Annette Powers

Annette Powers is the former communications and public relations manager at the Union for Reform Judaism. 

Mother and daughter looking out over a marsh while on a hike
Hanukkah

8 Experiential Hanukkah Gifts to Teach Kids About Jewish Values

Annette Powers
They're everywhere these days: ads for toys show up on TV, in shop windows, and throughout your Facebook newsfeed. When you're a parent to kids who have been mentally compiling their Hanukkah wish lists since autumn began, it can be difficult not to get swept up in the consumerism that often accompanies the holiday season.
Purim

Using the Purim Schpiel to Explore Jewish Identity

Annette Powers
Luba Proger and Leonid Khanin are a husband-and-wife team who investigate Jewish identity through art. One of their recent projects, is a very non-traditional staging of the traditional Purim schpiel, or story, which celebrates the salvation of the Jews in ancient Persia thanks to the cleverness of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai, who prevailed over the evil Haman, who planned to annihilate the Jews.
mom blessing Shabbat candles while son looks on
Ten Minutes of Torah

Shabbat and the Blessing of Family

Annette Powers

As a teenager in Flint, MI, most of my peers spent their Friday evenings at the movies with friends or at high school football games. When I told my friends why I couldn't join them, they were flabbergasted. "Can't you just stay for dinner and then meet us
Hanukkah

Hanukkah & Christmas: Can We Celebrate Both?

Annette Powers

For parents of different faiths, December often brings holiday challenges. For divorced parents with joint custody, these challenges can be amplified.

Before we married, my ex-husband and I decided we would have a Jewish home. He grew up in a secular family
Hanukkah

Oy Tannenbaum!

Annette Powers

It was over brunch on our fourth date when I told him, "This can't go anywhere...I’m Jewish and you’re not." After years of Jewish camp, Hebrew school and lectures from my parents, I was fairly certain that the eleventh commandment was “Thou shalt meet a nice