It had been perfectly planned. For my brother\’s bar mitzvah reception, each member of our family was responsible for sitting with and entertaining a particular constituency.
President Bush hugged a cantor, listened to an Orthodox high school choir, walked with an addict-turned-rabbi and heard success stories of the Jewish-based Beit T\’Shuvah addiction treatment center during his March 3 Southern California visit.
\”Purim is bizarre,\” said comedian Joel Chasnoff. Or at least the customs are a little weird. Consider the way Jews celebrate the demise of Haman, the bad guy: \”We eat him,\” Chasnoff said. \”Actually we eat a pastry that\’s named after his ears, and the natural implication is that the filling inside is some sort of fruity earwax.\”
After a year\’s sabbatical in Boston, my family (a husband who is a Conservative pulpit rabbi, myself, and our three children aged 6, 11 and 14) returned to our home in Victoria, British Columbia. The sabbatical year had a profound experience on us — one that we had not anticipated. We decided that after 16 years living in a small Jewish community, where we found ourselves stretching in ways we never intended, where open-mindedness and adaptability were the ultimate virtues, and teaching religious parameters and structure to our children was viewed as parochial, it was time to move to a larger and more engaging Jewish community.
A mentor to many, Jerry Ringerman left his handprint on California\’s education, music, camping, environment and Jewish life.
The Israel programs aim to imbue students with the knowledge and emotion only first-hand experience in Israel can provide, organizers said. The goal is for students to return to campus with personal stories and new energy to help them promote Israel effectively and get others involved in the cause.
The Friendship Circle and its Friends at Home program pairs local teenagers with families of special-needs kids in order to provide a social outlet for disabled children and support for their often over-extended parents.
In the back of the Alte-Neue Synagogue, a rope ladder hangs from a small aperture in the attic. I shimmy up the spiked metal fence, stand atop it and fling myself across a 5-foot space to grab the ladder. Fifteen steps and I am at the window. The opening is too small for me to climb inside. But I can see inside perfectly. And that\’s when I see it. Him.
The Jewish Journal: Are you The Golem of Prague?
When the Nazis forced artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis into Terezin, she smuggled in art supplies and taught the concentration camp\’s children to express themselves through art.
Jordan Cinnamon, 15, has been crazy about the ocean since he was a little kid, so when it came to choosing a way to spend the summer, the idea of going to a regular sports camps didn\’t appeal to him.
