What's Happening in the Torah? Rosh HaShanah Activities for Families
Pursuing Social Justice: Yom Kippur Activities for Families
Creating New Rituals and Tradition for the School Year and the New Year
For children, traditions and rituals are significant; they provide predictability, support, and familiarity, while bringing families together and creating unity and a sense of belonging.
Beyond Apples and Honey
Comedy Helped My Catholic Family Embrace its Jewish Secret
I was born in 1961, baptized, confirmed and given First Communion. But when I was 9, my father began telling me bedtime stories about his narrow escape from the Nazis in Vienna, his entire family murdered – how my maternal grandmother was assassinated in my mother’s childhood home in Bremen, Germany, on Kristallnacht and how, by a miracle, my mother survived.
Mom's Honey Cake with Apple Confit
Honey cake is traditionally eaten for Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year—the honey’s sweetness symbolizes our wishes for a sweet year. This is my mother's recipe, which she makes in Israel, freezes, and sends to me in the mail.
Hearing God’s Whispers
Back in January, I spent the better part of a long Sunday afternoon at my parents' house going through the contents of my mom's desk and her wallet. Among the keepsakes I found in the wallet was a small newspaper clipping
Sacrifice: A Poem for the Akedah
Genesis 22:1-24, the story of God testing Abraham by instructing him to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah, is known as the Akedah.
Where We Find the Best Stress Relief for Teens
Teens today are coming of age at a time of intense competition. The pressures they feel to be successful at school, in sports, in pursuit of their passions, in their social lives and in romantic relationships, as daughters and sons, and as leaders – are at an all-time high.
In It to Win It: Similarities Between Elul and the Lottery
Aside from a date, what can these two events possibly have in common? Strange as it may seem, there are a few points of comparison.