Sign In Forgot Password

Purim @ HTAA featured in the Washington Jewish Week

03/24/2022 11:20:09 PM

Mar24

Costumes, food and Purim shpiels. Games, kids and the book of Esther.
Purim came in with an extra dose of joy in greater Washington last week, two years after the start of the pandemic.
Indoors and out, in person and online, area congregations made the most of the holiday that...Read more...

Kurdish babies’ lives hang in balance as Israeli red tape blocks their last hope

03/22/2021 06:42:10 PM

Mar22

LAZAR BERMAN

Doctors near Tel Aviv are ready to operate, but a hellish bureaucratic mess between government bodies means sick children are being kept from surgery that can save their lives. 

Three weeks ago, doctors at Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv told the family of newborn Hena that she must have emergency surgery within two weeks or they risk losing her.

Though they had never seen her, physicians at Sheba were prepared to treat...Read more...

A student learns the life story of a survivor

01/20/2021 04:02:05 PM

Jan20

Abigail Leibowitz

“I  ran for my life, and they ran after me for three pounds of salt,” explained Isaac Gendelman as he recounted running from farmers trying to capture and turn him over to the Nazis.

Sitting in the 96 year old’s warm, inviting home,...Read more...

When the Letters Stopped - The Times of Israel

12/04/2020 02:03:10 PM

Dec4

Daniel S. Mariaschin

When I was a youngster, and the subject came around to the Holocaust, my mother told me about receiving letters from her relatives in Lithuania, beseeching the family in America to bring them to the US, as the Nazis and their collaborators tightened their grip on Jews in the Baltics.

This...Read more...

Passover, COVID-19, and the Plight of Refugees

04/18/2020 12:20:01 PM

Apr18

ABIGAIL LEIBOWITZ

(Special to Informed Comment) – Yesterday was the last day of a peculiar Passover, celebrated under the Coronavirus pandemic. It reminded me of a famous story. Two British salesmen went down to Africa in the 1900’s to find if there was any opportunity for selling shoes. They wrote telegrams back to Manchester. One of them wrote, “Situation hopeless. They don’t wear shoes.” And the other one wrote, “Glorious opportunity. They...Read more...

Fighting Antisemitism : We can't win this battle without  friends

01/11/2020 11:50:20 PM

Jan11

Daniel Mariaschin

One common thread that has emerged from my recollections of personal experiences with antisemitism is that there are good people who stand up for what is right.

As we are experiencing antisemitism at levels we had hoped were a plague of the past, I have thought back to my earliest recollection of antisemitism in the United States: Hearing my mother talking about the Holocaust, not even 10 years after the great tragedy that befell...Read more...

Violence against Jews a sign of increasing hate in the U.S.

01/08/2020 01:09:39 PM

Jan8

By ABIGAIL LEIBOWITZ

What could cause such hate in a person that would drive them to kill and injure innocent members of a minority group?

I was troubled by this distressing question once again, when on December 28, during the last candle lighting of Hanukkah, an intruder with a large knife burst into the home of a Hasidic rabbi in a New York...Read more...

Israeli Folk Dancing Lives … But How Long And For Whom?

06/29/2018 01:24:46 AM

Jun29

Linda Topping Streitfeld

It’s a school night in the social hall of this suburban synagogue, but teenage toes are tapping, middle-aged middles are moving and seniors are stepping to the syncopated rhythm of Eshebo.

The ringmaster is Mike Fox, 46, who has led this recreational Israeli dance group since 2009, shepherding its growth from 15 to 20 dancers a week to an average of 70 every Tuesday night at Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase,...Read more...

A Melody That Survived the Holocaust Inspires A Silver Spring Congregation

06/20/2018 04:31:02 PM

Jun20

Shamai Leibowitz

The National Library of Israel maintains the Piyut and Tfila Website  אתר הפיוט והתפילה – a musical repository and a rich archive documenting and preserving authentic liturgical melodies from Jewish communities around the world. You will find melodies originating from such diverse countries as Turkey, Poland, Yemen, Romania, Iran, Belarus, etc.

Last week they uploaded a recording that I...Read more...

A Great Day for Good Deeds 

05/10/2018 02:11:47 PM

May10

Kol HaBirah Newspaper

HTAA 'Does Good' during the  JFGW Good Deeds Day (4/29/2018)

05/04/2018 01:07:28 PM

May4

Washington Jewish Week

Martin Finkelstein Stays in the Moment: At 101, the Wheaton Resident Keeps Moving! 

05/03/2018 11:38:38 AM

May3

Dan Schere

Faith, Hope, and Love...With Autism

04/27/2018 10:53:09 AM

Apr27

HTAA members, Meredith and Chana Altschuler 


​​​​​​​In August 2014, my husband and I pulled our then 14-year-old daughter Chana, who is autistic and non-verbal, out of the school system. We weren’t sure what we were going to do as homeschoolers, but we knew Chana was making absolutely no headway in public school. She even seemed to be...Read more...

Pirate Purim at HTAA

03/08/2018 02:00:25 PM

Mar8

Photo Credit: Adrienne Suson

JOSHUA MURAVCHIK AT HTAA: ATTITUDES TOWARD JEWS ‘INSEPARABLE FROM ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL’

03/08/2018 02:00:07 PM

Mar8

Frank Solomon

At a recent Shabbat lecture in Silver Spring, Maryland, Joshua Muravchik, distinguished fellow at the DC-based World Affairs Institute and adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics, shared his concerns about a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans on...Read more...

European Antisemitism is Still a Threat

03/02/2018 03:40:56 PM

Mar2

Daniel S. Mariaschin

Will the countries of Europe see the need to seize the imperative? Or will the easier path of looking the other way cause Europe to fail its Jews twice within memory?

Daniel S. Mariaschin is the executive vice president and CEO of B’nai B’rith International and past president of HTAA.

The dramatic rise...Read more...

TERRORISM EXPERT SHEDS LIGHT ON US-ISRAEL COLLABORATION

02/08/2018 09:00:07 AM

Feb8

Frank Solomon

Did you know the U.S. government’s first official counterterrorism office was created in response to an attack on Israelis? In fact, many of the components of the U.S. responses to terrorism were prompted by developments affecting Israel.

During his Shabbat morning guest lecture on Jan. 27, Michael Kraft, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. State Department’s counterterrorism office, shared these and many other insights about about...Read more...

HTAA's Kol Ish Shabbaton  is a Rousing Success! 

01/25/2018 12:12:32 PM

Jan25

Adrienne Suson

Sen. Cardin Urges Jews to Speak Up Against Bias and Injustice

12/17/2017 08:10:16 PM

Dec17

Frank Solomon

To help repair the world is in the DNA of Jews, according to U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin.   "Our upbringing and culture teach us to be concerned about the rest of human beings, to help correct the wrong, and to help repair the world," Maryland's senior senator said on Hanukah Shabbat at Har Tzeon Agudath-Achim. "This is our Jewish value. This is in our DNA as a people."   "We must not be afraid of speaking up when we see evil things....Read more...

A World View Shaped from a Small Town Jewish Perspective

12/08/2017 02:11:22 PM

Dec8

Daniel S. Mariaschin, B'nai Brith Executive VP & HTAA Past President

A World View Shaped from a Small Town Jewish Perspective
by Daniel S. Mariaschin, B'nai Brith Executive VP & HTAA Past President

In 1955, just before I entered the first grade, we moved from Englewood, New Jersey, to Swanzey, New...Read more...

A TALE OF TWO COVENANTS

11/16/2017 04:44:58 PM

Nov16

Kami Troy - Kol HaBirah News

Silver Spring historian Professor David Rotenstein was the latest lecturer in Congregation Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim’s adult education series.

Today we think of Silver Spring, Maryland, as a very Jewish area, but this wasn’t always the case. In reality, Jews were banned from living in Silver Spring for decades as a result of restrictive residency covenants and land-use laws explicitly prohibiting the sale of property to specific...Read more...

Congressman Jaime Raskin's visit to HTAA!

10/18/2017 03:12:19 PM

Oct18

Frank Solomon

Mazal Tov to Frank Solomon  for his recent write-up in Kol HaBirah on Congressman Jaime Raskin's visit to HTAA! 

Click Here To Read The Article! 

Read more...

AT HAR TZEON-AGUDATH ACHIM, CONGRESSMAN SHARES INFLUENCE OF HIS JEWISH IDENTITY ON HIS PUBLIC LIFE

09/28/2017 01:35:01 PM

Sep28

Frank Solomon - Kol HaBirah News

Jews may be “People of the Book,” but Congressman Jamie Raskin (D – Md.) believes in putting words into action to help make the world a better place. That was one of the messages the new representative for Maryland’s 8th District had for the packed audience at Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Sept. 23, Shabbat Shuva.

The former American University law professor and veteran Maryland state legislator said...Read more...

THE RIGHTEOUS RAILWAY WORKERS OF LILLE, FRANCE: A LOCAL CONNECTION FROM ROSH HASHANAH, 1942

09/14/2017 01:37:02 PM

Sep14

Ira Brandriss - Kol HaBirah News

My mother, Perla Brandriss, often mentioned to us as children that it was Erev Rosh Hashanah, 1942, that the Nazis came to take her parents. They and their two youngest children were rounded up and taken to the railway station in their home town of Lille, France, together with many of the city’s other Polish Jews, to be sent to their deaths at Auschwitz.

Erev Rosh Hashanah that year fell on September 11, the date on which, 59 years...Read more...

The Untold Story of the Jewish Effort to Pass the G.I. Bill.  By our newest congregant,  Anna Selman

07/15/2017 01:00:33 AM

Jul15

On June 22nd, we celebrated the anniversary of the G.I. Bill, a historic act that was the first major piece of legislation dealing with the postwar era challenges to come.  With veterans coming home to already fully staffed factories, the G.I. Bill, officially known as the Service Member Readjustment Act of 1944, helped stop another recession by providing education and housing opportunities to...Read more...

A White Shabbos!

01/22/2016 01:28:33 PM

Jan22

From Carmi Kobren & Abbé Levin

01/08/2016 12:49:39 PM

Jan8

  A message from our congregants, Carmi Kobren & Abbé Levin

This story begins while I was siting in Shul during Shmeni Atzeret of this year.  The congregation was getting ready to begin Yizkor.  I was sitting with my parents thinking about my brother Ami.  Abbé was there to say Kaddish for, among others, her brother...Read more...

A Message From Cantor Ben Bazian

12/29/2015 09:19:55 AM

Dec29

Dear Friends,   As Eva and I are in the final preparations for the wedding of our son and future daughter, Sam & Jessica, this weekend, I was tasked to prepare a D’var Torah for the Shabbat meals.  How wonderful that I have a son who made it so easy for me to connect the this week's torah reading with our Simcha.   Parashat Vayechi culminates the story of our Patriarchs with the passing of...Read more...

Shana Tova 5776

09/11/2015 01:10:16 PM

Sep11

Will we ever see justice in the AMIA bombing case? by Dan Mariaschin

07/21/2015 10:35:35 AM

Jul21

Did the best chance for justice in the AMIA bombing case die with Alberto Nisman?

 

Read more...

Mon, March 18 2024 8 Adar II 5784