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hebrew

Education Israel as a Core Requirement?

My daughter flew home for Thanksgiving with two college friends in tow. At the dinner table, the conversation revolved around computers and the antics of the Stanford Band. At some point in the course of that whirlwind four-day visit, Hilary informed me that, though she\’s been diligently studying Hebrew since she started college, a Junior Year Abroad at Hebrew University is no longer part of her plans. It\’s not that she\’s changed her mind about someday returning to Israel, where she spent an amazing summer two years ago. But she\’s convinced that, given the stringent requirements of the high-tech major she seems to have settled on, even a semester in Jerusalem would derail her progress toward her degree.

Power, Politics And People

New York publishing executive Steven Baum is a lifelong Conservative Jew who recently joined a Reform temple, and he\’s not happy about it. \”There\’s hardly any Hebrew,\” he says. \”They don\’t wear yarmulkes. It\’s just not the Judaism I grew up with.\”

David De’or and Shlomo Bar

De\’or and Bar offer more than just technical mastery of their musical genres. Their performances evoke a sense of prayer, soul and expression that stir the heart.

Sinai Temple Opens Center for Judaic Studies

With a faculty of noted scholars, Sinai Temple has adapted an \”adult education\” program with an eclectic curriculum that is carefully designed to satisfy a wide range of interests, from serious courses in Jewish spirituality, and discussions of the Jew\’s role in Society to special classes in Jewish rituals, and interactive sessions for improving synagogue skills, Hebrew reading and lessons in cantillation. Two seminars are scheduled: from October through January and February through May.\n

Accepting Judaism as a Privilege

One Sunday morning, many years ago, as parents came to pick up their kids from the Hebrew school where I taught, I overheard a conversation. \”How was class?\” A father asked his son.The child began to whine. \”I hate Hebrew school,\” he said. \”It\’s boring and stupid, the teachers are mean, and the kids aren\’t nice. I don\’t want to go any more.\” The father stopped, turned to the kid,and said: \”Listen, when I was your age, I went to Hebrew school and I hated it. It was boring, the teachers were mean, the kids weren\’t nice, but they made me go, and, now, you\’re going to go too!\”

What a tragedy.

Lifting the Language Barrier

Action by the Commission on International and Transregional Accreditation, commonly known as CITA, marks the first time that any Jewish supplementary school in the United States has been given CITA\’s seal of approval.

Chabad’s Shofar Factory…It’s a Blast

Quick, what\’s a kosher animal with horns that can be used to makea shofar?\n\nUh, well, everyone knows the answer to that. A ram, right?\n\nOK. Right. But name another kosher animal with horns good formaking a shofar.\n\nBzzzzzz! Your time is up.\n\nBut the several thousand Los Angeles-area day- and Hebrew-schoolchildren participating in Chabad\’s Traveling Shofar Factory know theanswer: The long, spiraling horns of the male kudu, a type of Africanantelope, are often used to make the shofarim employed in Sephardicsynagogues.

Happy Anniversary

My 25th wedding anniversary iscoming up fast. Wish me luck.

Cops and Chassids

Rachmiel Steinberg is a \”Bostoner\” Chassid, but, he quips, he is also the Los Angeles Police Department\’s \”show-and-tell rabbi.\” That\’s because the Yavneh Hebrew Academy teacher has taken on some unusual students lately: officers of the LAPD\’s Wilshire Division.

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Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.