by Lauren Markoe | Dec 16, 2011 | News
WASHINGTON (RNS) Rabbi Richard Jacobs, who will soon head the congregational arm of the largest Jewish denomination in North America, understands why so many Jews avoid synagogues. His own experience growing up in a Reform synagogue in Southern California, he said,...
by Lauren Markoe | Dec 14, 2011 | News
(RNS) Matisyahu, the improbable but undeniable reggae star, announced on Twitter on Tuesday (Dec. 13) that he is shaving the beard that has long marked him as a Hasidic Jew. Fans are confused. Is he giving up the Orthodox brand of Judaism he adopted 10 years ago, and...
by Lauren Markoe | Dec 9, 2011 | News
(RNS) Put on your boogie shoes—the new Hanukkah songs are here! What last year seemed like a happy coincidence has become a hip new Hanukkah tradition: groups of harmonizing young Jews releasing seriously Jewish, yet seriously danceable, songs for the Festival of...
by Lauren Markoe | Dec 8, 2011 | News
WASHINGTON (RNS) GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich ignited an audience of Republican Jewish activists Wednesday (Dec. 7) by promising to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But he was just getting started. Gingrich also promised to use American...
by Lauren Markoe | Nov 10, 2011 | News
A new study in the Journal of Religion and Health suggests that—at least for some women of a certain age—there’s a link between optimism and attendance at religious services. “We looked at the religious practices of nearly 100,000 women and—like it or not—found a...
