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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. Give a tax-deductible donation Christians celebrating Yom Kippur, our interview with an Israeli prime minister, rabbis who play Dungeons & Dragons and the Borscht Belt comedian who appeared on 'Celebrity Bowling.'
We're taking tomorrow off for Yom Kippur. Hope you have a meaningful fast. OUR LEAD STORY Readers share the personal sins they’re repenting for this Yom Kippur
In what has become an annual ritual around here, we asked readers to share the sins they’ll be repenting for as we enter Yom Kippur. It’s a way to personalize and make more real the “al chayt” prayer synagogues recite multiple times during the holiday liturgy. The responses poured in — about family and community, COVID-19 and climate change, work and school and home, politics and personal habits. Here are a few selections:
“Becoming exasperated with my caregivers, whose only job is to help me every day.” – Carole Stein, Boynton Beach, Florida
“Every day, I walk my dog several miles throughout our neighborhood, and almost every day she will leave a ‘deposit’ somewhere. Most days, I’ll pick it up; most days. For those days that I look around, see no one, and leave, may I be forgiven.” – Mike Barinbaum, Scottsdale, Arizona
“For the sin of hopelessness in the face of rising injustice and oppression.” – Rachel Rubin Green, Los Angeles
7 MORE YOM KIPPUR STORIES Why do some Christians observe Yom Kippur? Christian theology contends that Jesus’s death absolved humanity of sin, and overrode Jewish law. Yet on Twitter, Christians, too, are preparing for the Day of Atonement. “Every Yom Kippur dinner ends with the sharing of snacks and a small prayer,” tweeted one Christian. Yom Kippur dinner? Our digital culture reporter Mira Fox had to know more. Read the story >
The case for the Jewish year’s hardest mitzvah: Sure, fasting is difficult. So is standing in synagogue all day. But for our Louis Keene, neither compares to the five-minute blessing over the moon that some Jews recite after the shofar blows that end Yom Kippur. “I want to be clear that I have no beef with the moon; though I’ve never been, I’m sure it’s very nice,” he writes. “But after weeks spent exploring universal themes — atonement, forgiveness, humility, resolve — kiddush levana feels almost appallingly non-sequitur.” Still, he rises in its defense. Read his essay >
But wait, there’s more: For reply-ing all and other internet sins we’ll be atoning for 6 non-leather shoes for Yom Kippur that are infinitely better than Crocs A quick guide to all the laws of Yom Kippur The powerful Yom Kippur lesson from the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ scandal
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY WHILE NOT A MEMBER OF THE TRIBE, NORM MACDONALD LEFT AN IMPACT ON JEWISH HUMOR. (GETTY IMAGES) 🕍 Philanthropist John H. Streicker is giving $10 million to New York’s Temple Emanu-El, in what is perhaps one of the largest ever gifts made to an American Jewish congregation. That’s on top of the $15 million he gave in 2016 to Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue whose Streicker Center has become one of the premier programmers of Jewish events. (Forward)
💰 Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, has reportedly offered Benjamin Netanyahu a seat on his company’s board after vacationing with the former prime minister on his private Hawaiian island last month. Compensation for the position is estimated to be $450,000. (Haaretz)
⚖️ A man who planned an attack on an Ohio synagogue was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison this week. Authorities said that Damon Joseph, 23, planned to attack on Shabbat when more people would be there. (JTA)
🎨 A movie debuting at the Toronto Film Festival uses animation to document the life of Charlotte Salomon, a German-Jewish artist who was murdered in Auschwitz at age 26. “She invented the graphic memoir,” said the producer, Julia Rosenberg. “It’s a war story, it’s a refugee story, but it’s really a biopic of an artist who’s been overlooked.” (Variety)
💉 A third dose of COVID-19 vaccine produces 10 times more antibodies than the second, according to new research from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. (Times of Israel)
🐉 Dungeons & Dragons has united a diverse group of rabbis, who gather each Sunday evening on Zoom to trudge across mythical lands. “We did not intend to be a demonstration of Jewish pluralism,” said Emily Dana, the lone rabbinical student in the group. “We just wanted to kill some giants.” (JTA)
☕️ Unable to go without coffee on Yom Kippur? Try a caffeine suppository. Just check with your rabbi first. (Forward)
Shiva call > Ida Nudel, a Soviet refusenik turned activist, died at 90 in Israel. Her cause was championed by Jane Fonda, and her story was dramatized in the 1987 film “Farewell Moscow.” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Nudel “a role model of a Jewish heroine.” (Jerusalem Post)
He said it > “You know with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don’t care for him.” – Norm MacDonald, a comedian who died Tuesday at 61. Macdonald, a former “Saturday Night Live” news anchor, got more play out of the Führer in his Netflix special, “Hitler’s Dog,” named for the one living creature who likely loved him unconditionally. (Forward)
FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT 'THERE IS A LOT OF ROOM FOR COOPERATION,' SAID EHUD OLMERT. (GETTY IMAGES) Former prime minister Ehud Olmert says the two-state solution is not dead: In an hour-long interview in his Tel Aviv office last month, Olmert gave our correspondent, Jacob Kornbluh, his take on current and former Israeli prime ministers and American presidents, and attempted some revisionist history. Oh, and he also thinks he’s taller than George W. Bush. Read the interview >
FROM OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL Prep for Yom Kippur by watching this conversation between Julianna Margulies, Emmy Award-winning star of “The Good Wife” and “ER” and author of the new memoir “Sunshine Girl,” and Rabbi Naomi Levy, author and spiritual leader of Nashuva.
ON THE CALENDAR LEFT TO RIGHT: MIKE DOUGLAS, NORM CROSBY AND EDIE ADAMS CIRCA 1970. (GETTY IMAGES) On this day in history: Norm Crosby, the Borscht Belt comedian known as the “Master of Malaprop,” was born on Sept. 15, 1927. He appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson more than 50 times and was a fixture on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. He also joked around on numerous game shows, including “Hollywood Squares” and “Celebrity Bowling.” He died in 2020, at 93.
PHOTO OF THE DAY PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Orthodox men pray in front of an aquarium at a zoo in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday, as they perform tashlich, a ritual in which sins are cast into the water to the fish ahead of Yom Kippur.
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