Dani Rotstein and Toni Pinya: Reviving Jewish Culture on Majorca
Dani Rotsein and Toni Pinya, both living on the Spanish island of Majorca, are working to revive…
Exhibit of Objects from the Colmar Treasure, Hidden for 500 Years
The Met Cloisters, a museum in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, is displaying objects from the Colmar Treasure, a medieval Jewish family’s trove of exquisite decorative pieces that remained hidden for some 500 years. The Cloisters — a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art — focuses on architecture, sculpture, and decorative arts from…
Orthodox Jews: Virtually Unlimited Career Paths Are Open to Them Today
If you think Orthodox Jewish men and women have extremely limited career options, think again. In one episode of the video series “Jew in the City,” Orthodox Jews speak about their non-stereotypical vocations. They include a Billboard Top 10 recording artist (Alex Clare, pictured above), a clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court justice, a professional…
Andy Sweet: Photographer of the ‘Shtetl in the Sun’
Photographer Andy Sweet (Nov. 9, 1953 — Oct. 17, 1982), who was born and raised in Miami Beach, became fascinated by the Jewish community there in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a community largely made up of retirees who had migrated to sunny South Florida in their later years. Sweet documented the…
‘Shomer Shabbat’ Restaurants That Serve Food on the Sabbath
You may think the headline above is either a misprint or an oxymoron. Rest assured it is neither. According to an article in The Jerusalem Post, the establishments keep the Sabbath by not dealing in money on the holy day; instead, diners pay for their meals either before or after the Sabbath. The article continues,…
Yemenite Jews: An Ancient Community Transported En Masse to Modern Israel
In 1949, the newly formed State of Israel launched Operation Magic Carpet, an ambitious project to airlift the Jews of Yemen to the Jewish homeland. Magic Carpet was completed the following year, with almost 50,000 Jews having made the journey. It was a monumental achievement, considering it was carried out in secret and high-capacity jumbo…
A Look Inside Manchester’s Vibrant and Varied Jewish Community
The city of Manchester, England, is reported to have the fastest growing Jewish community in Europe. It is a vibrant, close-knit and highly diverse community. Here is just some of what you’ll see in this “Strictly Kosher” documentary: a lively and colorful cast of characters; shabbos dinner with a family; a bris (circumcision); dedicating a…
Amalia Rubin: Bringing Yiddish Culture to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
What is the last place you would expect to see a young Jewish-American woman singing in Yiddish on the local version of American Idol? How about Mongolia?! Amalia Rubin, who lives in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar and teaches English there, sang her rendition of the iconic Yiddish song “Der Rebbe Elimelech” on that nation’s televised…
The Few Remaining Jews of Kaifeng: Remnants of an Ancient Community
Some scholars believe Jews began to arrive in Kaifeng, China, as early as 960 C.E. (Northern Song Dynasty), while others place the date at 618 C.E. (Tang Dynasty). The first synagogue in the community reportedly was built in the year 1163. (The image is a model of a synagogue in Kaifeng.) Early Jewish inhabitants most…
Sephardic Food: Not Your Grandma’s Cooking — Unless You’re Sephardic, Of Course!
If you think Jewish cuisine is only composed of brisket, corned beef, matzo balls, kishka and the like, think again. Sephardic Jews — who originated in Spain and Portugal but were scattered in a Diaspora of their own — have their own distinctive, rich culinary traditions. (Pictured above: date-filled ma’moul, small shortbread pastries.) Sephardic cuisine…
To learn about these and many more AmazingJews, watch a compilation put together by JewOfTheWeek.net in 2015 and posted on YouTube.