Did you know the U.S. government’s first official counterterrorism office was created in response to an attack on Israelis? In fact, many of the components of the U.S. responses to terrorism were prompted by developments affecting Israel.
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27), George Mason University’s Hillel hosted “Expressions of the Holocaust,” sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). More than 100 people attended the event.
[This article was updated at 3:04pm Feb. 9, 2018]
In the 48 hours following the publication of “Did Baltimore’s Orthodox Community Turn A Blind Eye To Child Sexual Abuse?” by the New York Jewish Week on Jan. 17, 2018, Baltimore resident Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky was terminated from his teaching position at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community Day School and resigned from his role as director of a teen inclusion minyan for disabled youth at Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim.
Of the more than 26,000 people Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center has recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for their efforts to save Jews from Nazi extermination during the Holocaust, 36 were diplomats. "Beyond Duty," a traveling exhibit sharing the personal stories of nine such diplomats, opened Sunday, Feb. 4, at the Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM) in Baltimore.
On Sunday, Jan. 28, students from five schools gathered to help seniors get more comfortable using modern communication and information technology.
Kol HaBirah consulted with rabbinic and legal experts before publishing this article. We established a Toelet (benefit) in making the public more aware of some of the details of a case that many have made judgments about with limited information. We do not take sides in this case as we believe there is still not enough information to do so. We do believe it is our duty to share relevant information in an objective manner to help inform public opinion.
The police reports we obtained redact the names of the minors; however the names of the parents and others are present. Based on the guidance we’ve been given, we refrain from using parent's names in these accounts and avoid graphic details as much as possible.
Take a room full of beautiful Jewish kids, add some baking ingredients, mixing utensils, and a hefty dose of fun, and what do you get? A Kids Mega Challah Bake!
The Charm City Kosher Cooking Competition, a fundraiser event for Cheder Chabad of Baltimore coming up Feb. 25, was originally inspired by cooking competition television shows like “Chopped” and the burgeoning interest in gourmet kosher cooking within the Baltimore community. The idea of the competition answered the school board’s desire to find a fundraising project that would also bring Jews together and serve the community at large.
The Olami Summit in Europe, which took place from Dec. 24 to Dec. 31, 2017, was the world’s largest global gathering of young Jews. As a junior studying statistics at University of Maryland, College Park, classes are fascinating and campus life is a blast, but meeting with over 1,300 delegates from 19 countries across the globe was a welcome break — and one of the greatest experiences of my life.
On Jan. 28, community members in Silver Spring, Maryland, spent six hours at Kemp Mill Synagogue (KMS) sorting, loading, and transporting donations at a clothing drive to benefit CHANA, a Baltimore-based charity that provides clothing as well as a variety of services to victims of domestic abuse. The drive was co-sponsored by KMS, Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, and NCSY. Children, teens, and adults came out for this chesed opportunity, sorting and loading several hundred bags of clothing, linens, purses, coats, shoes, and stuffed animals. A fully-packed mid-size U-Haul and a minivan were needed to transport the clothing to Baltimore. Students came from Berman Hebrew Academy, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (CESJDS), Yeshiva of Greater Washington, and local public schools.
Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky – Rabbi K, as he is fondly called – was head of the lower boys division at Camp Shoresh in Adamstown, Maryland, until 2015. As the New York Jewish Week recently reported and Kol HaBirah has confirmed, allegations of sexual abuse from three children after the conclusion of the camp season resulted in an investigation by Child Protective Services (CPS). Two of the children participated in forensic interviews with CPS. Based on its investigation, the agency concluded both cases were “indicated” cases of sexual abuse of a child. Before Rabbi Krawatsky’s appeal of the ruling took place, a settlement brokered with CPS in February 2016 resulted in the cases being downgraded from “indicated” to “unsubstantiated” cases of abuse, but — significantly — not ruled out as cases of abuse.