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Rosh HaShanah: History
In ancient times, there were four different New Years on the Jewish calendar. Each had a distinct significance.
Rosh HaShanah Customs, Symbols, and Traditions
There are many customs and traditions associated with Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, a time of prayer, self-reflection and repentance.
Rosh HaShanah Resources for Parents – Intentional Modeling
Following the strategy of intentional modeling, in thinking about what you will do for your kids at Rosh HaShanah this year, first think about what you want to do for YOU! It’s a stretch, I know, but if it makes you feel better it is ultimately a great thing to do for your kids.
Preparing for the Days of Awe
During the year I spent studying in Jerusalem as a rabbinic student, it was impossible to escape the upcoming High Holy Days.
Social Action Guide for the High Holidays
The High Holidays are a time of personal reflection and repentance and an opportunity to reaffirm the Jewish tradition’s longstanding commitment to tikkun olam (repair of the world).
Cinnamon Apple Stuffed Challah
For a sweet Rosh HaShanah, this variation on traditional challah adds apples to the dough just before braiding.
Stop Cuts to Family Planning
The past few weeks have brought mixed news in the realm of sexuality education. At the end of June, we wrote about a House sub-committee vote to eliminate programs proven to reduce teen and unplanned pregnancy, reduce abortion and save tax dollars in Fiscal Year 2016.
Since then, a Senate sub-committee voted to advance similar cuts, proposing a budget that would significantly cut funding for the evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP) and for Title X family planning centers, while increasing funding for abstinence-only until marriage programs by 300 percent. By gutting funding to family planning services for low-income individuals and undermining evidence-based programs like TPPP, these appropriations bills would leave millions of Americans without information and services to keep themselves safe and healthy.
Coming Full Circle: The NFTY in Israel Tikkun Olam Experience
by Sharon Mann
The phrase “what goes around, comes around” came to mind recently as I remembered back five years to the time I saw my daughter, Ayelet, off on a flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto, Canada. She was headed to URJ Camp George, a Reform Jewish summer camp where she would spend the summer as a camper, part of an Israeli youth delegation from the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism.
Now, she’s graduated from Mechinat Gal’s Pre-Army Academy, a post-high school Israeli gap year program that emphasizes volunteer work, leadership training, and enrichment studies. As a staff member at The Hannaton Educational Center, she’s come full circle, welcoming North American teens from NFTY in Israel to her home, eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel). At Hannaton, the teenagers participate in a tikkun olam chavaya (repairing the world experience) that includes hands-on volunteer work as they learn to make a positive contribution to Israel and the world.
These Days of Awe
It's the children, at first, that inspire awe, the infants now walking, the toddlers talking, the grade schoolers freshly combed and pressed, the high schoolers immense, the college students all but unrecognizable in their newfound sophistication. The brief span of twelve months has metamorphosed them all.
Teiglach
Three weeks prior to Rosh HaShanah, all the New York Jewish bakeries put up signs urging customers to place their teiglach orders, though most American Jews outside of New York are not familiar with this great desse