Finding Holiness at the Zoo
If you've ever looked directly at the light emanating from a prism, you know that it is nearly blinding.
Gifts to Israel: 19 New Citizens Celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut
There's nothing like experiencing something for the very first time. Swimming the length of the Kinneret. A first love. The first whiff of this year's jasmine blossoms in Jerusalem. Taking your very first bite of my homemade bread pudding (trust me).
9 Principles to Help You Engage Jewish Youth
These nine guiding principles to engage youth were developed by numerous congregations and synagogue professionals in our collaborative work with them. We share them with congregations and use them to inform our own ongoing efforts to develop new camps and year-round programming.
How 250 Jewish Teens Are Changing the Face of Youth Engagement
The inaugural Dana Gershon and Rabbi Jonah Pesner Northeast Leadership Summit focused on creating a new and innovative structure to enable Jewish teens to find their purpose and bring it to life.
Does Don Draper Want to Be Jewish?
In the weeks before the beginning of the final season of Mad Men, the show’s creator Matthew Weiner did rounds
The House by the Lake: One House, Five Families, and a Hundred Years of German History
On the outskirts of Berlin lies the charming lakefront community of Groß Glienicke, where locals and summer visitors enjoy swimming, boating and fishing. Nestled among the medieval village’s structures is the lake house where author Thomas Harding’s grandmother once lived.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Haazinu: Between a Rock and Hard Place
Parashat Haazinu includes the word tzur, or rock, eight times. But in this case, tzur isn’t referring to just any rock; it’s referring to God, as the rock of Israel.
Being Holy - and Staying Alive
Acharei Mot, the first of this week's two parashiyot, begins on an unsettling note—a reminder of the death of Aaron's sons and the suggestion that such tragedies might occur again unless the priests take specified steps to prevent them
Social Media Doesn't Detect Breast Cancer, Mammograms Do
I am reminded about breast cancer prevention every single day – 365 days a year – each time I look in the mirror after a shower, but I'm not seeking pity or sympathy.
Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw
In her memoir, Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw (New American Library), food writer Elissa Altman, who also wrote Poor Man’s Feast, deftly uses kashrut – Judaism’s dietary laws – to portray, both literally and symbolically, the toxic relationships in her dysfunctional Jewish family.