Purim

Soferet: Jewish Female Scribes Receive The Torah

25 May 2012

Julie Seltzer works on a Torah as part of the exhibit As It Is Written: Project 304,805 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. (Bruce Damonte, courtesy of the Contemporary Jewish Museum)

Jazz on the Bosphorus: Troubled Waters

25 May 2012

For seven years now the rather laboriously named Istanbul Jazz Center (confusingly the logo includes the letters "JC's," I don't know why) has been one of the major clubs of the Turkish city. Situated in the posh neighborhood of Ortakoy, in the shadow of the first Bosphorus Bridge, its schedule has featured major international jazz stars besides local talent; resolutely mainstream-oriented, it ...

Novato rabbi offers spiritual services to all

24 May 2012

When Rabbi Menachem Landa and his wife, Adina, moved to Novato recently, they came with the intention of giving the town a Jewish community center. Now the Landas have opened the Chabad Jewish Center of Novato — in their home.