Jewish Federation donors enjoyed a great evening featuring hometown entertainer Cara Fish at the Jewish Federation’s donor thank you event Aug. 2. Shown here are David Gale (from left), co-chair, Jewish Federation General Annual Campaign, Cara Fish and Lisa Bernard, co-chair of the Women’s Division Campaign. With 325 people in attendance, the evening was a great success.

CHEERING SIYUM HaSHAS — Kansas City native Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg was among the 90,000 or so people who packed MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 1, to celebrate the completion of the page-a-day Talmud cycle in the largest-ever Siyum HaShas. It was a night he will never forget.

“It was an unbelievable sight to see men, women and children engrossed in Torah learning with the vigor and enthusiasm seldom experience by a Jew,” Rabbi Rosenberg said.

“The highways, the trains and subways were packed with Jews awaiting such an emotional experience of Torah learning. It was as if B’nai Yisrael was standing at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.”

TALMUD APP FOR iPAD AVAILABLE — ArtScroll Mesorah Publications has released a much-anticipated iPad App for the Schottenstein Babylonian Talmud. Developed for offline use by an innovative team of more than 40 scholars and technicians, ArtScroll’s Schottenstein Digital Edition of the Talmud retains the integrity of the original printed form while introducing state-of-the-art learning enhancements to deepen and broaden any Talmud learner’s study. Users of the Talmud App can choose from three different pricing and download options available now through the Apple App Store, with the first seven pages given away free for users to experience the digital learning. Gedaliah Zlotowitz, ArtScroll’s vice-president for sales and marketing said, “People should understand that this is neither a scan nor a PDF of the Talmud. Each page is highly interactive in a way no print edition could be. We spared no expense in producing a quality product and made it easy to acquire with differing price packages, including a Daf Yomi cycle option for just a few dollars a month. You can even purchase a single blatt or a few blatt if you are going on the road and don’t want to carry a heavy print volume.”

The iPad App for the Schottenstein Babylonian Talmud is the first of several projects for development under the Wasserman Digital Initiative, dedicated by Stanley and Ellen Wasserman. ArtScroll co-founder Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz said, “The Talmud is just the beginning. Our long term goal is to help tens of thousands of Torah learners become more proficient in the major classic sources such as Rashi, Ramban, the Midrash Rabbah, and much more.” The Artscroll digital Talmud App will be an ongoing project for the company, with new features and enhancements to be added automatically and at no cost through regular updates. It is compatible with version 1, 2, and 3 of the iPad and, when completed in the summer of 2013, the ArtScroll Schottenstein Digital Talmud will occupy only 3 gigabytes of memory. The average single volume is 70 megabytes. Within two months of the initial iPad App release, ArtScroll expects to offer an App for the iPhone, as well. The App, with the first seven folio pages of the Talmud, can be downloaded free at: www.artscroll.com/theapp.

ISRAELI DRAMA NOW AIRING ON HULU — TEL AVIV (JTA) — The Israeli television drama “Prisoners of War,” which inspired the American TV drama “Homeland,” will be available on Hulu.com.

“Prisoners of War,” which began airing in March 2010 and is now in its second season, centers on the lives of three Israeli soldiers who have returned home after more than a decade in captivity in Lebanon.

The New York Times reported that two of the show’s first 10 episodes are available on Hulu.com, which streams TV shows and movies. New episodes will appear every Saturday.
Hulu is not available in Israel.

“Prisoners of War” was named 2010’s Best Drama Series at the Israeli Academy Awards for Television.

“Homeland,” which began airing last October, focuses on a CIA agent who believes that a returned American prisoner of war may be aiding terrorists.

Labor Day deadline

Labor Day is in just a few weeks folks (maybe we can soon look forward to a drop in temperatures?) and that means we have to adjust our deadlines. Please make sure everything you send in for publication in the Sept. 6 issue is in our office no later than noon on Thursday, Aug. 30. Monday, Sept. 3, is a legal holiday and the office will be closed, so we cannot guarantee anything that comes in past deadline that week will make it in the paper. We appreciate your cooperation.