Community News Feature
Story and Photos by Paul Ross One of THE big questions — right up there after “What is the Meaning of Life?”— is “Is There Life After Death?” Most religions have answers but seances try to put you in touch with the only ones who really know: the dead. And now
Awards
The New Mexico Jewish Journal has won two awards in the 2026 NMPA Foundation Better Newspaper Contest, the statewide competition of the New Mexico Press Association, which has served New Mexico newspapers since 1900. This was the first year NMJJ joined NMPA and entered the contest. As a digital-only
Bible
By Judith Fein “Oh Jonah he lived in a whale. He made his home in that fish’s abdomen,” sings Spo’tin’ Life in the song “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy & Bess.” In familiar adaptations of the Pinocchio story, the wooden puppet and
Jewish Values
By Rabbi Min Kantrowitz - Jewish Values #9: Talmud Torah Each edition of NMJJ highlights one of the many Jewish values that guide our lives. Each of these values underlies our Jewish community, regardless of any individuals’ religious observances or practices. These values form the ethical structure of the community. They
Community News Feature
By Carina Julig This article was originally published in the Santa Fe New Mexican on September 12, 2026, and is republished here with permission. The folks who established Santa Fe’s first Jewish temple might be called pragmatists: The modest synagogue they built on East Barcelona Road in 1956 was
Oped
By Merilee Dannemann General election season is now in full swing, and without doubt the hottest contest in New Mexico this year is the race for Congressional District 2 between Democratic incumbent Gabe Vasquez and businessman Greg Cunningham. While only voters in that district can vote for that member of
Law
by Aidan McGloin "This day 476 years ago: Early Copyright Case Decided by Rabbi" This article was originally published in the Inland Empire Law Weekly, August 16, 2026, and is republished here with permission. 💡Editor's Note: At the LION (Local Independent Online News) publishers conference in
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We have five new stories for you: * What the Story of Jonah Reveals, by Judith Fein * "Let your learning be sweet," a teaching from Rabbi Min Kantrowitz * What the Ancient Romans can teach us about Elections, by Merilee Dannemann * How the Talmud shaped copyright law, by Aidan McGloin
Cartwheeling freely across this issue are a sculptor, dancers, singers and rabbis defying the darkening skies as fall and the New Year approach. Read in "The Jewish Side of Flamenco and How to See It" by Paul Ross how Jewish, Romani and Muslim defiance in the face of
Story & Photos by Paul Ross In Mel Brooks’ remake of legendary director Ernst Lubitsch’s classic WWII dark comedy “To Be Or Not To Be,” a struggling Polish theatrical company learns that their Nazi occupier’s latest ban prohibits “Jews, Gypsies, and Homosexuals” from the theater. Upon hearing this,
Photos by Gay Block and Diane Joy Schmidt This year’s 2026 community gathering to remember was held on Sunday, August 30th, at 1:30 PM in the Jewish section of Memorial Gardens Cemetery, 417 Rodeo Road, Santa Fe. "In the Jewish tradition, securing a place for burial is
Story and Photos by Ruth E. Thaler-Carter 💡Buchalter will be showing his sculptures at “Jewish Life in NM through the Arts” in Santa Fe at the NM Jewish Historical Society Fall Conference, Oct. 25th. Many people with stellar professional careers also have a creative side that provides deep satisfaction.
Noteworthy is an occasional short, editor-curated selection of events: a quick trip around the world and the block. – DJS * A column I wish I'd written, in the Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026 Forward: "Why is JD Vance talking about the Antichrist?" by Mira Fox, traces how
After more than fifty years in music, pianist, composer, and playwright Richard Atkins is set to fulfill a lifelong dream: a solo debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in New York City on Saturday, October 24, at 8:00 p.m. Atkins, a New Mexico-based pianist,
This fall, the Yiddish Book Center is inviting writers and readers to explore what makes a life worth putting into words. Its new online course, “Memoir Writing Then and Now: Reading and Writing with Rokhl Feygenberg’s The Winding Road,” pairs close reading of translated Yiddish literature with hands-on
Don't forget: the Remembrance event at the Santa Fe Cemetery is this Sunday, August 30th at 1:30. Also read Doris Francis' reflections on how this Jewish cemetery came into being, Of and for the Whole Community. With six new stories in this issue, Rabbi Brin shares
By Rabbi Deborah J. Brin Many of us visit the graves of family members, friends or teachers during the High Holy Day season. We do this to remember and honor those who came before us, to contemplate our own mortality and prepare for the season of change and t’shuvah/
By Judith Fein with Alex Denisenko When I grew up, I was mesmerized by my “foreign” grandmother. She had gray hair, sometimes wore nylon stockings that she rolled up at the top, had an accent, read a newspaper in Yiddish, and, like many other immigrants, never wanted to talk about
By Corinne Joy Brown Antitherapies, by Jacques Fux (University of New Mexico Press), winner of Brazil's prestigious São Paulo Prize, is one of those books you might have never discovered on your own. But once begun, you find yourself hooked, grateful you didn’t miss it. Composed of