Ben Harris

Rabbi Harold Kushner gives an interview aired November 26, 2004. (PBS screen grab used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

April 29, 2023, 12:54 pm

Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good People,’ dies at 88

Influential congregational leader wrote bestselling theological guide after his son was diagnosed with fatal premature aging condition progeria

By Ben Harris and PHILISSA CRAMER

Covers of the 72-year-old Jewish Currents magazine. (JTA collage)

December 24, 2021, 1:44 am

Leftist US Jewish magazine apologizes for running Israel fellowship ad

Jewish Currents says paid spot for Dorot Fellowship leadership training program ‘not in line with values’ to report on Israeli rights abuses, mocked for stance

By Ben Harris

Illustrative image of a brit mila in Jerusalem, December 12 , 2011. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

October 11, 2021, 4:10 am

New US Jewish group aims to normalize not circumcising, wants synagogues to help

Bruchim says it is giving a voice to those who seek other ways to join the Jewish covenant; retorts a Conservative rabbi: Brit milah ‘is about as basic to Judaism as you can get’

By Ben Harris

Images of Andres Levine, Ilan Naibryf and Deborah Berezdivin, three of the Jewish victims of the Surfside building collapse, in center among other photographs of those missing posted at a makeshift memorial on the building site in Surfside, Fla., June 26, 2021. (Andrea Sarcos/AFP)

July 2, 2021, 4:58 am

These are the Jewish victims of the Surfside building collapse

Among those confirmed killed or missing are several members of the area’s vibrant Jewish community, including newlyweds, grandparents and multi-generational families

By Ben Harris and Shira Hanau

Rabbi Stephen Slater at the entrance of Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, Alabama. (Kim Eriksson/ via JTA)

May 31, 2021, 4:40 am

Rabbi Stephen Slater credits his Baptist missionary parents for his spirituality

While he’s not the only Jew by choice serving as a pulpit rabbi, he’s the only one whose parents spent decades bringing Jesus to the Ivory Coast — and his devotion reflects it

By Ben Harris

Alex Kohanski began using gender-neutral pronouns on their first day of the Adamah Jewish farming fellowship. (Courtesy of Kohanski)/ via JTA

February 27, 2021, 3:07 am

Transgender Jews in the US find a safe haven in an unexpected place: The farm

17-year-old Jewish farm fellowship Adamah says since its inception at least 10% of participants have changed pronouns over the course of the program

By Ben Harris

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, Hasidic rabbi and psychiatrist specializing in substance abuse, June 19, 1990, (Steve Christo/ Fairfax Media via Getty Images/ JTA)

January 31, 2021, 11:16 pm

Abraham Twerski, renowned Hasidic rabbi and psychiatrist, dies at 90 of COVID

Prolific author, noted Judaic scholar and recognized authority on substance abuse succumbs to virus in Israel

By Shira Hanau and Ben Harris

Raphael Gribetz at his home in Presque Isle, Maine. (Janine Strong/ via JTA)

January 25, 2021, 3:42 am

A suffering formerly Orthodox artist spreads a Jewish spark in northern Maine

Since 1985, New York native Raphael Gribetz has brought art, music, and religion to Presque Isle, a small town bordering Canada. But, he says, his troubles continue to follow him

By Ben Harris

Rick Doblin is a leading advocate for the use of MDMA in psychotherapy. A clinical trial he championed produced favorable results this year. (Ben Harris/ illustration by Grace Yagel/ JTA)

November 29, 2020, 6:05 am

Jewish psychedelics reformer Rick Doblin wants to see therapeutic MDMA legalized

Head of nonprofit psychedelics research center MAPS celebrates phase 3 trial results showing Ecstasy can treat PTSD; says tripping was better rite of passage than his bar mitzvah

By Ben Harris

Rabbi Art Green's forthcoming book is a translation of Torah discourses from the 18th-century Hasidic master Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl. (Hebrew College/ via JTA)

November 22, 2020, 6:10 am

Rabbi Art Green says the Hasidism that lasts finds sparks of holiness everywhere

At 79, the scholar focuses on his legacy, loving one’s neighbor, and his forthcoming translation of 18th-century ‘Light of the Eyes,’ to cap a busy decade of making meaning

By Ben Harris

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks speaks at a press conference announcing his winning of the 2016 Templeton Prize, in London, March 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

October 16, 2020, 3:53 am

Former UK chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks says he is being treated for cancer

Prominent Jewish spiritual leader and author says he is receiving treatment from ‘excellent medical team’; he has been treated for cancer twice before

By Ben Harris

October 1, 2020, 11:17 am

Tech firm blamed for Yom Kippur outage that left homebound US worshipers in dark

Shul Cloud, the biggest name in online Jewish worship, admits mistakes after system failed to deliver online prayer services for synagogues on ‘biggest day of year’

By Ben Harris

Artist, Marilee Asher Shapiro, in her home on November 11, 2015. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via JTA)

September 30, 2020, 11:24 pm

Marilee Shapiro Asher, artist who survived pandemics century apart, dies at 107

Sculptor made national headlines in May after surviving COVID-19, despite doctors telling family she had hours to live; over century earlier, she recovered from 1918 Spanish flu

By Ben Harris

Flowers and notes are left outside of the US Supreme Court to mourn the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, September 21, 2020. (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/ via JTA)

September 22, 2020, 2:52 pm

Does RBG’s Rosh Hashanah death really make her a ‘tzadik’?

Viral tweet by NPR reporter Nina Totenberg hours after beloved Justice’s death Friday claims ‘God held her back until the last moment.’ But does this runaway idea have Jewish legs?

By Ben Harris

Mitch Tarica is Zoom's director of North American sales. (Courtesy of Tarica via JTA)

September 18, 2020, 11:25 pm

How a single Zoom employee saved High Holidays streaming for 300 US synagogues

According to Conservative rabbinic ruling, Zoom channel for services must last full 2 days of the holiday without being turned on again; the challenge was finding a way to do it

By Ben Harris