Reading can cause many different emotions. For some people, beginning a new book produces excitement about where the narrative will take them. Then there’s the pleasure of the plot itself, watching ...

Clergy and congregants sing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, while holding Torah scrolls during a muted Simchat Torah service at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago on Oct. 7. (Screenshot via JTA.org ...

(JTA) — How are we supposed to celebrate Simchat Torah this year with a full heart? The very name of this holiday — “the joy of the Torah,” celebrating the completion of the annual Torah cycle — ...

(RNS) — On Yom Kippur, the Jewish community chanted the prayer Shema Koleinu and beseeched God: “Hear our voice; listen to our prayers and accept them in mercy!” Seldom are the pleas of an entire ...

(RNS) — A few years ago, the Conservative congregation of 900 families overlooking Lake Michigan took on a challenge. This past year 210 laypeople stepped up. HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (RNS) — Growing up in ...

Jews in New Jersey normally greet Simchat Torah, which begins at sunset on Thursday, with joy. It's traditionally a holiday of dance, song and feasts. Simchat Torah, which means "rejoicing of the ...

A year ago, I spent Simchat Torah in Vienna when I travelled there to participate in the Vienna Project, a multi-tiered program created by Karen Frostig, a Boston-based Jewish artist and daughter of a ...

(JTA) — For the last dozen years, an array of synagogues from multiple denominations have gathered together in a central location in Brooklyn to sing and dance with the Torah, the centerpiece of ...

Simchat Torah is about more than beginning to read the Torah all over again. It’s about the need to reexamine what we think we know, over and over again. The Jewish holiday known as Simchat Torah, ...