. At a time when [...]

A Sioux Falls, So. Dak., jury returned to the courtroom late Thursday afternoon and found former Agriprocessors manager Sholom M. Rubashkin guilty on 86 of 91 possible counts, according to the Iowa Independent.

Sholom Rubashkin (Photo: Chabad)

The report continues:
Rubashkin, who is the 50-year-old son of company founder and president A. Aaron Rubashkin, was convicted of all possible [...]

Drawing on African and African-American cultures, ‘The Good Dance’ makes room for a little Jewish dancer

Anna Schon explodes with energy in The Good Dance. (Photo: Antoine Tempe/Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel Performance Group

A fascinating dance work, The Good Dance: Dakar/Brooklyn, being performed this weekend at the Walker Art Center, draws inspiration from the cultures that grew [...]

Robyn Stoller Awend’s exhibition of letterpress prints is inspired by renowned Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

A Yiddish poem about Jews in the Vilna ghetto melting down lead printing type to make bullets inspired local printmaker Robyn Stoller Awend. Her upcoming exhibition at Form + Content Gallery, Survival: When Truth and Fiction Intersect, [...]

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

Nearly 50 years before the United States elected a black president, Zev Aelony dedicated himself to the cause of freedom for black people in the Southern states. It was a pursuit that carried serious risks — physical attack, imprisonment and, for some, violent death.
Aelony, who died Nov. 1 in his Minneapolis [...]

Samuel Bak’s first art exhibit took place in the Vilna Ghetto in 1942, when he was just nine years old. The Shoah has been a persistent theme in the artist’s work, and a new book, Icon of Loss: The Haunting Child of Samuel Bak (Pucker Art Publications/Syracuse University Press), by Danna Nolan Fewell and Gary [...]

Arnold Eisen, the new head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, will speak at Adath Jeshurun on Nov. 18, as part of the congregation’s 125th anniversary celebration

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

Adath Jeshurun Congregation is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and has scheduled a number of events to mark the historic milestone. This past weekend the synagogue hosted [...]