Recycling took center stage this weekend at a number of events throughout Israel. Green Purim parades and a national bottle-recycling contest sponsored by the ELA Recycling Corporation are all part of a new push to encourage Israelis to recycle more. “In the State of Israel, we’re used to just dumping our garbage,” Yakutiel Tzipori, a spokesperson for the Environment Ministry, said. “We’re a developing country and everything else was more important, like security and defense; the …More

Queen Esther is undoubtedly the hero of the Purim story and it is no wonder that the source of the holiday – the Book of Esther – is named after her. Today, three women carry on the legacy of Jewish heroines by that name by serving in the mixed-gender Caracal infantry battalion currently guarding Israel's western border. These Esthers however, have traded royal crowns, jewels and gowns for army uniforms, combat vests and weapons which they carry on them at all times during operational activity. Cpl. …More

A member of the UN peacekeeping force charged with monitoring the cease-fire between Israel and Syria is missing, the United Nations said Monday. [Fox News] Nearly 60 percent of Britain's Jews live in London, a new study shows. [Times of Israel] Israel has bought doorless vehicles specifically for transporting IDF troops inside military bases from China. [Haaretz] Two controversial Egyptian and Qatari films are simultaneously examining Jewish communities that once lived in the Arab world. [Jerusalem Post] New …More

Found in the attic of a Warsaw Ghetto house, three Megillah scrolls have been returned to the Jewish people. The scrolls, also known as Books of Esther, are typically read during the Purim festival. The house was one of the only structures to survive the war. Though the building was updated over the years, the attic remained untouched. But when the attic collapsed several years ago, Jewish holy texts were discovered hidden in a secret compartment, presumably to save them from the Nazis. A small hidden synagogue …More

The Oxford University Student's Union is scheduled to vote on joining the BDS movement Wednesday. [World Jewish Congress] Last week, a German court dismissed all charges against Rabbi David Goldberg for circumcising an infant after the practice was deemed illegal in Cologne. [Israel National News] In honor of Purim, three Books of Esther kept in the attic of a house in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II have been returned to Jewish hands. [Ynet] The Independent presents Purim in pictures. [The …More

An antelope was grazing peacefully on an African plain, with her fawn close by her side. Suddenly, the fawn said with alarm, “Mommy, I see a pair of lions in the distance! The mother calmly replied, “Yes dear, I have been watching them for some time.” Puzzled, the fawn asked, “Aren’t you afraid? Shouldn’t we run away?” Replied the mother: “Let me tell you something very important. Listen carefully for your very life may depend on this: a lion in the distance is …More

A rabbi’s summary of what Purim is really about. [Jewish Journal] “The Whipping Man” portrays the reality of Southern Jewish slave owners during Civil War. [AJC] Many items in Jewish Museum of Vienna were stolen by Nazis from Jewish families during Holocaust. [Algemeiner] Chuck Hagel’s probable tenure for defense secretary continues to cause disagreement in Washington. [Times of Israel] Benjamin Netanyahu presses his team to bring The Jewish Home into the coalition. [Israel Hayom] An …More

Dorina Pilipovsky has been cooking since she was a little girl. She learned about Jewish food from her Russian Babushka, and has modernized the kosher classics just for you. Stay tuned for more recipes for the Jewish kitchen. Hamantaschen are stuffed cookies in the shape of a triangle. The filling can be prunes, nuts, dates, apricot, apple, fruit preserves, cherry, chocolate or caramel. Basically anything you can think of can be stuffed into these cookies. The oldest known filling is poppy seed. Hamantaschen is …More

Robert Gluck, JNS.org Hamantaschen, as three-cornered pastries representing the evil Haman’s ears, are most “timely” when consumed on Purim. But like other foods associated with the holiday, they can inspire year-round creativity in the kitchen. According to Jeff Nathan, chef-host of public television’s “New Jewish Cuisine” program, Purim’s joy is all about disguises and surprises. “Little kids dressed in costumes, the best clothes of a beauty pageant and foods to …More

Anti-semitic offenses have increased 58 percent in France since last year. [JPost] US Congressmen arrived in Cuba to press parliament members for release of imprisoned American-Jewish contractor Alan Gross. [Times of Israel] A Women of the Wall member was granted visitation to Western Wall on Purim after previous detainment from the site. [JPost] Notable Jewish themes run through all of Prousts’ literary work. [The Jewish Week] The parents of murdered Jewish Yemenite request that their son’s body …More

Like every other mother in the United States, Patti Weiss Levy’s heart broke when she heard about last Friday’s school shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The longtime Connecticut resident lives an hour away from Newtown, so she assumed she wouldn’t know anyone involved. But as details of the massacre began to emerge, Weiss Levy said she realized just how small Connecticut is. “We later found out my daughter babysat for one of the children killed,” Weiss Levy …More

During the 2008 election campaign, Republican candidate John McCain stated during a visit to Israel that “Purim is the Jewish Halloween.” Flanking him on the tour, Senator Joe Lieberman didn’t just correct him, he also took the fall for the comment: "I had a brief exchange with one of the mothers whose children was in there in a costume for Purim," Lieberman told MSNBC. "And it's my fault that I said to Senator McCain that this is the Israeli version of Halloween. It is in the sense because the …More