Who Should Teach About Hanukkah and What Should They Be Teaching?
Now that my daughter is in preschool, I've come to realize that hearing about cultural and religious practices directly from the practitioners only emphasizes our otherness.
Creating Terrific Photo Opps, One Family at a Time
“I have a son with special needs. I would love to feel like there might be a place for him at Camp Harlam.” The words stood out to me on the page as if they were wrapped in neon lights.
How One Jewish Author Wrote a Happier Ending for Her Family
Author Carol Ascher speaks of her new novel as part of a trilogy with her memoir and an earlier novel. All three, she says, reflect a struggle to understand her background as the eldest daughter of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazi regime.
How a DNA Test and a Dream Led Me to Judaism
I hired an ancestral DNA expert to analyze my Jewish blood but, frustrated with my demands for details, he sent a curt email I will never forget: “You’re either Jewish or you’re not,” he wrote. Maybe this search was as much about my faith as it was about my heritage. Maybe I really was a Jew at heart, too.
Jewish Camp Glossary
Faith Groups Thank Obama Administration for Guidance on Transgender Students
Washington, D.C., June 10, 2016 – In response to the Obama administration’s May 13 guidance, directing public schools to ensure transgender students can access facilities that align with their gender identity and expression, over 30 faith groups sent this letter commending this important step for equality and inclusion of transgender and gender non-conforming people:
A River Flows from Eden: Rabbi Rick Jacobs' Address to the URJ Biennial
This movement’s task, in this moment, is to nurture the natural waterways that connect us. To keep our congregations the strong sources of life they have always been and will always be.
Leaving On a Jet Plane: 3 Things to Do Before Traveling
Going on a trip this summer? Here are three actions to take if you or else someone you know is traveling.
A Hanukkah Tradition From My Christian Mother-in-Law
Sometimes we create our own traditions, sometimes we carry on a tradition we inherit, and sometimes a tradition can come from unexpected places.
Jewish, Trans, and Still in High School: One Teen Activist's Story
By the time she was 3 years old, Jazz Jennings (not her original first name or her real last name) knew she was meant to be a girl. In her new book Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teenager, Jazz tells her story, including how she and her family became reality TV stars and outspoken advocates for transgender rights.