January 29, 2021 2:30 pm A set of COVID-19 vaccination record cards from the CDC. (Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
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(JTA) The email offered what felt like a lifeline to the dozens of rabbis in the Chicago area who received it last week. “Vaccines are now available for clergy,” an official with the Chicago Board of Rabbis wrote, passing along a link to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Days later, some of those rabbis were rolling up their sleeves to get the shot that would start to make their pre-pandemic lives possible once again. Lizzi Heydemann, rabbi and founder of Mishkan, a nondenominational congregation in Chicago, marked her vaccination with a public Facebook post accompanied by a translation of the Shehecheyanu prayer: “That we lived and stood up and reached this time.”
(JTA) â This year we celebrated Passover early, on a Sunday a few days before St. Patrickâs Day. My adult children will disperse before the official holiday, but with the darkest days of the pandemic behind us, we have much to celebrate.
Jews from the Ugandan Abayudaya community participating in the Shabbat Project. (Courtesy)
Seven boys from the Abayudaya Jewish community celebrate their bar mitzvah, October 18, 2014. (Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel)
Abayudaya youth on an unprecedented Birthright trip to Israel head to the Western Wall on August 27, 2018 (Screenshot)
The Abayudaya community has grown from 300 in 1980 to over 2,000 today. Here, a group poses in front of a sukkah. (Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel)
JTA American Jews with ties to a small community of Jews in Uganda are condemning a decision by Israel’s Interior Ministry to reject the right of those Jews to immigrate to Israel.
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With Rabbi Elliot Salo Schoenberg
Lunch and Learn Series
Written by Maimonides at the end of the 12th century in Arabic, it is his signature work of philosophy.
A medieval syllabus for those exposed to the tradition of Aristotelian speculation and science current in the 12th century Islamic milieu who find their faith challenged and undermined by its assumptions. More than that, it is its own spiritual autobiography. Today 800 years later it is still a compelling read for anyone who seeks a path to God.
Rabbi Elliot Schoenberg is the interim rabbi of The Jewish Center. He has served as the Senior Vice President and Global Director of Rabbinic Career Advancement of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international professional association of Conservative rabbis. He is responsible for the career development of rabbis across the world.
Decision overrules Jewish Agency, which had formally recognized the 2,000-strong Abayudaya community several years ago. A ruling in favor of the state could have serious repercussions for 'emerging Jewish communities’ around the world