How I Try to Create Jewish Memories for my Grandkids
What are your earliest memories of “doing Jewish”? I have a smattering of recollections from when I was 5, 6, and 7, though not much before that. Even from those years, I can only call up bits and pieces: moments, vignettes, colors, flavors.
Selichot: Returning to God and to Each Other
I have always loved the High Holidays. Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are amongst my favorite times of the year, ritually and emotionally.
Shabbat and the Blessing of Family
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.
How Will You Reflect on This Year?
The 10 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are a time for sincere reflection.
Jewish Summer Camp: Where Friends Become Family
In 1975, I was a little girl coming to URJ Camp Harlam,a Jewish sleepaway camp, following in my cousin’s footsteps. I hung on to her for dear life every time we passed each other in camp. Slowly I began to develop friendships with the girls in my bunk, loosening my tight grip on my cousin.
Overview of the Yom Kippur Liturgy
Yom Kippur is the holiest and most solemn day of the Jewish year. On it is played out the great human drama of reckoning and accountability, making amends for past errors and misdeeds, and – ultimately – forgiveness and reconciliation.
Two-Fold High Holiday Prep: Our Congregations and Ourselves
As congregational leaders, you may find that the month of Elul and the High Holidays fly by in a whirl of logistical details – arranging for tickets, ensuring enough chairs, assigning aliyot, planning the community’s break-the-fast – necessary to ensure meaningful worship for members and visitors alike. That is indeed holy work. Often, we fail to devote adequate time and attention to cheshbon ha’nefesh (accounting of the soul) – the act of taking stock of the spiritual health of both ourselves as individuals and our congregations.
Did you mean Yom Kippur instead of Yom Kippor?
Tzimmes Cake
We eat honey and other sweet foods on Rosh HaShanah to usher in a sweet New Year.