January 2020

Posted

In this issue

  • We Are Read in Austria

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    We Are Read in Austria – Jewish Rhode Island made it to Innsbruck, Austria, after Thanksgiving 2019.  Dr. Randy Vogenberg is outside a tour bus in Austria. Vogenberg, a graduate of the …

  • Engaged

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    ENGAGED – Ried and Mindy Redlich of Cumberland are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Sarah Redlich, to Jason Shore, son of Steven and Marcia Shore of Simsbury, Connecticut. …

  • Engaged

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    ENGAGED – Faye Zuckerman and John Martin of Riverside and Barrington announce the engagement of their daughter, Melanie Hunter Chitwood to Raphael Adam Gutmann Sherak, son of Hannah and Don …

  • The 3 most important people in your financial life

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest people and most influential voices in investing and finance, acknowledges that he wouldn’t have reached those heights without guidance …

  • ‘Behind the Book’ series brings authors to community

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    On Sunday, Jan. 26, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island will kick-off its “Behind the Book” visiting author series, which was produced with the Jewish Book Council and a …

  • Author series comes to URI Jan. 29

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Behind the Book comes to URI on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m., when author Ariel Burger discusses his book “Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom,” a testament to the way Wiesel shaped the thoughts and principles of a generation. The book grants insights into the influences behind Wiesel’s own beliefs. Burger entreats readers to remember that Wiesel sought to spur people to act; that it is not enough to just be mindful of the existence of good and evil.

  • Alliance to hold inclusion event during Jewish disabilities awareness month

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island will hold its annual event for Jewish Disabilities Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month on Feb. 6.   This year’s topic is …

  • What makes a Jewish space holy?

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Judaism, philosopher and rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, emphasizes holiness in time. While that might work well for philosophers, Jews over the centuries have worked hard to make spaces holy …

  • JCC hoops: A proud tradition of 70 years of friendly competition

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    The advent of the local basketball season raises the perennial hopes of Bruce Wolpert’s University of Rhode Island’s Rams, Judge Howard Lipsey’s Providence College Friars, Judge …

  • JCS offers a discount for Lifeline RI, a life-saving service

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    BY JESSICA MURPHY PROVIDENCE – “Kissing the ground” was never on Stanley Ulbrych’s agenda. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened, only minutes after returning …

  • Chickpea Bolognese

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    This originally appeared on The Nosher. Winter months require a steady stream of comfort food for survival. But the start of the year also brings a time when people are more health-focused, perhaps even cutting their meat intake.

  • Chickpeas are set for world domination in 2020

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    This article originally appeared on The Nosher. The 2010s saw chickpeas rise to fame in the manner that God always intended. The king of chickpea dishes, hummus, turned from a hippy health food to a fridge staple. This was great in terms of accessibility, but not so great for preserving the authenticity of the dish. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand times: Hummus is not a catchall term for dip. It means “chickpea” in Arabic, so if a product contains little-to-no chickpeas and too many other funky ingredients (edamame, pumpkin and beetroot come to mind), it is not hummus.

  • Netflix airs series on prosecutor Alberto Nisman

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    (JTA) – Netflix has aired a new documentary series about the death of Alberto Nisman, a Jewish prosecutor in Argentina who was assassinated in 2015 ahead of his testimony about Iranian …

  • The artistry of making the best of what’s left

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Janus was the two-faced divinity of ancient Rome, facing backward and forward. The past and future, left and right profile, double homily and divided. If someone is described as  …

  • Hundreds gather in Jerusalem for solidarity rally with New York’s march against anti-Semitism.

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    JERUSALEM (JTA) – Hundreds gathered in Jerusalem for a solidarity rally with a march against anti-Semitism in New York.   The rally on Jan. 5 was organized by The Jewish Agency …

  • 25,000 march against anti-Semitism in New York City

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    NEW YORK (JTA) – An estimated 25,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and held a rally on Jan. 5 to protest rising anti-Semitism in and around New York City.   The rally …

  • West Bank controversy

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    In his defense of the legality of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Stephen Snow (December 2019) parrots Israeli government talking points.  Snow is entitled to share the Israeli …

  • Robert Frost and donkeys in the Knesset

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Israelis will head to their third parliamentary election in under a year on March 2, due to the repeated inability to produce governing Knesset coalitions.   The idiosyncrasies of …

  • Record 2.32 million people visited Auschwitz in 2019

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    (JTA) – A record 2.32 million people from around the word visited the sites of the former Nazi camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2019. The total is about 170,000 more than in 2018, which also …

  • There are no simple answers in the Mideast

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Back in the autumn of 2000, in the midst of an unfolding tragedy in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, my daughter Karen, then 26 years old, phoned me to give voice to her anger and …

  • Blessings are central to our traditions

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Vayekhi, which means “and he [Jacob] lived,” is the last Torah portion in the book of Genesis and concludes the saga of the patriarchs and matriarchs. It ends the part of the Torah in …

  • Of archives and memories and Zionist youth groups

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    The Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association’s archives are a treasure chest of fascinating aspects of our history in Rhode Island: minutes and notes of organizations present and past; …

  • Making Twitter a kinder, gentler place and other new year’s resolutions

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    While the Jewish New Year often sets us on a soul-searching mission to become more spiritual and to improve our relationships with others, as well as with God, the turn of the secular calendar to …

  • PHDS’s principal has high expectations for her students and herself

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    Jewish Rhode Island recently sat down with Miriam  Esther Weiner to discuss education, Jewish education in particular and a few of her favorite things. How did you get involved in Jewish education? I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, and as soon as I started in college, I knew I wanted to be involved in school leadership, and I was very lucky to find the positions that made that happen.

  • Faith leaders renew poverty fight

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    PROVIDENCE – For 12 years, at the start of the Rhode Island legislative session, faith leaders from across the state have  gathered in the State House Rotunda to remind elected …

  • A new decade is cause for reflection

    Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    As a new decade dawns , I was curious to look back at the past 10 years. The passage of time becomes something you are more conscious of as you age. I wrote about this last month and it’s …