Articles written by Gil Shefler
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Nearly 70 years after liberation, Holocaust memorials continue to proliferate
NEW YORK (JTA)—No earth was moved last month at the groundbreaking of one of the nation’s newest Holocaust memorials. Instead, the gatherers stood silently, symbolic shovels in hand, on the imm...
Breaking with all black, some Chabad men pushing fashion boundaries
NEW YORK (JTA)—Yosel Tiefenbrun looked in the mirror and he liked what he saw. The 23-year-old Chabad rabbi and apprentice at Maurice Sedwell, a bespoke tailor’s shop on London’s Savile Row, was weari...
Jewish Scouting leaders vocal on gay inclusion
NEW YORK (JTA)—Jewish Scouting leaders are taking a vocal role in efforts to pass a historic resolution that would partially lift a ban on gays in the Boy Scouts of America. In a meeting of the N...
Meet Portland's mother of Mother's
PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA)—It’s brunch time at Mother’s Bistro & Bar and owner-chef Lisa Schroeder has a small crisis on her hands involving the accidental defenestration of a busboy. Moments earli...
Amid Portland's Jewish population surge, community leaders try to lure the young and hip
PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA)—Jessica Bettelheim, a business ethics lecturer at Portland State University and a young Jewish mother, has little time to spare on weekends. Like other professionals her age, s...
Fewer high school students travel to Israel
NEW YORK (JTA)—With the summer travel season fast approaching, providers of Israel programs for teenagers are bracing themselves for what several say could be a season of historically low travel in a year unaffected by major security concerns. O...
On Birthright, building Jewish identity and finding love
NEW YORK (JTA)—Meredith Ross will never forget when she first laid eyes on Lior, her partner for the past seven years. Lior, an infantryman in the Israel Defense Forces, was escorting Ross’ Bir...
Kosher scandals like Doheny are rare, but not unheard of
NEW YORK (JTA)—Less than a day before the start of Passover, the phone rang at the Brooklyn home of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky. On the line were concerned members of the Rabbinical Council of California, a rabbinical association in Los Angeles that p...
In aftermath of Boston Marathon bombings, Israeli Independence Day fetes are toned down
NEW YORK (JTA)—Israeli Independence Day celebrations in Boston were muted and security was increased in the wake of bombings that left three dead and dozens injured at the finish line of the Boston Ma...
In Florida, Venezuelan Jewish expats set down new roots
SUNNY ISLES BEACH (JTA)—Sitting outside a Starbucks coffee shop in this small city north of Miami Beach, Paul Hariton recalls the dramatic night in 2002 when he and his wife decided to leave their n...
New study offers tips on engaging Jewish teens
NEW YORK (JTA)—Trying to interest teenagers in activities is difficult, parents and teachers know well, especially given what technology has done to the attention spans of young people. So how to g...
Passover without wine? For Jewish addicts, sober seders are a life-saver
NEW YORK (JTA)—It’s rare that an Orthodox rabbi chooses to omit an important Jewish ritual in his holiday celebrations. But in the spring of 2000, Rabbi Yosef Lipsker cleared his living room of fur...
Israeli economist peddling new plan to equalize Arab university presence
NEW YORK (JTA)—Unlike most economists, Manuel Trajtenberg does not spend his days cloistered in university classrooms and think tanks far from the public eye. The Tel Aviv University professor g...
On Caracas streets, fear and eerie quiet as Venezuela mourns
CARACAS, Venezuela (JTA)—Students at the Ma’or HaTorah yeshiva in Caracas knew something was afoot Tuesday [March 5] afternoon when bodyguards driving bullet-proof vehicles started showing up une...
Documents show Venezuela spying on Jewish community
NEW YORK (JTA)—Espacio Anna Frank says its goal is to promote tolerance by teaching the life story of the teenage diarist murdered by the Nazis. But is there something sinister lurking behind the Vene...
