Michele Chabin
Michele Chabin is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Michele Chabin
Children of Holocaust survivors more anxious about Iran nuclear threat
By Michele Chabin — April 14, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Second-generation survivors “exhibit greater preoccupation with the Iranian nuclear threat” than others in their peer group.
Just in time for Passover, Israelis go nuts for Ben & Jerry’s haroset-flavored ice cream
By Michele Chabin — April 2, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Introduced at Israeli Ben & Jerry's shops and a handful of small stores less than a month ago, the limited-edition flavor has been flying off the shelves.
Brooklyn hot-plate fire leads Orthodox Jews to re-evaluate Sabbath safety
By Michele Chabin — March 23, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Many Jews acknowledged they leave home while their Sabbath candles are burning and their hot plates are on.
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate loses right to ban Christmas trees in Israeli hotels
By Michele Chabin — March 9, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Israel's Chief Rabbinate has backed down on its long-standing prohibition against placing Christmas trees in the country's hotels, as well as other rules related to the Jewish Sabbath and holidays. The Chief Rabbinate's new regulations, announced on Thursday (March 5), came in response to a petition from Hiddush _ Freedom of Religion […]
Israeli hotels no longer banned from mounting Christmas trees
By Michele Chabin — March 9, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Formerly hotels that included “references to gentile holidays” could lose their kosher food licenses.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox women make uphill battle for parliament
By Michele Chabin — March 3, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) The fact that women in the Haredi sect are running at all is historic and radical for a community where politics -- and decision-making -- are traditionally left to the menfolk.
Jewish extremists suspected of torching mosque near Bethlehem
By Michele Chabin — February 25, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Wednesday's attack occurred on the 21st anniversary of the shooting spree by Baruch Goldstein that left 29 Muslim worshippers dead.
Saved from the German ‘death march,’ he returned to thank his Polish rescuer
By Michele Chabin — January 30, 2015
(RNS) On Jan. 18, 1945, during the final stages of the war, Shalom Lindenbaum and his father were among 1,500 surviving prisoners sent on a death march into the forest, starving and freezing.
Auschwitz survivor: Being alive is best ‘revenge’
By Michele Chabin — January 26, 2015
TEL AVIV (RNS) On Tuesday (Jan. 26) — Holocaust Remembrance Day — Renee Ganz will return to Auschwitz-Birkenau the for the first time, along with nearly 100 other Auschwitz survivors from 19 countries.
Four Jewish victims of Paris market attack buried in Jerusalem
By Michele Chabin — January 13, 2015
(RNS) The families of the four men, who were not Israeli citizens, asked that they be buried in Israel rather than France.
Jesus may have been tried here: Archaeologists uncover Herod’s palace
By Michele Chabin — January 5, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Discovered under an abandoned prison building that is part of the Tower of David Museum grounds, the trial site is one piece of a vast excavation undertaken by archaeologists from 1999 to 2000 but sealed off for the past 14 years.
Believers pray to ‘Our Lady of the Milk’ in this ancient Bethlehem spot where Mary nursed Jesus
By Michele Chabin — December 19, 2014
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (RNS) “We estimate that in the past dozen years at least 3,000 babies have been born to mothers who prayed in the grotto,” said the Franciscan brother who guards it.
Sarah Silverman attends Western Wall Hanukkah menorah lighting in support of women’s rights
By Michele Chabin — December 18, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) For decades, the site’s sole menorah has been lit on the men’s side of the wall, a fact that has angered Israeli and American women’s rights activists.
Two Israeli burial societies agree not to segregate men and women at funerals
By Michele Chabin — December 10, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) Until now, the burial societies in Israel have ignored 2013 directives from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the attorney general banning gender segregation in cemeteries.
Four killed in Jerusalem synagogue terror attack
By Michele Chabin — November 18, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) The incident was the latest violent event in the tense city where relations between Arabs and Jews have been deteriorating for months over a contested shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims.
