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Elizabeth Kratz

Elizabeth Kratz is associate publisher and editor of The Jewish Link of New Jersey and The Jewish Link of Bronx, Westchester and Connecticut.

“The Jewish community stood up and showed we are not going to be intimidated,” said Steve Fox, president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Teaneck, N.J.
Meet Yaakov Guttman, basketball star, IDF standout and the subject of a new documentary
Those in need of kidney most often seek the organ from family members, though family members are not always a match for the recipient or have other reasons why they can’t donate. Altruistic kidney donation is not exactly commonplace, but a Brooklyn organization, Renewal, is working to make it more so.
The Orthodox Union (OU), after a year of discussions with various stakeholders and in the face of some opposition, has established parameters for a three-year period during which the umbrella body for American Orthodox congregations will work to bring its member synagogues who employ female clergy into compliance with OU standards, which stipulate that a woman cannot serve as a rabbi.
While many American and Israeli Jews may think negatively about Europe these days, there are indications of a rising number of Jews living in relative comfort in many of Europe’s largest cities.
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has severed ties with the longtime director of United Synagogue Youth (USY) after receiving “multiple testimonies” that corroborated an allegation of sexual abuse. Allegations about Jules Gutin, who in 2011 completed his tenure as international director of USY and since 2012 had conducted tours of Poland for the Conservative movement’s youth arm, first came to light through a Facebook post by a man who claimed that someone who worked with thousands of teens had abused him in the 1980s. JNS communicated with that man as well as several others who alleged that they were underage victims of unwanted sexual touch by Gutin during the same decade.