Jewish History

Teenagers walking down railroad tracks while visiting a concentration camp
Jewish Values

Ghetto: A Poem

Samantha (Sami) Silk
the path that we now follow / is the Exodus our ancestors never chose / flooding with pain they died not to swallow / the past spills into the river and flows
Photo of a group of people wearing masks, superhero shirts and holding up different superhero signs that says "smash," "boom," "krunch," and "kapow."

Extraordinary Ordinary Heroes

Rabbi Deborah Bodin Cohen
Simcha Blass, Helen Suzman, Eddie Jacobson, and Abby Stein all contributed to our world in different ways. Yet, they shared traits - commitment, integrity, resolve and an inner sense that they could make a difference.
Photo of the silhouette of two women's head and upper bodies standing back to back

Women of Valor: Revisiting Biblical Role Models

Michele Braun
Focusing this contemporary lens on Deborah and Yael reveals a story of women acting so outside of expected norms that I stand in awe and am compelled to magnify their adventures for our own times.
an image of a family with baby sitting at a table with a menorah lite in from of them
Consecration

Hanukkah Baby Names

Ellie Rudee
In Judaism, words are powerful; names are perhaps even more powerful. In the Torah, naming is an important theme related to identity and essence. If you find yourself looking for a name this Hanukkah, we hope this list inspired by the themes of the season will help.
This is an image of a dish call chuletas (pork chops); a dish that looks like pork, but it's actually french toast, bread molded into the shape of pork chops.

Crypto-Foods: the Triumph of Survival

Crystal Hill
During the Spanish Inquisition, there were plenty of ways that one could be identified as a Jew. One way people would identify their neighbors as Jews was observing whether they would eat non-kosher food that was popular with the Christian population such as pork, sausage, or fish without scales.