Blog

In November 2006, I set out with a pack on my back to walk the Land. I knew that before I enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, I wanted a more intimate relationship with the country that I had made my home.

Hope is hard to find these days, yet we need it now more than ever. Hope can spring from the most desperate places - like a daisy between sidewalk cracks or even from a site like the Twin Towers in New York City, destroyed on September 11, 2001.

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is back with its fifth and final season, promising to finally bring everyone's favorite Jewish comedian from the back room of The Gas Light Cafe all the way into America's hearts and living rooms.

While many are acquainted with the "fathers" of modern Zionism (Theodore Herzl, Leon Pinsker, David Ben Gurion, and others) early women Zionists have been largely overlooked. Their contributions to Zionism and Jewish kibbutzim were vital to establishing the state of Israel. It's time that their work was celebrated and recognized.

These Haikus focus on weekly Torah portions.

Here are some ways you and your community can support Israeli democracy and the Israeli Reform Movement during this critical moment.

When Aly Silverberg (she/her) started a Jewish meme account on Instagram, she never expected it to go viral - or for it to have such a big impact on her life and career. She certainly never expected it to reach tens of thousands of other Jews!

Living most of my life in a hearing world – as a not-fully hearing person – has been my “normal” living experience. I don’t know any other way of being. I suspect there is a different way of living because everyone around me tells me so – they imagine that my life must be so hard, how I must cope (what are my choices??). At one point, I tried to connect to the Deaf community. Between not being fluent in American Sign Language and being able to live in the hearing world, I didn’t feel welcome – although I learned a lot about myself as a less-than-fully-hearing person in a hearing world. A few years ago, when I went from hard of hearing to deaf, I decided that I would be just that, “deaf” without the capital “D”. I am now a deaf person living in a hearing world (as opposed to a Deaf person with connections to the Deaf community).

Last year was my first time celebrating Passover and one of the first times I sang with the congregational choir. One of the songs we performed for the seder was "Dayenu." The choir director explained during practice that in Hebrew, "dayenu" means "enough." I loved the melody of the song and found myself humming the tune as I prepared for Passover.