Yitgadal v’Yitkadash Shmay Raba… Even a less than occasional synagogue attendee is likely familiar with the four-word introduction to the Mourner’s Kaddish. The prayer whose centrality to the service cannot be overstated is a surprisingly recent addition to Jewish liturgy, arriving in its current form less than 1,000 years ago. While that may sound like...
Chag haBanot Sameach! Happy Girls Day! Do not adjust your dial. Today is not March 3rd, Japan’s Hinamatsuri celebrating the young ladies of Nippon. In the Jewish calendar, we find ourselves on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the start of a new Hebrew month coinciding with the Sixth Day of Hanukkah. Unsatisfied with the dueling festivities of...
One of the JCC’s greatest strengths is how our members bring to Tokyo the traditions of their home communities. As opposed to a Long Island synagogue where Kiddush conversation revolves around how to beat the traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway, the Jews of Japan share with each other rituals and practices from the entire...
For those of us not young enough to join the Sunday school Hanukkah event but young at heart, please join for a night of Hanukkah fun on the Saturday, December the 9th. Let’s come together to light the Hanukkah candles and bring some light to these dark times. We will enjoy some wonderful food, drinks,...
Jews vs Greeks. Good vs Evil. Religious Freedom vs Persecution. The easily digestible version of Hanukkah many of us grew up with contains glaring omissions and even some outright falsehoods. Before you grab your pitchforks, know that patriotic Greek Jews are the ones most concerned with correcting the oversimplified narrative they believe does a disservice...
Join us for an exclusive movie screening on December 3 of the Israeli documentary “50 Broken Pieces” followed by Q&A with the director Micha Amitai and the producer Aner Preminger who will join us live from Israel via Zoom. (Micha is the cousin of JCJ member Raphael Sitbon). Movie plot: The film is an intimate...
While not quite 2013’s Thanksgivukkah, 2023’s combination of American Thanksgiving with the Japanese 勤労感謝の日Labor Thanksgiving Day represents a unique celebration of sorts. American Thanksgiving commemorates a harvest festival shared between Pilgrims and the Wampanoag People which presumably included cranberry sauce and corn. Japanese Thanksgiving memorializes a similar event when the first Nihonjin to land on...
The Blood Libel. An absurd, confusing, massively injurious accusation against Jews that refuses to remain in the dustbin of history. For those who may not remember their AP Euro classes, a blood libel occurs when the Jewish population of a town is accused of having kidnapped a non-Jew, usually a child, for blood to use...
בן שבעים לשיבהSeventy represents fullness of years-Pirkei Avot/Ethics of our Ancestors 5:21 The Jewish Community of Japan celebrates our 70th anniversary this Shabbat. The JCC is a communal institution unique in many ways within the larger Jewish world. For one, you will never hear a member complain at a board meeting “When my grandfather laid...
The town of Worms, Germany hosts the oldest extant Jewish cemetery in Europe. No grave in Worms is more famous than the 13th century Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, usually referred to by the honorific Maharam or ‘Our Great Teacher, Rabbi Meir’. Directly adjacent to Maharam’s eternal resting place stands the headstone of a Jewish noble,...