Making Grandma’s charoset (or how I learned to love Passover)

By Edgar M. Bronfman for JTA

When I walked into the house through the back door one day as a young man, I was shocked to see my mother in the kitchen. To put it mildly, this was not one of her favorite places. When I asked her why she was there, a look of panic crossed her face.

“Now that Grandma’s gone,” she explained, “I have to make the charoset.”

Sensing her culinary discomfort, I volunteered to take over.

With a look of vast relief, she fled the scene. Guided by the memory of my grandmother’s charoset — the sweet, chunky, fruity mixture that symbolizes the mortar used by the Hebrew slaves to build Egypt’s real estate — I chopped up apples and walnuts and added raisins.

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Why Bashing the Halakhic Prenup Destroys More Than It Builds

by Keshet Starr and Rabbi Jeremy Stern for The Jewish Daily Forward   

Any suggestion to help resolve the plight of agunot , or “chained women,” whose husbands won’t grant them a religious divorce, must be taken seriously. So we read Shayna Zamkanei’s article with great interest.

Zamkanei argues that the Halakhic Prenuptial Agreement (also known as “the Prenup”) does not work and she proposes what she sees as a real solution to the agunah crisis. She is wrong on both counts. Fortunately, while her proposed solution fails, the Prenup does not.

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Why there are Muslim ghettos in Belgium, but not in the US

By Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe
LONG BEFORE TUESDAY’S terror attacks in Brussels, it was clear that Belgium had become a breeding ground for Islamist extremists. Hundreds of Belgian Muslims — as many as 500, according to one estimate — have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS, making Belgium by far Europe’s leading supplier of foreign jihadists. Last November’s horrific slaughter in Paris was masterminded by a Belgian radical, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and at least four of the men who carried out those attacks were from the Brussels district of Molenbeek. One of them was Salah Abdeslam, who was captured in Molenbeek, after an intense manhunt, on March 19.

For Islamist imams and terrorist ringleaders, such neighborhoods — heavily Muslim, densely populated, with high unemployment and crime rates — have proved fertile territory for recruiting violent jihadists. “There is almost always a link with Molenbeek. That’s a gigantic problem, of course,” Belgium’s prime minister said after the Paris atrocities.

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Jewish Mourning Rituals: An Overview

From G-dcast.com

The death of a loved one is a very disorienting time, and isn’t something many people think about until it’s actually happening to them. Understanding some of the traditions and the structured periods of mourning that Judaism offers may help provide some support in the grieving process.

Here are a few translations of the words used in the video:

“Aninut” (“אנינות”, meaning “deep sorrow”) - The period from the time of death until the funeral.

“Kriah” (“קְרִיעָה”, meaning “tearing”) - After hearing about a death, immediate family members may tear a piece of their clothing or tear a ribbon provided at the funeral.


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The last of Iowa's small-town synagogues: seven members still praying

Ottumwa’s synagogue was once standing room only on high holidays but now is facing closure in what’s become a common occurence in Iowa and the midwest

Ryan Schuessler for The Guardian

Nobody can remember Ottumwa’s last bar or bat mitzvah.

The consensus between B’nai Jacob Synagogue’s few remaining members is that it would have been 15 years ago, at least. Probably 20. They can, however, remember the last funeral – and the few before.

“Obviously, we’re relatively few people, and we’re not getting any younger,” said Harvey Disenhouse, the de facto rabbi. “I would like to keep the synagogue open as long as possible, but I realize that in 10 years it probably won’t exist here.”

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Communist Jew + Muslim Indian = Affordable Health Care

By Abby Sher for Jewniverse

Q: What do you get when a Muslim Indian and a Communist Jew walk into a bar?

A: An extraordinary leader named Dr. Yusuf K Hamied.

As Drs. Kenneth X Robbins and John Mcleod explain in a fascinating recent article, Hamied is the visionary behind India’s pharmaceutical giant CIPLA – Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories – bringing generic life-saving drugs to people all over the world at more affordable prices. (Think antiretroviral cocktails for HIV patients at $1 per day.)

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Shabbat with the Iranian Jews of Tehran

JewishOnline News Exclusive

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein is moved and humbled by her visit to a synagogue in the Iranian capital Tehran, where thousands of Jews still live and pray

    “Hisna’ari me’afar kumi liv’shi big-dei sif-artech ami al yad ben Yishai beis halach’mi korvah el nafshi ge-oloh…”

By the fourth stanza of Lecha Dodi, I can feel the tears streaming down my face, and I quietly surrender to the moment. The woman next to me puts a heavy hand of comfort on my shoulder and we exchange a smile that is equal parts exploration and familiarity.

The century-old Abrishami synagogue is located on the second floor of an unassuming grey building in Palestine Street in north Tehran.

The top floor houses a busy yeshiva and in the basement there is a ballroom-style kosher restaurant often used for the community’s many weddings and barmitzvahs.

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