Holiday Features
Tu b’Shevat — as we know it — got started in Nebraska
IJN StaffJan 17, 2019
By Hizky Shoham It’s a little-known quirk of timing and history that the transformation of Tu b’Shevat from an obscure kabbalistic holiday can trace its origins to a...
Chanukah parade takes to Jerusalem’s streets
TPSDec 06, 2018
By Ilanit Chernick It was like a Macy’s wonderland with an Israeli flavor as Jerusalem was alight with the Chanukah spirit. Large balloons, marching bands,...
Steinsaltz offers new type of commentary on the Torah
Hillel GoldbergSep 27, 2018
On Simchat Torah this Tuesday, the last piece in the Torah is finished and the first piece — Genesis — is begun. The just published, new type of commentary on the...
Awe & inspiration at midnight selichot at the Kotel
TPSSep 20, 2018
By Ilanit Chernick The sound of the shofar was loud and strong. Every few moments a man dressed in white, wearing a Breslov kippah, blew into the ram’s horn as people...
Why Sukkot is the best holiday for kids
JTASep 20, 2018
NEW YORK — Here’s the short version: If you leave your kids home on the High Holidays so you can have grownup praying time, don’t do othat on Sukkot. Bring your...
Eight lesser-known facts about Judaism’s holiest day
JTASep 13, 2018
By Stacey Ilyse, Kveller Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, starts at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Traditionally the most somber days on the Jewish calendar,...
German-Jewish Cookbook: A food anthropology
Shana GoldbergAug 30, 2018
From IJN High Holiday Foods in the 1990s, my brother brought a cassette of Jewish humor home from school. One of the routines featured a heimish Jewish woman who was...
A vegan take on apples & honey
Josefin Dolsten, JTAAug 30, 2018
NEW YORK — The truth is, there is no commandment in Judaism to dip an apple in honey on Rosh Hashanah. But what would the Jewish New Year be without the custom? It’s...
Ethiopians waiting to emigrate hold seder
JTAApr 05, 2018
JERUSALEM — Many of the at least 8,000 Ethiopians awaiting Israeli government approval to move to the Jewish state attended a Passover seder in Gondar or Addis Ababa...
What happens when your flight is canceled on erev Pesach
JTAApr 05, 2018
By Ben Sales and Josefin Dolsten The ancient Israelites had to cross the Red Sea. Four thousand years later, Jeannie R. Fisher had to get her family of five from New...
