Henry Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor who went on to invent the Transformers toys and became a major donor to Jewish and Israeli causes, died December 14 at the age of 98.
Israel’s Consul General of Israel to the Southeast United States Anat Sultan-Dadon got a firsthand look at the destruction left in the wake of last week’s deadly tornadoes in Kentucky on Friday.
By Faygie Holt
JNS
The last time Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, co-director of Chabad of the Bluegrass, had been in Hopkinsville, Ky., he was joined by thousands of other people to see a total eclipse.
He returned to the area on Monday to find a much-changed landscape after a massive tornado ripped through the western part of the state on Dec. 10, rendering much of it temporarily uninhabitable. The tornado was one of a series of others that struck six Midwestern states on Dec. 10.
By Philissa Cramer
JTA
In recent years, Yiddish theater has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence, with Yiddish-language performances wowing audiences in New York, online and, last month, Stockholm.
But perhaps its biggest audience yet came on Thursday night, when “Jeopardy!” devoted an entire category to it. The iconic quiz show is seen by an estimated 8.7 million people every night, making it the most-watched syndicated show on the air.
By Dovid Zaklikowski
JNS
If there is anything that could classify Bob Dole — the longtime Kansas senator, U.S. House Majority and Minority leader, and the 1996 Republican nominee for president — it was his resilience to forge on.
After former House Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head outside a supermarket in Tucson in 2011, it wasn’t clear if she’d survive, let alone be able to speak. Giffords’ injuries, which led her to resign from office, left her with partial paralysis and aphasia, which makes it difficult for her to speak.
“Behind closed doors” is a phrase that crops up a lot in conversation with senior U.S. and Israeli officials these days. That’s the place both sides want to settle disagreements.
After having to limit numbers at its annual lighting of the National Menorah on the Ellipse on the south side of the White House last Hanukkah while the coronavirus pandemic rippled through the country, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) was overjoyed to welcome nearly 3,000 attendees to celebrate the first night of the holiday and the freedom of Jews to worship in the United States.
Stephen Sondheim, the Jewish lyricist and composer who redefined the American musical through a monumental canon of influential and innovative theatrical works, has died at 91.
Celebrities are just like the rest of us — flooding their social media feeds with candlelight and sizzling latkes on the first night of Hanukkah.
