Author:

From The Times December 19, 2009 Culture is the glue to unite the numerous strands of Jewishness. Who is a Jew? The recent Supreme Court ruling has highlighted the deep differences between the many ways of answering that simple question. (John Rifkin) The focus of legal controversy: the JFS, formerly the Jews' Free School The Supreme Court ruling this past Wednesday upheld the previous Appeal Court ruling about eligibility for entry into the Jewish Free School (JFS). It not only highlights the difficulty in answering the question “Who is a Jew?” but may also have made history by giving a brand-new definitional twist of Jewishness — ie, Jewish by ethnicity. In refusing a place at the JFS on the basis of a pupil’s parental descent, the Supreme Court ruled that the school has been guilty of ethnic prejudice, which in turn contravenes UK racial laws. The president of the Supreme…

A Ghostly Trace of the Jewish Occult By Nathaniel PopperA newly discovered piece of stained, wrinkled paper conjures up the details of a Jewish exorcism that appears to have been performed sometime in the 18th or 19th century. Courtesy of The University of Manchester A Prayer: A text fragment from a ceremony held in the 18th or 19th century and recovered from the Cairo Geniza. The ghostly document details the prayers that were performed on Qamar bat Rahmah to try to rid her of the spirit of her dead husband, Nissim ben Bonia. According to the handwritten but well-preserved Hebrew text, the rabbis asked the ghost to “leave this woman, Qamar bat Rahmah, [and forgo] all authority and control that it has over her; and Nissim ben Bonia shall have no more authority and control whatsoever over Qamar bat Rahmah in any form or manner at all.” The 150-word text…

Make sure sound is on. Click on the triangle. Video will start in a few seconds...

USCJ Centralizes Operation To Assert Stronger Role C. SCOTT WEINER All About the Future: Conservative leaders discuss the movement’s future during a panel dis- cussion. They are, from left, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld of the Rabbinical Assembly; Cantor Stephen Stein of the Cantors Assembly; Rabbi Steven C. Wernick of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. By Josh Nathan-Kazis Published December 09, 2009 Cherry Hill, N.J. — Some of Conservative Judaism’s top leaders found little to criticize within their own movement when they gathered together December 7 for a panel discussion on the future direction of their troubled denomination. The plenary forum at the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism saw one panelist tout renewed involvement by rabbinic spouses in congregational life as a crucial tonic. Another lamented that the movement’s “detractors” failed to recognize Conservative Judaism’s…

End-of-Year Tax Planning Considerations Last Updated: 12/8/2009 4:27:24 PM As the New Year approaches, taxpayers around the nation are thinking about making gifts or other financial moves before January 1 that will benefit them come April 15, 2010. Here are some year-end considerations of particular interest to seniors. A Reprieve on RMDs Last year, as the stock market plunged and the economy teetered on the brink, Congress suspended the penalty for seniors who fail to take the required minimum distribution (RMD) from their IRA and employer retirement accounts in 2009. There is normally a penalty for failure to withdraw once the account owner reaches retirement age -- after age 70 1/2. Taxpayers generally must begin taking annual distributions from their retirement accounts by the April 1 occurring after they reach age 70 1/2 or pay a whopping 50 percent excise tax on the amount that should have been distributed but…

ONE may never understand Israel without knowing the Jewish perspective of the structure of the world. And next May, Israel will make a journey of faith to World Expo Shanghai to demonstrate the exciting, innovating and calming aspect of the Jewish spirit that enables its people to seek a better life through innovation in the desert. The futuristic Israel Pavilion will be composed of two curvilinear shapes, hugging each other in peace and harmony. Made half of raw stone and half of state-of-the-art glass structures, the main body of Israel Pavilion will offer a combined experience of the past and the future with its harmonious shape of opposites. "Israelis like to use stone in their houses, which embody solidity, earth and roots, while the use of glass stands for an open future," said Haim Dotan, the chief designer of Israel Pavilion. Not only that, the shape of the hugging curvilinear…