On Friday, Aug. 6, volunteers Jerry Kritz and Paula Goldberg pack boxes of food for delivery to those in need. /Source: Nancy KirschPROVIDENCE – Matzah on the menu, all year round? That, along with kasha, borscht and gefilte fish, would elicit a hearty “da, da (“yes, yes”) from the Russian clients of The Louis and Goldie Chester Full Plate Kosher Food Pantry (“Chester Full Plate”). Offer peanut butter and “nyet, nyet” (“no, no”) might be the polite response.
We’ve learned about cultural food preferences (elderly Russians don’t eat peanut butter), said Jerry Kritz, the Chester Full Plate’s advisory committee chair and twice a week volunteer.

“We are going to do a three-week mission to Israel… in five days,” said Susan Leach DeBlasio, Women’s Alliance campaign chair and a board member of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island (JFRI). On July 18, 10 participants in JFRI’s Chazon Mission embarked on just such a challenge.
Upon landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, the group set off to Independence Hall, the house where David Ben-Gurion declared the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 against the wishes of many foreign governments and against nearly insurmountable odds.

Justin “Jay” Strauss Source: John TavaresSEEKONK – The Holocaust Education and Resource Center’s  (HERC) “In the Bag” fundraiser luncheon held July 26 at the Ledgemont Country Club was not a brown bag event, although some lucky silent auction winners among the 120 attendees picked up designer purses for cheap-chic prices.
From flap, saddle, to travel and gilt evening bags by Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada Pattina, Judith Lieber, Marc Jacobs and more, the silent auction items retail from $250 to $500 and up.

NEW YORK (New York Jewish Week) – The painting of a swastika – the dark, ubiquitous signature of hateful vandals everywhere – will no longer be automatically considered an act of anti-Semitism under new guidelines for recording attacks against Jews announced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The most prominent Jewish defense agency in the country, perhaps the world, announced July 27 that it has revamped its guidelines for recording anti-Semitic incidents in its annual survey for the first time in 30 years, taking a more conservative approach.