Schechter News | In the Media

May 15, 2008 - The Jerusalem Post
Civil Fights: Secular Israelis reclaim their heritage
We share with you an article by Evelyn Gordon of the Jerusalem Post whose analysis strongly reinforces our Schechter raison d’etre: Israeli Jews must have a strong Jewish identity for the future health and strength of Israel. Gordon points to a growing trend amongst secular Israelis seeking out Jewish content and uses TALI’s phenomenal growth as proof of this positive change underway.

May 2, 2008 - The Jerusalem Post
Tali on the Air
A new TALI Project – TALI On Air – is reported in a JPost article describing young TALI radio broadcasters who are dedicating part of their “newscast” to stories related to their Judaism.

April 28, 2008 - The Jerusalem Post
An Anchor for National Mourning
As communities and congregations around the world come together to commemorate Holocaust and Remembrance Day, many will be reading from Megillat Hashoah, The Holocaust Scroll, which was co-published by the Rabbinical Assembly and the Schechter Institute. What follows is a fascinating article which traces the history of this national day of remembrance in Israel.

December 2006 - Ha'aretz
The earth, his earth
"The earth, his earth," by Shiri Lev-Ari, appeared in the Ha'aretz Weekend edition at the end of December. This far-ranging interview with Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Fine, Schechter Rabbinical graduate (November 2006) and grandson of famed Israeli poet Alexander Penn, delves into the role of rabbi and Jewish education in a "post-modern" Israeli society in flux.

November 30, 2006 - The Jerusalem Post
Expanding pluralism
The last week in November was a memorable one for the entire "Schechter Family", as leadership from Israel and abroad joined together in celebrating a number of significant events in Jerusalem. This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

November 2006 - Ha'aretz
Work starts on new campus for Conservative institution
The last week in November was a memorable one for the entire "Schechter Family", as leadership from Israel and abroad joined together in celebrating a number of significant events in Jerusalem. This article appeared in the Ha'aretz English Edition.

May 31, 2006 - The Jerusalem Post Magazine
Education: And Torah for all
This in-depth article discusses the TALI Education Fund and its network of 150 schools and pre-schools throughout Israel.

March 10, 2006 - The Jerusalem Post Magazine
The First Word: Are Jews still commanded to blot out Amalek?
This article by Prof. David Golinkin appeared in the Weekend Magazine of the Jerusalem Post, Friday March 10th.

February 20, 2006 - The Jerusalem Post (front page)
Women rabbis increase influence in liberal communities
This article appeared on the front page of the Jerusalem Post today. It reports on the 7th annual Regional Women's Study Days, sponsored by Women's League for Conservative Judaism, the Schechter Institute and the Masorti Movement. These "study happenings" have evolved into a tradition of quality learning bringing together hundreds of women from throughout Israel.

November 25, 2005 - The Jerusalem Post
The new face of Israeli Judaism
On November 30, 2005, the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary ordained four rabbis, Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, Hagit Sabag-Israel, Sarah Benmoshe and Avinoam Sharon. These talented spiritual leaders take their place alongside their 61 Schechter rabbinical colleagues who are working in Israel and Europe.

November 29, 2005 - The Jerusalem Post
Schechter Institute grants first Israeli MA degrees
November 30, 2005 was an historic moment for the Schechter Institute. That night, in conjunction with our annual Schechter International Board of Governors meeting, we held our first graduation ceremony in Jerusalem as a fully accreditated Israeli academic institution of higher learning. Forty-six graduates received Israeli degrees in Jewish Studies. They join the 700 plus Schechter graduates (the vast majority Jewish educators) who received degrees through JTS since 1989.

November 3, 2005 - The Jerusalem Post
Pragmatic visionary
Today, on the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel remembers the man, the leader, the general, and the peace seeker. Amb. Ephraim Halevy, a member of the Schechter Board, writes of Rabin from a personal perspective. Halevy served in the Washington embassy during the last three years of Rabin's ambassadorship and as deputy head of the Mossad during his second premiership.

October 27, 2005 - Ha'aretz
The real hero in reconciling Christians and Jews
This article was written by Rabbi David Rosen, a member of the Schechter Board of Governors, Director of the American Jewish Committee's Department for Interreligious Affairs, and a member of the permanent bilateral commision of the State of Israel and the Holy See.

October 27, 2005 - The Jerusalem Post
AJC asks Catholics not to convert Jews
French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger greets Rabbi David Rosen in Rome during a commemoration of the "Nostra Aetate" document of the Second Vatican Council. Rabbi David Rosen said that the Catholic Church should categorically reject any attempts to convert Jews.

October 12, 2005 - The Jerusalem Post
Preserving the Heritage
This article by Schechter faculty member Prof. Renee Levine Melammed, appeared in the Erev Yom Kippur edition of The Jerusalem Post.

October 7, 2005 - The Jerusalem Post Magazine
Essay: Solving a Mahzor mystery
This article by Prof. Golinkin appeared in The Jerusalem Post Magazine just prior to Yom Kippur.

December, 2004 - Ha'aretz
For Conservative Movement new guard, it's all about community
Michael Kogan will start the third career of his life next week - a rabbi in Israel. Kogan, 54, immigrated here 13 years ago. Among his previous jobs, he was an engineer at a plant in Russia and a theater director in a small town on the banks of the Volga River, west of Moscow.

April 18, 2004 - The Jerusalem Post
Why All Jews Should Read the Shoah Scroll on Yom Hashoah
The following opinion piece written by Prof. David Golinkin appeared in The Jerusalem Post on April 18, 2004, on the eve of Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day. To purchase a copy of Megillat Hashoah in North America, order through the United Synagogue Book Service. To purchase a copy of Megillat Hashoah in Israel, go to the SIJS Online Bookstore.

April 5, 2004 - Jerusalem Report
Living With It
This article on Megillat Hashoah appeared in the Jerusalem Report on April 5, 2004. If you are interested in purchasing the Megillah, you can do so through the United Synagogue Book Service.

April 2, 2004 - Jerusalem Post
Interesting Times: Eat kitniyot
This article, which appeared in The Jerusalem Post just prior to Pesach and highlights the scholarship of Prof. Golinkin, offers aid on the issue of kitniyot at Pesach time. The complete English summary of the responsum by Prof. Golinkin is available in the Schechter Institute Responsa For Today Website.

December 21, 2003 - Ha'aretz
A feminist in modest clothing
Ha'aretz published this article in honor of Alice Shalvi who has just stepped down as Chair of the Schechter Institute Executive Board.
Alice's "farewell speech" to Schechter

June 18, 2003 - Ha'aretz
Conservative and Reform leaders throw down the gauntlet to Lupolianski
SIJS President, Prof. Golinkin, and our Executive Committee Chair, Prof. Alice Shalvi, were asked their opinions of Jerusalem's new mayor in this recent article that appeared in Ha'aretz.

May 23, 2003 - Ha'aretz
Advocate, rabbi, peacenik, host: “Jerusalem will miss David Clayman”
Jerusalem and the Schechter Institute lost a true friend when Rabbi David Clayman passed away on Thursday, May 22, at the age of 69. David was long-time vice-Chairman of the SIJS Executive Committee and Chairman of our Midreshet Yerushalayim board. He will be sorely missed. This article, which appeared in Ha'aretz, is a fitting tribute to man who gave so much to his community and his country.

April 25, 2003 - Ha'aretz
Megillat Hashoah- The Shoah Scroll
Megillat Hashoah - The Shoah Scroll, the first liturgical text ever written to commemorate the Holocaust has just been published by the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and the Rabbinical Assembly. The text will be read on Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day in synagogues and public gatherings throughout the world. To purchase a copy of Megillat Hashoah, go to the SIJS Online Bookstore.

April 10, 2003 - The Jerusalem Post
Out of Egypt
Dr. Pnina Galpaz-Feller, Kekst Fellow and Lecturer of Ancient Eastern Studies and Bible at the Schechter Institute, has just published a new book: Exodus: Reality or Illusion?

January 24, 2003 - The Jerusalem Post
Reinventing a Jewish Muse
The first public exhibit of Ma'aseh Hoshev (Artists' Bet Midrash) closed at the end of January at Jerusalem's Mishkenot Sha'ananim, after drawing thousands of interested art lovers to its works. The Jerusalem Post, in its Friday Magazine, devoted a two-page feature story that focused not only on the exhibit but on the pivotal educational role that the Schechter Institute is playing within Israeli society by bringing together the Arts and Judaism.

January 10, 2003 - Ma'ariv
A Revolution in the High Schools: Students are Loving to Learn Bible.
This article outlines the innovative steps in education that Drora Halevy, the Ministry of Education’s National Supervisor for Bible Studies, is planning to implement. Drora’s face has been a familiar one at SIJS these past few years. Last month she stood among 80 of her colleagues, as she proudly received her MA in Interdisciplinary Jewish Studies. She continues to consult regularly with SIJS faculty on developing curriculum programs and teaching methods.

December 20, 2002 - Ha'aretz
Agunot get their voice on dayanim appointment board
Sharon Shenhav, a Civil Law Faculty Advisor to the Schechter Institute Center for Women in Jewish Law, is an international women's rights lawyer recognized as an expert on marriage and divorce in Jewish law. Shenhav has represented hundreds of women in rabbinical courts in Israel and has been a member of the Israeli delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Recently elected to the Commission to Appoint Dayanim in Israel, Shenhav was interviewed in Ha'aretz newspaper.

December 16, 2002 - Ha'aretz
The Rabbi was born German and Protestant
This wonderfully sensitive and inspiring article on SIJS graduate Rabbi Gesa Ederberg is from the December 16th edition of Ha'aretz newspaper. Almost a full-page color spread in print, the article is featured prominently on the Ha'aretz internet edition as well in both Hebrew and English.

December 13, 2002 - Ha'aretz
Packaging Judaism, art and politics
A look at a new exhibit that opened December 9, 2002 at Mishkenot Sha'ananim's Konrad Adenauer Conference Center. "Concealed and Revealed" puts on display the works of 10 well-known Israeli artists involved in the plastic arts, music, photography, sculpture, dance and literature.

November 8, 2002 - Jerusalem Post
Sanctity or Desecration?
The article “Sanctity or Desecration?” on religious belief and organ donations, which originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, was re-printed in the Jerusalem Post (November 8, 2002) with a sidebar that featured the halakhic opinions of Rabbi David Golinkin.

November, 2002 - Detroit Jewish News
Learning To Be Jewish Again
In this article, featured in last week's Detroit Jewish News, you'll read about Mr. Gerry Cook, who continues to be an active player in the Jewish education miracle that is unfolding at Camp Ramah-Ukraine. Friends like Gerry present the Schechter Institute with the privilege of building better and stronger Jews in Israel and throughout the world through our MA and rabbinic programs, the TALI Education Fund and Midreshet Yerushalayim.

September 23, 2002 - JTA Global News Service
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
What Israelis talk about when they use the word 'matzav'
This story which appeared in last month's JTA Global News Service delves deeply and with great sensitivity into the "stuff" that has come to define the daily life of Israelis. Please note that the reporter relied heavily on SIJS expertise--both Prof. David Golinkin, an expert in Jewish Law, and Dr. Pnina Feller, a lecturer in Bible and Ancient History at SIJS were interviewed extensively for the writing of this report.

August 2002 - The Jewish Week
Love Letters on King George Street
Private grief, national grief and the ever-hopeful words of children.

July 4, 2002 - israelinsider
"Dear Israel" card and poster campaign gives colorful support to Israel
Additional media coverage for our "Dear Israel" campaign--this time via the web. This israelinsider article was published on July 4, 2002.

July, 2002 - The Jewish Week
Cards From The Diaspora
Beautiful posters filled with children's letters and cards to Israel went up throughout Jerusalem last week, as did the 24-piece poster art display at Jerusalem's central bus station. Media coverage continues. This article was published in New York's The Jewish Week.

June 27, 2002 - The Jerusalem Post
Children's messages to be posted at sites of terror attacks
In the midst of so much "bad" news coming out of Israel these days, we'd like to share with you the kind of news that simply inspires- the embodiment of "tikkun olam." The "newsmaker" is Dana Rone Saroken, a visiting JTS student, who has been with us at Schechter this entire year. She and a host of volunteers from SIJS and around the city, have set out on a project - "Dear Israel"- that is destined to bring smiles back to the faces of thousands of Israelis in the Jerusalem area. This Jerusalem Post article appeared on June 27, 2002.

May 27, 2002 - JTA Online News Service
Russian-born rabbi forges bonds with family of Dolphinarium victims
Rabbi Michael Kovson, a SIJS graduate, travels a painful road back to the Yarkon Cemetary, where a year ago, two young girls, Yulia and Yelena Nelimov, who were murdered in the Dolphinarium disco suicide, were buried. One year later, Rabbi Kovson returned to conduct a memorial service for the victims' family and friends. The story that follows, which highlights Michael's work with the bereaved family, was written by Jessica Steinberg and published in JTA on May 27, 2002.

May 16, 2002 - The Jeruaslem Post special Shavuot Magazine
A Coming of Age
An in-depth article on the Masorti Movement and the inroads it is making into Israeli society. The Schechter Institute and its contributions to the growth of Masorti Judaism in Israel featured prominently in the article, including interviews with SIJS President David Golinkin and SIJS rabbinical student Avi Deutch, along with pictures of our students.

May 3, 2002 - Jerusalem Post Book Review
Pushing for Participation
This very favorable book review of Prof. David Golinkin’s latest book, The Status of Women in Jewish Law: Responsa, published by the Schechter Institute, appeared in the Literary Supplement of the Jerusalem Post on Friday May 3, 2002.

May 2002 - Jewish Agency Web Magazine
Argentinian Rabbinical Students in Israel Prepare to Meet the Needs of a Troubled Community
The Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies has been home this year to ten rabbinical students (a Spanish-speaking minyan!) from the Conservative Movement's Seminario Rabinico in Buenos Aires. Their story made front page news on the Jewish Agency's Web magazine.

April 9 , 2002 - Ha'aretz
What gives down at the Putin Pub?
An exciting new Jewish literacy program has been launched by the Schechter Institute's Midreshet Yerushalayim Department for Russian immigrants. Israel's Ha''aretz newspaper covered the story.

April 8 , 2002 - Ha'aretz
For These I Weep
The eve of Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Memorial Day, the people of the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies and members of the Kol Haneshama Reform congregation read for the first time the Holocaust Scroll, the first religious text of its sort to deal with the Holocaust, in the spirit of the Book of Lamentations.

March 22, 2002 - The Jerusalem Post
Probing the Hidden Jew:
Scholar Renée Levine Melammed Specializes in Stories about Exceptional Sephardi and Oriental Women in the Shadow of the Inquisition
The article showcases SIJS faculty member, Rina Levine Melammed and her most recent research.

February 27, 2002 - Jerusalem Post Magazine
All hail Esther and Vashti
SIJS heroine Alice Shalvi talks about Purim's heroines.

February 25, 2002 - The Jerusalem Post
The Faces Within
The Jerusalem Post interviewed Dr. Pnina Feller, SIJS lecturer in Bible and Ancient Studies.

February 22, 2002 - Ha'aretz
It's just a masquerade, my friend
Ha'aretz featured Dr. Pnina Feller, SIJS lecturer in Bible and Ancient Studies, in their coverage of Purim.

February 12, 2002 - JTA
Ethiopians´ first Conservative rabbi shares his faith with his community
Rabbi Yefet Alemo, the first ordained Conservative Ethiopian rabbi, teaches Ethiopian Israelis about Conservative Judaism.

December 20, 2001 - The Jerusalem Report
At Issue
Rabbi David Golinkin, president and rector of the Conservative Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, debates Reconstructionist Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz, of Temple Bnai Israel in Willimantic, Connecticut. The rabbis debate whether or not the Maccabees were religious extremists.

December 14, 2001 - Jerusalem Post Magazine
From Kiev to Kiryat Hayovel
Newly ordained Conservative rabbi Michael Kovsan drove to Tel Aviv on Shabbat after the suicide bombing at the Dolphinarium. 'I decided it was a matter of life and death,' to comfort the victims' families.

October 26, 2001 - Jerusalem Post Magazine
Across the Divide
On the sixth anniversary (Hebrew date) of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Jerusalem Post Magazine presented an analysis of where Israeli society stands today -- six years after the Rabin murder. The story is based on interviews with four leading Israeli spiritual leaders, including Schechter President and Rector, Prof. David Golinkin.

July 2001 - Kol Ha'ir
Divorce Scenes
"If your husband is plagued by boils or simply smells bad, if a mole developed on his nose or if he's a chronic tightwad, you can get out of the marriage. But if he's violent, a drug addict or doesn't support his children, forget about divorce. The Center for Women in Jewish Law seeks ways of liberating women. The rabbinic court is not impressed, but the Center won't give up."

April 2001 - The Jerusalem Post
Rabbi Who Won't Bow Down
Rabbi Shira Yisrael, Schechter Institute Graduate (Class of 2000), is interviewed by The Jerusalem Post.