By Rafael Medoff, JNS.org The news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unfairly targeted conservative groups has brought renewed spotlight on a 2010 lawsuit filed by the pro-Israel group Z Street, which alleges it was also singled out by the IRS when applying for tax-exempt status. The Z Street case, whose first hearing is set for July 2 in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, has raised eyebrows in the Jewish community. But Z Street’s claims, if true, would not mark the first time the IRS …More

Extra classes on Sunday and after school on Wednesday nights--who can forget Hebrew school, the great unifying Jewish-American childhood experience? But whether you loved it or hated it, you have Rebecca Gratz, an 18th-century Jewish philanthropist, to thank. As the Jewish Virtual Library puts it, “Rebecca Gratz, in her time, was one of the most noble women in the world, who can be compared in modern times, for her work, devotion, and dedication to the needy, to a Mother Teresa of the Catholic …More

An annual chocolate celebration in France will pay tribute to the Jewish community for the first time, 500 years after European Jewry brought he sweet delight to France in the first place. The city of Bayonne, noted as France’s chocolate capital, will include a nod to Jewish heritage on the region’s Chocolate Day this Friday. The tribute is in reference to the 16th century Portuguese Jews who first brought chocolate to Bayonne when fleeing the Inquisition. “Since we are the inheritors of the …More

Things haven’t changed that much since 1580, when British sailor Sir Francis Drake called this city on South Africa's southwestern coast as “the fairest Cape in the whole circumference of the earth.” Latter-day travelers seem to agree. In 2012 alone, Cape Town was named the second-best city in the world by readers of Conde Nast Traveller, the favorite city worldwide in the London Telegraph's travel awards, and the best beach destination in Africa by the World Travel Awards. If anything is …More

Binyamin Kagedan, JNS.org As is the case for many holidays in the Jewish calendar cycle, Lag B’Omer (April 28 this year) carries within it not one, but multiple and distinct layers of meaning. Mystical significances, historical memories, and moral reflections all meld together into the contemporary notion of what makes this day special, the product of nearly two millennia of overlaid and interwoven innovations in tradition and observance. One of the most prominent themes describes that the 33rd day of the …More

The Jewish community of Portland, Oregon threw itself a big party last weekend. The Food for Thought festival organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland sought to strengthen community identity, bring unaffiliated into the fold and collect food for the Oregon Food Bank, a local charity. It was also an opportunity to showcase the city's surprisingly rich Jewish past. A guided tour of Portland's historic Alphabet district showed where many of the city's most notable Jewish denizens lived and told their …More

Archeologists have discovered an ancient church in the ruins of the ancient biblical city of Shiloh. The church, which dates to the fourth century C.E., is believed to have been built over the site where the Ark of the Covenant was once housed by the ancient Israelites, Israel Hayom reported. The church was discovered by accident when archeological workers, who were digging a drainage ditch for rainwater, came across remarkably well-preserved mosaics. Shiloh is an ancient biblical city located in the hills of …More

Portuguese researchers have catalogued hundreds of secret markings that Jews left on structures in Seia in the 16th century following their forced conversion to Christianity. A three-member team said it found 500 markings in Seia, a north Portugal municipality, including coded Hebrew letters and words carved into walls of homes where converted Jews used to live. Alberto Martinho, Jose Levy Domingos and Luiza Metzker Lyra, the research team, said they also found distinctive indentations in stone door frames where …More

When Anatoly Shapiro, a Jewish officer in the Soviet army, entered Auschwitz in January 1945, he confronted death on a scale that no warfare could have prepared him for. "The first thing I saw was a group of people standing outside in the snow who looked like skeletons, wearing striped clothing and rags on their feet instead of shoes,” he told the New York Daily News back in 2005, just months before he died at the age of 92. “They were so weak they could not turn their heads. We told them, 'The Red …More

Aaron David Gordon, better known as A.D. Gordon, was born into a wealthy Orthodox family in 1856 in the Russian Empire. Over the course of his life, he would become a leading force behind practical Zionism and Labor Zionism, a branch of left wing Zionism. When Gordon was young, he self educated himself in religious and academic studies, learning several languages as a child. He made aliyah to then Palestine in 1904, settling in the Galilee in 1919. He worked in agriculture, firming up his belief system that the …More

In the 1950’s, homemaker Ruth Handler was having trouble finding toys to satisfy her daughter. The little girl, Barbara, was growing displeased with her paper dolls, wanting to give the infant facades more grown up roles as she herself aged. Handler sought a doll that would appeal to her now pre-teen daughter. But none were on the market. Just a few short years later, however, Barbie would be a household name. While on a trip to Europe, Handler came across a German doll called Bild Lilli, a toy made from …More

Sophie Tucker, sometimes called the "First Lady of Show Business" and the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas," is a Jewish cultural icon. Tucker was born Sonya Kalish in 1886 in what is now the Ukraine. Her family immigrated to Connecticut when she was just a baby, escaping persecution against Jews. When her parents opened a restaurant in their new Hartford hometown, Tucker began singing in the eatery for tips. It was just the first in a careeer of entertainment jobs. Tucker made a name for herself as a young woman …More