How to Ready Your Young Child for Yom Kippur
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, by Richard Zimler
Can Challah Braiding Help a Teen Become a Future Rabbi?
Youth engagement is not merely youth being at programs or feeling a part of the community. Nor, conversely, is it merely attending a class or having knowledge and skills. True engagement requires finding the dynamic tension between these two processes.
On God, Indifference, and Hope: A Conversation with Elie Wiesel
How Jewish Communities Can Help One Another After a Suicide
Adolescent suicide is on the rise in the United States, and data indicates that suicide is a communicable disease, with one spurring others. No community is exempt: Suicide impacts our congregations, our clergy, and our camps.
Communal Aid: How to Ensure No One Falls Through the Cracks
When we made aliyah in 1990, arriving at Shorashim, the community was a moshav sheetufi, a commune of 30 families. The economy was similar to a kibbutz – all salaries, whether from communal businesses or from work “outside,” went to the common bank account; each family received a house to live in and a monthly allowance based on family size. But not anymore.
5 Jewish Ways to Help After Hurricane Harvey
Recovery for a storm of this magnitude will take months, if not years. We are working hard to provide resources to affected families, and we encourage you to do the same.
What's in a (Jewish) Name?
Our family rejected one name’s legacy of slavery for another’s possible intimation of anti-Semitism. It was a small, quiet act of brit olam, our vision for a world filled with justice and compassion.
A Seat at the Table
"A Seat at the Table" is a metaphor for the Chassidic adage that no matter what one has done to stray from the teachings of Torah he or she will not be abandoned by their family. This is similar to the sentiment expressed in Robert Frost's poem, "Death of the Hired Man": "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Mr. Zeitchik, a minor character, sets the tone when he says "... a story is never just a story". The author, Joshua Halberstam, used that statement as a lead-in to employ the literary device, "a story within a story". That is where the inner story often has symbolic and psychological significance for the characters in the outer story.