Learning

Day-School Debaters: David and Goliath Story

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There's no arguing that the girls debate team at Torah Academy of Greater Philadelphia has come a long way in a relatively short time. Only in its second full season, it has amassed an impressive string of victories against educational institutions with larger student bodies and more established debating traditions. The eight-member squad recently placed first in a regional competition...

Learning

Or Hadash Fashions Its Very Own Megillah

By:

Michelle Mostovy-Eisenberg, JE Feature

In March 2005, as Joshua Waxman prepared for his first Purim as rabbi of Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington, he asked: "Where is the Megillah?" That's when he said he was told the following: The congregation didn't have one. A Megillah, the Scroll of Esther, contains the ancient tale of the Jewish maiden who rescued her people...

Local

Catholic-Jewish Panel Focuses on Mideast

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

At a recent Saint Joseph's University event -- one which was supposed to examine Israel's 60th anniversary from the perspective of Catholic-Jewish relations -- the two participants actually spent a good part of the time discussing Islam, especially the struggle in the Muslim world between religious moderates and those extremists now calling for a jihad against the West. The Jewish...

Learning

Etz Chaim and Minyan Outgrowth Decide to Go Their Separate Ways

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

The Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Studies and the minyan it created nine years ago are parting ways. The Center City-based outreach organization is getting set to move to a smaller space, and dedicate more of its resources to staffing and programming. At the same time, the informal prayer group that was under its auspices has evolved into an independent...

Local

New Voices Make Torah 'Fully Holy'

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

What began as one cantor's exploration into exactly what the Bible doesn't say about the matriarch Sarah has resulted, some 15 years later, in the publication of The Torah: A Women's Commentary , a feat that has been touted as a seminal moment in the history of biblical scholarship, as well as a considerable step forward in the decades-old push...