Jewish culture

At sundown yesterday it was once again the start of the New Year. The sun dawn marked the beginning of the one-day festival of Tu BiShvat, otherwise known as the New Year of Trees, one of the four Jewish celebrations that are considered as the New Year. Four New Years in a single year, now that really sounds confusing!

Turkey's Jewish citizens have lit the menorah during the first public celebration of Hanukkah in the republic's history, which was held in Istanbul's Ortaköy district with the attendance of state officials. 

Judith must be the heroine figure in Judaism; she surely has her legacy on Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights.

By Eurogroup Head J. Dijsselbloem

Good evening and welcome to the Eurogroup press conference.

An Israeli soldier who was jailed earlier this week for eating a non-kosher sandwich has been freed after the army agreed to release him following a wave of public pressure.
 
The soldier, who recently immigrated to Israel from America, was initially jailed for 11 days after eating a sandwich containing pork, which is forbidden by Jewish dietary law, public radio reported.

A U.S.-born Israeli soldier is deep in the mud after pigging out during training.

The military sentenced the soldier to 11 days in prison for eating a pork sandwich during a break in his commander's course. The punishment was replaced with confinement to base after relatives made a stink in the media, and a lawmaker wrote the defense minister on his behalf.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said May 2 that Israel had learned of "concrete threats" of terror attacks against Jewish or Israeli targets in Tunisia.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias is meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington D.C. on Monday at 1.45 p.m. (local time).

Following the meeting, Kotzias will brief Greek correspondents.

At 5 p.m., Kotzias will meet at the Greek Embassy in Washington, D.C., with representatives of the Jewish American organizations AIPAC and B'nai B'rith.

Rita Wilson penned this article several years ago and immediately went viral among the Greek community from around the world. The passage talks about Wilson's Greek heritage that she often refers to. In fact, she's even managed to turn actor Tom Hanks into a full-blooded Greek.

"Nisan" is the word for the month of April in the Turkish language, which is the equivalent of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. The word has its roots in old Babylonian Assyrian Aramaic language, which is an ancestor of both Arabic and Hebrew. April is about renewal, about the new tastes of the spring, be it eggs or milk, or greens or lamb; it is all about what spring stands for.