I am writing this late on Sunday night and thinking about Rosh Hashanah starting tomorrow night and debating how early I should get up for the longer Erev Rosh Hashanah Selichot tomorrow. This decision is complicated by the fact that our editorial and production team and I are all working hard until late tonight to make sure that the

The year 5781 has been a truly unprecedented year for all of us. We have rolled with many punches, endured shocking and immense losses, and yet learned new ways to celebrate smachot and found joy in the smallest of things. We have been awed by the endurance and positivity of our children, who have, unfortunately, witnessed so much sadness and pain.

Many of us

I write this short missive quite epically late on our Wednesday deadline day of our biggest Rosh Hashanah edition (and biggest edition ever!) at over 200 pages. I am mostly at a loss for words. It’s partly exhaustion from the last few days of intense work and activity on behalf of our paper (this week’s edition is always one of our

First off, a big and heartfelt mazal tov to my friend and running partner for the past two to three years, Yehudah Perlowitz of Teaneck, upon reaching a real milestone in his running career. This past Sunday, in Anchorage, Alaska, Yehudah, with his wife, Rivky, and his parents, Sherry and Bernie Perlowitz (also

Thanks to KMR and Royal Wine/Kedem.

For those of us in the newspaper business, one nice thing about Rosh Hashanah being early in September is that these weeks in the early and middle parts of August, usually our slowest and weakest editions of the year, are now much stronger and thicker thanks to the

Iconic Jewish comedian Jackie Mason, z”l, who passed away last weekend at the age of 93, was the classic Borscht Belt performer. Born Yaakov Moshe (Jacob) Maza to an Orthodox family, Mason came from a long line of rabbis but made his impact not in the pulpit but in comedy. He received semicha and briefly practiced as a rabbi, but

On Monday morning, as our team began to prepare a report about Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s decision to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, we were stopped in our tracks by our advertiser and friend Dani Secemski of Teaneck’s Glatt Express Supermarket. While many people had started posting about the sour

A fashion designer once said, “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” While there is truth to this statement throughout the year, it is particularly accurate this Shabbat, known as Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat immediately preceding the fast of Tisha B’Av.

According to Rabbi

In last week’s edition, we published an article about our editor Elizabeth Kratz winning what is known in Jewish journalism as the Simon Rockower Award, for an article she wrote last July.

For those who don’t know or didn’t read the article last week, the Rockower Awards are sponsored by

With graduation season behind us and day camps, sleepaway camps and summer programs all starting in the past week or so, and as the weather has gotten even hotter this past week, perhaps you are planning your summer getaway or have already arrived at the beach or the mountains.

Wherever your favorite

Last month, the Maimonides Fund, with distribution assistance from the Jewish Insider, launched the first of four planned 2021 limited edition print and online issues of Sapir Journal (sapirjournal.org). The journal seeks to address the future of the American Jewish community and its intersection with cultural, social and political

Last month, as rocket fire from Gaza began raining down on the Israeli civilian population, social media memes, insults, horribly antisemitic statements and even blood libel on the cover of The New York Times began raining on the world’s Jewish population. The only difference was that Hamas’ rockets largely stopped as the IDF fought