June 9, 2015

New Orleans an Easy draw for Jewish tourism

Julie Schwartz leads attendees to a tri-region Hadassah conference in New Orleans on a Jewish heritage tour of the city in April. In a reader survey last year, Travel + Leisure Magazine rated New Orleans one of the world’s top 10 cities to visit. Not […]
May 29, 2015

Remembering murdered rabbi, America’s Torah effort coming to Deep South

Update: As of the morning of June 1, America’s Torah is postponing its Alabama part of the trip and will likely be in the state in July. We will update as we get more information. “America’s Torah” will be rolling through the Florida panhandle and […]
May 29, 2015

New Orleans community can identify with Houston flooding

While Jews around the world have been watching the effect of flooding on the Jewish community of Houston, for the Jewish community of New Orleans the images hit home in a more direct way. In August 2005, the levees around New Orleans failed following Hurricane […]
May 20, 2015

Donaldsonville museum hosts special Baton Rouge screening of “Rosenwald”

Chandra Lester, Kathe Hambrick-Jackson and Darryl Gissel were in the Louisiana delegation to the first Rosenwald Schools conference, held in Tuskegee in 2012 (SJL file). “Rosenwald,” a new documentary by award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner, will have its premiere in New York in August, but there […]
May 14, 2015

“Kosher Creole” co-author Mildred Covert remembered

Wherever Jews have gone, Jewish cooking has become infused with local influences. In Louisiana, where the predominant ingredients are shellfish and pork, that can be a daunting challenge. Mildred Covert, who died on May 10 at the age of 88, showed it was not an […]
May 7, 2015

Jewish groups post strong GiveNOLA results

The New Orleans Jewish community tripled its participation in this year’s GiveNOLA Day, paced by a stunning performance by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. The second annual GiveNOLA Day was held on May 5, a 24-hour online fundraiser involving about 550 non-profits in […]
May 6, 2015

Fans of Friedmann’s “Too Jewish” will want to open “Do Not Open”

Many novels have a disclaimer that any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. With Patty Friedmann’s “Too Jewish” trilogy, not so much. The New Orleans author releases the final installment of the trilogy, “Do Not Open for 50 Years” with a launch […]
May 5, 2015

New Orleans’ Alon Shaya wins James Beard Award

When a culinary tour of Israel for this summer was announced recently, New Orleans Chef Alon Shaya said it would be a chance for people to tour Israel with James Beard Award winners — then quickly noted it was the other three chefs on the […]
May 1, 2015

Shoals communities establish sister city ties with Beth-El, Israel

North Alabama Friends of Israel took part in last summer’s pro-Israel rallies in Huntsville during the Gaza operation. The four cities that make up Alabama’s Shoals area are entering into a sister city relationship with Beit El, Israel. Over the last five weeks, the cities […]