Holiday Features

Holiday Features

Abraham Zacuto’s astronomical calculations made oceanic travel possible

Special to the IJN -
Protagonists of the Iberian age included scholars, translators, mapmakers, instrument makers and pilots. Among them, one figure deserves particular remembrance near Columbus Day: Abraham Zacuto, a Jewish astronomer born in Salamanca around 1452.
Features

When a sukkah is on an elephant

JNS -
The Talmud, in tractate Sukkah, discusses constructing a sukkah on an elephant. The Biblical Museum of Natural History in Israel made it happen. “It’s hard to avoid talking about the elephant in the room, which is literally the elephant in the room,” said Rabbi Natan Slifkin, the museum director known as the “zoo rabbi.”
Culture

Not your typical break-the-fast

JTA -
Yom Kippur break-the-fast has ballooned into a significant event in the Jewish calendar. Though menus have become more extravagant, for many Ashkenazi Jews, the heart of the meal are the classics — bagels, smoked fish, blintzes and cake.
Business

Whence Rosh Hashanah honey?

Special to the IJN -
When Tzvike and Hadas Ophir planted their vineyard in 1986, on the day their eldest daughter Adva was born, they had no plans to make wine. They wanted to grow something alongside their bee hives. The couple was among the first residents of Alon HaGalil, a town in Israel’s North about an hour-and-a-half drive from Tel Aviv. Tzvike grew up in Emek Hefer and Hadas in Kfar Yehoshua, both in farming families. Tzvike was also a second-generation beekeeper.
Holiday Features

Cleaning the Wall

JNS -
Prayer notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem over the past six months have been removed and taken for burial, as is customary every year ahead of the Jewish High Holidays.
Holiday Features

What is the pull of Psalms?

Hillel Goldberg -
Raacheli Fried, a Los Angeles native and resident of East Denver, organized a “Tehillim group,” a Psalms group, 11 years ago. People in the group recite Psalms for many reasons, among them a “complete healing,” a refuah shelemah, for sick people. A Tehillim group may also be organized to pray for a single person, as Essie Fleischmann has done.
Culture

Penny prays with a paintbrush

Larry Hankin -
When Penny Nisson is in synagogue, she prays with the words in the siddur and the melodies of the liturgy. When she is in her art studio, she prays with her paintbrush. Nisson is a spiritual person who loves and lives Judaism. She and her husband Perry incorporate Jewish ritual into their home and they are regulars at East Denver Orthodox Synagogue. Penny Nissan sits in the front at shul, reading, reciting and hearing the words of prayer.
Columns

An inspiration for Shavuot: the Vilna Gaon

Hillel Goldberg -
As Shavuot approaches and the anniversary of the revelation of the Torah looms, it is inspiring to contemplate the teachings of those who mastered the Torah on a level that is beyond us. One such master was the Vilna Gaon, the “Genius of Vilna,” Rabbi Elijah son of Shlomo Zalman (d. 1797).
Columns

American Jewish . . cheesecake

Shana Goldberg -
I like the confluence this year of Shavuot falling during Jewish American Heritage Month (inaugurated on the 350th anniversary of Jews arriving in New Amsterdam) — because the classic Shavuot cheesecake is actually an American invention. You know the one — smooth, dense, a light tang and absolutely decadent. A first bite that, like Proust’s Madeleines, is transportive. 
Holiday Features

Pain, hope and a charge at ADL Holocaust event

Steve Mark -
Every Holocaust survivor has a compelling, usually terrifying tale. Agi Day’s tale began in 1941 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, when she was one year old. When asked how old she was before realizing the gravity of her situation, Day replies: “Four. I’m a child of war, and children of war experience things very differently than children of peace.”
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VIP: Legal legend Len Chesler

In a legal career that began in 1967, Denverite Len Chesler, by his accounting, has tried “hundreds and hundreds” of civil and criminal cases. He is a member of the exclusive, 200-member American Board of Criminal Lawyers.In the June, 2013, 100th anniversary magazine of the IJN, Chesler was characterized: “The mind of a defense attorney, the heart of humanity. Len Chesler walks into court. Immediately, the clerks, the judges, the opposing counsel relax. Len’s manners and mannerisms bespeak respect and fairness. Meanwhile, this legendary counselor wins very tough criminal cases.”