I have always been intrigued by the idea of pirsumei nisa, or “publicizing the miracle,” on Hanukkah. During my college year of study in Israel, I loved walking through the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, where every window ledge was occupied by a flickering Hanukkah menorah, usually oil-burning, at… Read more...
The number 350 is all the rage among North American Jews these days, as the community observes it 350th anniversary. The first U.S. Jews, as most of us know, were New Yorkers, who arrived in what was then New Amsterdam from Recife, Brazil, in 1654. The main clearinghouse for anniversary events… Read more...
In my Baltimore grade school, we learned the mnemonic “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” In Hebrew school, we learned that was the year the Jews were expelled from Spain. Nobody then, however, told us about an ongoing discussion over the years on the connection… Read more...
Members of the Israeli Olympic team and their fans who make the trip to Athens can use the Internet to find a synagogue if they deem it necessary to pray before events and give thanks for the outcome, or to locate some traditional Greek kosher cuisine in Athens. Probably the best place to start is… Read more...
Outside of Israel, it is nearly impossible to be 100 percent
Asking most Jews about fast days will produce mentions of Yom Kippur, and perhaps Tisha Be’av as well. Not so many know about 17 Tammuz (July 6 this year), which traditionally marks the anniversary of many Jewish calamities. An easy-to-find register of those historical horrors, at… Read more...
Once upon a time, “You’ve got mail” meant that the postman actually delivered a letter to your home mailbox. I remember the excitement when someone actually sent a letter from a foreign country! Once, my bubbeh gave me an envelope from a distant cousin in Argentina, and a postcard from an aunt from… Read more...
Pongal 110 Lexington Ave., Manhattan, (212)
Anne Frank would have been 75 this year, had she survived. When I put her name into a search at http://www.google.com I got exactly 4,930,000 hits. Mining this abundance of material on her and her diary is an appropriate way, for Internet freaks and others, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day which… Read more...
ACCORDING TO A MIDRASH, THE JEWS WERE redeemed from bondage in Egypt because they retained their Hebrew names. These days, Jewish kids outside Israel aren’t given Hebrew names in addition to their Bradleys or Brittneys as a matter of course, as they were once - unless, of course, they’re called… Read more...
Ask an American Jew in his 40s or older to name his most memorable Jewish experience, and there’s a good chance he’ll say Sandy Koufax sitting out the first game of the 1965 World Series on Yom Kippur. Ask the same man how many Jews have ever played Major League baseball and he’ll have a hard time… Read more...
Maccabiah sports competitions were a highlight for many of us in our Jewish summer camp days. Some of those camp athletes went on to compete against others in the Maccabiah Games, and most Israelis root for Maccabi Tel Aviv, one of Europe’s top basketball teams. The association of the Maccabee… Read more...
In these troubles times, with
Relentless Israeli tennis player Anna Pistolesi, nee Smashnova, is racking up the wins, mostly Howard Blas New Haven Just before the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows in late August, Anna Pistolesi faced the world’s No. 14 player, Vera Zvonereva of Russia, in the second round of the Pilot Pen… Read more...
Madonna is not the fist singer to write a children’s book but she’s probably the first to name a character “Bina” - “understanding” in Hebrew. In “The English Roses,” the four other main characters are jealous of the
It’s the Wednesday afternoon before the Shabbat of my student’s bar mitzvah. Jake has been working hard for the past hour and a half, quietly reading his sermon and loudly belting out songs as Cantor Lisa Hest accompanies him on the guitar. Jake is a young man with a range of special needs, and… Read more...
The only time my Bubbeh ever took a break from preparing heavy fleishig (meat) holiday food was on Shavuot. Admittedly, some Jews (mainly Sephardim) do eat meat that day, as they would on any other holiday, since dairy is not considered very festive. Others, to satisfy all opinions, eat a dairy… Read more...
Our small group of campers from the Tikvah ("Hope”) Program of Camp Ramah in New England had planned a
When it comes to our children’s education, most of us accept the sad fact that what we get is what we get. But once in a while, we have an opportunity to step back and assess what our children actually know. As was the case when many kids stayed home during the Scud missile threat in Israel, or… Read more...
When I was growing up, the only connection Jews had with China was through food; a Chinese restaurant was the perfect place for Jews to go on Christmas Day and just after Pesah, when the holiday dishes still hadn’t been put away. Today Jews can learn about China - - and even plan a trip there --… Read more...