Ben Harris, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Ben Harris

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Past articles by Ben:

Jewish Currents apologizes for running an ad for an Israel fellowship, saying it 'is not in line with our values'

The magazine for the American Jewish left said the ad had not been properly vetted. → Read More

18 noteworthy Jews who died in 2021

From celebrities to giants of government to the author of "The Phantom Tollbooth." → Read More

These Jews want to normalize not circumcising — and they want synagogues to help

Bruchim wants to see synagogues make proactive statements of welcome for non-circumcising families similar to those that have become common toward Jews of color and LGBT+ Jews. → Read More

These are the Jewish victims of the Surfside building collapse

From a group of young Venezuelan immigrants to New Yorkers looking for a fresh start in a new state, the tragedy struck a diverse nexus of the American Jewish community. → Read More

A viral tweet said RBG dying on Rosh Hashanah made her a 'tzaddik.' Is that true?

This obscure Jewish idea took on new life on Twitter in the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death. → Read More

Adin Steinsaltz, acclaimed scholar who made the Talmud more accessible, dies at 83

Steinsaltz died Friday at 83, after years of declining health. → Read More

3 happy Jewish coronavirus stories to finish the week

After a work week unlike any we’ve experienced before. → Read More

Jewish farms are booming. Now the farmers want to grow their community.

The new generation taking to the land is discovering a hunger for something not easily found in most pockets of rural America: other Jews. → Read More

This medical school is putting a uniquely Jewish spin on doctor training

New York Medical College might be the only medical school in America with mandatory classes in bioethics after the Holocaust. → Read More

Here's how young European Jews in far-flung cities are connecting to Jewish studies

For many Jewish youths, a video-based distance-learning program that connects them to Jewish peers and teachers elsewhere is the only way to get a formal Jewish education and build Jewish connections. → Read More

This Berlin rabbinical school is creating a new kind of rabbi for Germany's Jewish communities

The Rabbinerseminar ordains men who grew up in Germany to serve the many Russian speakers there because "imported rabbis are not the answer." → Read More

New documentary series explores centuries of Russian Jewish life

This story is sponsored by Genesis Philanthropy Group. In 1894, a Jewish military officer in France, Alfred Dreyfus, was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason for allegedly passing state secrets to the enemy. When evidence came to light proving his innocence, the government covered it up and slapped the accused with additional charges based on falsified evidence. Dreyfus... → Read More

Jewish schools grapple with a question: How do you turn a kid into a mensch?

This story is sponsored by the Avi Chai Foundation. When Rabbi David Jaffe decided to launch a program of character development at the pluralist Jewish high school where he worked as the spiritual adviser, he grappled with a challenge faced not just by teachers but by Jewish parents. How do you turn a kid into a mensch? In psychological... → Read More

For Jewish advocates, UN General Assembly week is a diplomatic marathon

This story is sponsored by the American Jewish Committee. On Sept. 22, 1999, a leading Jewish group placed a full-page advertisement in The New York Times dramatically illustrating the unequal treatment of Israel at the United Nations. The ad — timed for the start of the U.N. General Assembly, when a procession of world leaders delivers speeches... → Read More

For Jewish advocates, UN General Assembly week is a diplomatic marathon

This story is sponsored by the American Jewish Committee. On Sept. 22, 1999, a leading Jewish group placed a full-page advertisement in The New York Times dramatically illustrating the unequal treatment of Israel at the United Nations. The ad — timed for the start of the U.N. General Assembly, when a procession of world leaders delivers speeches... → Read More

Day schools applying science and technology lens to Jewish studies

This story is sponsored by the Avi Chai Foundation. In a classroom in Atlanta, balance scales symbolize the weighing of one’s actions on Yom Kippur. At a Nashville school, a dreidel spinning on a CD player plays recordings of the late Jewish scholar and activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. In suburban Chicago, a map of Israel made from cups... → Read More

How day schools are using games to make Jewish learning fun

This story is sponsored by the Avi Chai Foundation. The first time Rabbi Raphael Karlin gave his sixth-grade students a Talmud game, it didn’t turn out quite the way he expected. The challenge was to take a passage of Talmud cut up into six parts and reassemble the components in the correct order. The process required his students at... → Read More

Top cancer doc turns his sights toward Israel with new post

This article is sponsored by the Israel Cancer Research Fund. Dr. Mark Israel has spent his entire career focused on cancer. He has worked in medical clinics, as a laboratory researcher and as director of the cancer center at Dartmouth’s medical school. But perhaps no position Israel has occupied in four decades in medicine offers as much influence... → Read More

These Jewish day schools are breaking the mold to teach fluent Hebrew

This story is sponsored by the Avi Chai Foundation. Teaching students Hebrew is a top priority for the Chicago-area day school Hillel Torah. So to ensure it has a ready supply of native Hebrew speakers on its faculty, the school goes straight to the source. It recruits two couples from Israel for multiyear teaching gigs, flies them to Chicago... → Read More

A Montreal pilgrimage in the footsteps of Leonard Cohen

MONTREAL (JTA) — Just inside the gate of the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue off Boulevard du Mont Royal, a gravestone bears an unusual Star of David, the sharp angles of its two opposing triangles — one reaching heavenward, the other aimed at the earth — softened into the shape of hearts. A dozen red roses scattered... → Read More