"The #Hebrews’ flight from #Egypt is on a lot of #Jewish minds right now, as the annual cycle of #Torah readings has reached the Book of #Exodus.

But for many Jewish leaders in #Minnesota, the ancient story has particular resonance.

With #Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descending on the #TwinCities in search of #undocumented #immigrants and stirring chaos and pushback, the story of Exodus — about a king who tries to thwart the growing number of “foreigners” in his midst, and the leader who seeks to protect them — is inspiring widespread anti-#ICE actions.

“As we’re currently reading in the Torah, #Moses confronts #Pharoah knowing it won’t be easy, and feeling his own doubts about such an act,” #Rabbi #AaronWeininger, who leads the Conservative #AdathJeshurun Congregation in the suburb of #Minnetonka, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And in doing so, the #Israelites enslaved in Egypt are able to get unstuck. They’re able to taste freedom.”

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-884190

"#Colby’s Center for #SmallTown #Jewish Life has recently received $1 million in #grants from major national #funders, signaling significant recognition and support for the center’s innovative and far-reaching work.

Allocated late last fall, the grants will enable the Center for Small Town Jewish Life to strengthen its national programming, expand its lay leadership training initiative, and initiate a large-scale #storytelling project about small-town Jewish life, while building organizational capacity.

“To receive a million dollars in gifts in three months shows that we’re hitting this inflection point. That the Center for Small Town Jewish Life has graduated from being a special hidden gem at Colby, a beautiful #Maine story, into an organization that has now gained the trust and the attention of the national Jewish community,” said #Rabbi #RachelIsaacs..."

https://news.colby.edu/story/center-for-small-town-jewish-life-more-than-colbys-hidden-gem/

“When we saw the #Australian young #Jews together with us through the #livestream, mourning yet still celebrating their #Jewishness, it reminded me that we have to keep adding goodness to the world,” he said.

In his opening address, #Rabbi #MendyKotlarsky, chairman of #CYPInternational at #Chabad World Headquarters, pointed out that “each one of you is a light and a leader. I’m inspired by your unwavering commitment to stand proudly wherever you are, and uplift and include those around you.”

He announced the establishment of 10 new CYP lounges worldwide in response to the #Bondi tragedy."

https://www.jns.org/wire/in-response-to-bondi-10-new-centers-announced-at-chabad-young-jewish-professionals-summit/

A #rabbi once told me "In our tradition, anyone living a life of #wisdom is rightly called 'a son or daughter of G-d' & since I consider #Jesus a live-r & teacher of wisdom, I have no problem calling him a son of G-d." His words on Jesus can be applied to him & hopefully all of us.
#OrderOfTheSacredEarth
https://bit.ly/4sqRlZ3

"A new #Crime #book to be released at the end of the month set within a #synagogue community in #Manchester draws on the #author #RutiWorrall’s intimate knowledge of synagogue life.

#Rabbi Zimmerman has seen a lot in his long career as a #congregation leader, but discovering a body at the foot of the #Torah cupboard—the Holy of Holies—is something entirely new.

For DCI Jack Madison and his team, the case plunges them into a maze of synagogue politics and tangled human relationships. Jealousy, ambition, and intrigue cloud the investigation, leading them down one dead end after another.

As they search for a motive, each suspect reveals unexpected emotional depth, making it harder to separate truth from deception. Just when they think they’re closing in, the trail goes cold once more."

https://aboutmanchester.co.uk/murder-meets-mitzvot-a-gripping-mystery-set-in-manchesters-jewish-community-2/

Oh cool. Next level scapegoating. Everything old is new again. :facepalm:

"According to reporting by The #NewYorkTimes, the #Pasadena #Jewish Temple and Center was #vandalized last weekend, compounding grief for a community still recovering from the devastating #Eatonfire one year ago.

The Times reported that a temple member discovered anti-#Zionist #graffiti on an exterior wall Sunday morning, a finding #synagogue leaders said Monday had shaken congregants already in an “emotionally fragile” moment.

#Rabbi Joshua Ratner told The New York Times that the #vandalism “was devastating in many ways.”

According to The Times, the graffiti—written in black paint—denounced Zionism and included the phrase “RIP Renee,” which Rabbi Ratner interpreted as a reference to #ReneeGood, a woman shot and killed by a federal agent in #Minneapolis last week."

https://pasadenanow.com/main/pasadena-jewish-temple-and-center-vandalized-amid-ongoing-wildfire-recovery-new-york-times-reports

"#Culturedmeat, #artificialintelligence and #smarthomes could upend long-standing #religious practices, says #Rabbi #ShlomoHecht, who predicts a future #Judaism focused more on belief and thought than on detailed legal rulings"

https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/b1e7fqfv11l

"#Achrayut is often translated as “responsibility,” but it means more than that. At its core is the idea that once you become aware of a problem, you can no longer look away. Awareness creates obligation.

Our #sages understood that the #injustices of the world are often far too large for any one person to solve. That reality does not absolve us of responsibility. #Rabbi #AbrahamJoshuaHeschel, one of the most influential #Jewish thinkers and #activists of the 20th century, taught that indifference in the face of #injustice is itself a moral failure, that awareness demands response. As he famously wrote, “Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself.”

At the same time, #Heschel understood that lasting change does not come from outcomes alone, but from inner integrity."

https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2026/01/10/when-something-feels-wrong-judaism-teaches-its-time-to-repair-it/

"From a distance, the men in those fur hats look like representatives of #Satmar, the largest #Hasidic community in the world. Their cadence, clothing, borrowed quotations and posturing suggest it.

The truth lives elsewhere. #NetureiKarta is not Satmar. Neturei Karta is a distortion of Satmar, a parody wearing its costume. This distinction matters. A community with deep roots and complex thought is being slandered in #London streets by men who share nothing with it except a wardrobe.

To explain that, I needed to give [my daughter] the outline of the man whose name they exploit, #Rabbi #JoelTeitelbaum.

Rabbi #Teitelbaum never operated as a political actor in the modern sense. He survived the collapse of #European #Jewry. He rebuilt communities from nothing and shaped a Hasidic world that regained strength after devastation. His philosophy rested on one conviction: #Jews must not force redemption through political sovereignty before the #messianicera."

https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/386192/the-hasid-in-a-keffiyeh/

"A 47-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the #firebombing of a #rabbi’s vehicle in #Melbourne’s #StKildaEast, after the car, marked with a “Happy #Chanukah” sign, was torched in a driveway in the early hours of #Christmas morning. No one was in the vehicle, but a woman and three children inside the home were evacuated as a precaution.

Investigators say the vehicle had a roof-mounted mobile billboard celebrating #Hanukkah, and police initially described the incident as a targeted #arson attack while stressing there was no indication, at that stage—of a broader threat to the wider #Jewish community."

https://jewishbreakingnews.com/rabbis-car-firebombed-in-melbourne-suspect-arrested-as-police-probe-possible-antisemitic-motive/

"Typically, the visibly #Jewish #shlichim set up stands in public places to urge Jewish men to wrap #Tefillin or Jewish women light #Shabbat candles. They are sitting ducks in hostile countries.

Hideous #conspiracy theorists have targeted the organisation further by promoting falsehoods about what is, in reality, a benign and inward-facing movement.

Is it any wonder then that in 2008 six people, including the #Rabbi’s pregnant wife, were killed in a #terrorattack on a #Chabadhouse in #Mumbai? Or that in 2019 a woman was killed in a shooting at the #ChabadofPoway #synagogue? Or that in 2024 Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan was kidnapped and murdered by #terrorists in the #UAE? And of course the fact that Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, 39, were amongst the 15 murdered at the #Bondibeach massacre.

But #Chabad’s work is holy. They selflessly provide an entirely unique service which I don’t believe exists in any other community or culture."

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/chabads-incredible-work-for-jews-worldwide-should-not-be-taken-for-granted/

Oooh!

"For centuries #Jews have discussed — and yes, argued — their way through the meanings and interpretations of the weekly #Torahportion. Commentary has piled up generation after generation, shaping how Jews understand the text and each other. But not all #Torah portions were created equal. Some verses became magnets for debate and interpretation, while others drew relatively little attention. Until now, that imbalance was something readers could sense but never see. For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, it’s visible which Torah passages drew the most sustained #Jewish attention.

That’s the idea behind TorahHeatMap.org, a new digital project created by #Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Central #Reform Congregation in #StLouis. The site transforms centuries of Jewish commentary into visual heat maps, revealing where interpreters lingered, argued and returned again and again."

https://stljewishlight.org/news/news-local/jewish-torah-commentary/

"This month marks 90 years since #Rabbi #ReginaJonas became the first #woman #ordained, in #Nazi-era #Germany; Murdered in #Auschwitz, her little-known legacy paved the way for #women’s #rabbinic leadership across all streams of #Judaism"

https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/hjcwuccq11x#google_vignette

"#Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen, a former #DJ, #martialartist, and #worldtraveler who once spent six years studying to become a #Buddhist #monk, has launched a new #podcast aimed at answering some of the most difficult and personal questions people ask about life, #faith, and identity.

The podcast, titled Rabbi In the Hot Seat, is a bi-monthly series that draws questions directly from #socialmedia users. It addresses topics ranging from #spirituality and guilt to #sex, #drugs, #war, #forgiveness, and living a meaningful life."

https://thej.ca/2025/12/28/from-buddhist-monk-to-jewish-educator-rabbi-dov-ber-cohen-launches-new-podcast/

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1935, #RegineJonas (also #ReginaJonas) became the first woman ordained a #rabbi. From a religious family, she wrote a thesis on the #Halachic basis for ordaining women, but it took five years to find someone to do it. She was killed at #Auschwitz in 1944.

"From the days of #Miriam, the sister of #Moses and #Aaron, #Jewish #women have been leaders-without-portfolio. In the Book of #Exodus, Miriam, a “#prophetess,” leads the #Israelite women in song, but unlike Moses, the main recipient of teaching from God, and Aaron, the chief priest, she has no named role.

Today, women in many denominations of #Judaism are able to attend institutions of higher learning to become equipped with the necessary skills to gain credentials to be called #rabbi or #cantor. What will they do with their newfound titles? A crop of new #books and #TV #shows out this fall gives some answers."

https://religionnews.com/2025/11/19/in-new-memoirs-women-rabbis-wrestle-with-judaisms-male-centered-tradition/

"Benzion Shemtov, #rabbi at #Chabad #Jewish Center at #Michigan State #University was out of the state when someone spray-painted #Nazi symbols on the doors and threw rocks at the windows of the center in the days following the #massacre at #BondiBeach in #Australia, where 15 people were #killed during a #Hanukkah celebration.

But when Shemtov returned to #EastLansing, he said he was greeted by numerous letters from the #MichiganState University community that the center serves.

“I got home and I got letters in the mail from people that are not even Jewish, just writing letters of support. It’s break right now. There’s no one in town…. just to see from #students that graduated and maybe came to us, students [that weren’t] necessarily so close with [us] perhaps because maybe they didn’t attend that much, but they were writing, this is their home, this was their home on campus,” Shemtov said. “This will always be their home.”

https://eastlansinginfo.news/east-lansing-jewish-center-vandalized-after-bondi-massacre-community-responds/

"#America has no #chiefrabbi, but it is a testament to the international recognition #AngelaBuchdahl commands that a foreign-born terrorist would be under the impression that she is the person who fills this role.

For the past decade, #Buchdahl has served as #seniorrabbi at #CentralSynagogue in Midtown #Manhattan, one of the largest #Reform #congregations in the world, serving more than 3,000 households. The first woman to hold this position in the 175-year history of the #congregation, Buchdahl is also the first #AsianAmerican to be ordained as a #rabbi and among a select group of distinguished #US #rabbis to have been invited to light #Hanukkah candles at the #WhiteHouse.

Forget about "chief rabbi of America," this child of an inter-#religious and #interracial marriage hardly seemed rabbi material at all, as noted in her recently released #memoir "Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging" (Viking)."

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2025-12-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-the-daughter-of-a-korean-buddhist-became-one-of-americas-most-distinguished-rabbis/0000019b-4157-d3cf-a1bf-4d7f30df0000

Queensland man arrested following dozens of antisemitic graffiti offences

A Coolum Beach man has been arrested following months of alleged antisemitic graffiti across Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Police…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #AndrewWallace #AnthonyAlbanese #antisemitic #antisemitism #AU #Australia #bondiattack #bondibeach #graffiti #HateSpeech #Jewishcommunity #lawreform #Queenslandpolice #rabbi
https://www.newsbeep.com/327116/

Sigh. It is totally possible to support Palestinians without being a racist shitbag. Millions of people do it every day.

"A disturbing #antisemitic verbal attack occurred on a public tram in St Kilda East, #Melbourne, where a woman allegedly told a respected #rabbi and his two young daughters, aged 8 and 14, "You should all go to the #gaschambers."

The woman was carrying a bag adorned with #Palestinian imagery or a "#FreePalestine" slogan. When confronted and filmed by the rabbi, she hid her face, denied making the remarks, and accused the family of "picking on her," calling the rabbi a "bully" and questioning why she would say such a thing."

https://www.jfeed.com/antisemitism/antisemitism-australia-melbourne