With any luck, Daniel will be spending Rosh Hashanah on the outside. It\’s likely he\’ll soon be making the transition from jail to the recovery program at Beit T\’Shuva, a nonprofit that works with at-risk youth.
This was by far the most spiritual moment in my life. I gazed up at the stars as I chanted the V\’Ahavta prayer with amazing new friends, standing around the same rocks that our people had wandered past thousands of years before. My eyes couldn\’t help but tear up as we moved on to the Mi Chamocha, the song of freedom. At that moment I felt as though God truly was with us.
Jewish adventure enthusiasts not only make an effort to do the hobbies they love with other Jews, but they do so looking for religious or spiritual meaning. By combining their dual interests, this growing cadre of adrenaline seekers is building a new definition of what it means to do — or be — Jewish.
A couple of years ago, I heard about an oral history project for older gay men and women that resulted in a staged play. I didn\’t see it, but when Bob Baker, the adapter-director, sent out the call for a new cast, I signed up. We listened to each other\’s stories, wrote up the most telling ones and turned remembered conversations into dialogue. After nine months, out came a play.
Amos Oz has explored the subject in novels. Amos Elon has penned essays about it. Politicians as varied as Abba Eban, Mahmoud Abbas, Bill Clinton and even Ariel Sharon have tried to solve it. So, what can a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate add to the long and storied history of the region with the world\’s most intractable political problem? Plenty of inspiration, if we are to judge by Jennifer Miller\’s new book, \”Inheriting the Holy Land.\”
Parents don\’t understand why 300 young Jews packed the Long Beach Alpert JCC for the Jewlicious sequel on Feb. 17. We came for food and song, complete with banging on the tables and exuberant dancing wherever there was room. At the Sunday night concert, \”Jewbilation,\” you could see the look of shock on the older generation\’s faces as we jammed to Hebrew heavy-metal songs by the Maccabees. This was not your mom\’s \”Oseh Shalom.\”
DREAM is an acronym for Developing diverse, Respectful relationships, Empathy and Action with Meaning through dialogue. The program is a youth leadership project of the ADL\’s World of Difference Institute, run by the ADL\’s West Coast office.
Having never been to a Jewish prayer service before, the non-Jewish students wanted to see what it was like. The tradition fascinated many, and everyone could relate to the singing and dancing.
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