Rather than waiting for her son to express himself verbally, Rabbi Debra Orenstein, like many Southland parents, decided to enhance Emmet\’s language skills by taking baby sign-language classes. Teaching sign-language to preverbal hearing babies is one of the fastest-growing parenting trends in North America.
Lisa Kapler remembers the day her high school boyfriend deliberately bit her cheek until it bled.
After landing the lead in several school plays at Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, Leora Weinstock, 13, decided she wanted to be a professional actress.
Rose Engel practiced her Torah and haftorah portions with an eager diligence. She studied with the rabbi and prepared an essay. Her passion and excitement matched that of most of the synagogue\’s bat mitzvah candidates, but at 87, she is far from their peers.
Engel is the most senior member of the 31 women who became b\’not mitzvah on June 13 at Adat Ari El in Valley Village.
Cecelie Wizenfeld is not alone in her efforts to find memorable ways of helping children connect with the holiday. While model seders, seder plate illustrations and handmade afikomen bags have become standard educational fare in the classroom, many Southland religious and day school teachers are finding that creative and unusual holiday projects make more of an impact.
Shlepping around with swollen feet, a growing belly and mounting exhaustion is a challenge for any mom-to-be, but Beth Saltz is determined to go to Shabbat services as often as she can for the rest of her pregnancy.
\”I feel I need to do it now before the baby is born,\” said Saltz, a Woodland Hills resident who is five and a half months pregnant with her first child. \”Sometimes parents don\’t work on their own spirituality and beliefs until the child is older, but I think it\’s important to do it now.\”
At this turning point in her life, Saltz views Judaism as more important than ever — and she\’s not alone.
Teva Adventure offers a variety of wilderness programs enabling Jewish travelers to develop outdoor skills while keeping Shabbat and kashrut. While backpacking, hiking, mountain climbing and fishing, participants learn Jewish perspectives on the outdoor world. Programs for 14- to 19-year-olds include Rocky Mountain Teen Adventure and Derech Hateva in Israel.
Five days a week during this holiday period, Jodi Braverman sits in a room that conjures up images of the North Pole. The walls are covered with pictures of jolly old St. Nick, and not one, but two miniature Christmas trees serve as obstacles to the seating area. From time to time, Yuletide carols serve as background music.
It was the first day of preschool and 2-year-old Jessica didn\’t know any of other children in her new class at B\’nai Tikvah Congregation Nursery School. But the child\’s anxiety paled in comparison that of her mother.
Ah, the High Holidays. The mere words conjure up memories of long services, uncomfortable clothing, endless Hebrew passages, Mom and Dad dozing off, semi-fasting against my will, and, most of all, not quite taking in what the holidays were all about. What can I say? I was a kid.
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