Tisha B'Av

Days of mourning aren't foreign to Jews. We all experience periods of personal mourning and grief at the loss of family. Beyond our personal aveilut we collectively experience national periods—such as sefirah and the period surrounding Tisha B'Av—which have been enshrined as historical periods of ...

Every week, as I conduct interviews, I learn a lot about different anashim gedolim. As I listen to the interviewees, I am inspired by the divrei Torah, divrei mussar and hashkafah I hear, as well as the stories of the fascinating lives of the many leaders whom I have written about. This coming week, the second ...

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel. Here is a list of recent articles I wrote recently on Holocaust remembrance and anti-Semitism. This list first appeared on the Jewish Journal's daily Roundtable – a daily newsletter I highly recommend (sign up here). Last year, I asked if we will still remember the ...

Who will remember the dead of the Holocaust? A past that is not reflected on in the present will disappear in the future. Yossi Klein. Apr 12, 2018 3:27 AM. 0comments Print Zen Subscribe now · Shareshare on facebook · Tweet · send via email · reddit · stumbleupon. Survivors and guests walking past the "Arbeit Macht Frei" ...

BARCELONA — This Passover I am in Spain, land of Jewish ghosts. Spain was once a place where Jewish piety and poetry flourished. Now it is full of neglected sites and abandoned synagogues. Fewer than 50,000 Jews remain. Although Spain's history is particular, its outlines are sadly familiar. To travel ...

A little background: Since 1943, pairs of Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva students have been sent out during their summer breaks to invigorate isolated and underserved Jewish communities throughout the United States. The Roving Rabbis program, or Merkos Shlichus as it's formally known, was founded under ...

I am very reticent about sharing such things publicly, but, in the case of my Rebbi, I feel little choice. I apologize in advance to anyone who finds such pieces in poor taste, but I feel it is correct and appropriate for a couple of reasons: Firstly, I feel compelled to at least make somewhat known the aspects of ...

The Israel U17 team finished a respectable fourth place in the 10-nation European 2nd Division Championships which were held in Germany last week. An action-packed week began with a remarkable victory over the hosts after both teams finished on the same score but Israel had lost two less wickets, ...

The Israel U17 team awoke to a pleasant surprise this morning being informed the umpires had made a mistake at the conclusion of yesterdays game and Israel had in fact won the game against Germany as although the scores had finished level, Israel had lost less wickets and according to the regulations ...

Saundra Sterling Epstein of the Cheltenham Area Multi-Faith Council champions the need to build bridges and dialogue with individuals of our faiths (“Conducting Multi-Faith Dialogue More Important than Ever,” March 8). She writes that “we find ourselves today in a most-difficult time of fractured loyalties, ...

It was the summer of 1971 (12 days in the month of Av). My 27-year-old brother, Heshy, a physician at New York Hospital, was riding his bike to daven Shacharit at a shul on the east side of Manhattan. Sadly, he never made it to shul. He was hit by a city bus and died of his injuries. It was the summer of ...

They say that part of what keeps Yiddishkeit going for all these generations is that every social deviant has some kind of release. Think about it: Pesach is for adults with OCD, Tisha B'Av is for people who want to bring beach chairs to shul, Yom Kippur is for people obsessed with dieting, Rosh Hashanah is ...

Every year people express their affection for those they love on various holidays. Their expression can take the form of, romantic dinners, flowers or candy, or even some kind of special gift. In Israel, one such celebration is the minor holiday, Tu B'Av, also known as Chag HaAhavah, the Holiday of Love, ...

I can never forget the disdain and contempt that my grandmother a”h had for the Poles. She would often say, “The Polaken (the Poles) were worse than the Germans.” She and so many other Holocaust survivors with whom I have spoken over the years would constantly speak with undisguised contempt ...

Tisha B'Av is a time to reflect on the Jews who have been killed over the years in a number of tragedies. Millions will pay tribute to them with prayers, fasting and readings from the Torah at synagogues around the globe. Here is everything you need to know about Tisha B'Av.

A young girl waiting in line to pass through a border gate as a small number of Syrian refugees are allowed to return to Syria at the closed Turkish border gate in Killis, Feb. 8, 2016. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images). NEW YORK (JTA) — For many Jews, Tisha b'Av is centered around mourning the destruction of ...

"He who believes he is close to God is really far, while he who believes he is far is really close.” Baal Shem Tov. This enigmatic statement of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement, has troubled me for some time. How can it be that the ostensibly near is really distant, while the distant is near ...

It is one of the saddest days in the Jewish calendar, but why - and how - do we mark it? Detail from Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Francesco Hayez (1867). Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is a fast day, commonly known as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar.