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VIDEO: Making the Holiday Sweet — With Bees

Sweet Tradition from Jewish Daily Forward on Vimeo.

As we are getting ready to dip our apple slices into honey for a sweet new year, beekeeper Liane Newton ensures that the precious queens and worker bees make it safely through the winter.

Newton runs nycbeekeeping.org a nonprofit that provides resources and a support system for urban beekeepers across the five boroughs. She is especially interested in using beekeeping trainings to connect the concept of ecological sustainability with hands-on science education.

She relishes the role that bees play in Rosh Hashanah. But what she values most in Judaism is the focus it puts on learning.

“I had the opportunity from a very young age to discuss ethical issues with the rabbis and challenge them and be challenged in return,” Newton said, “I love the tradition where we put a drop of honey on the tongue of a child who’s beginning to learn.”

Read about colony collapse disorder and the threat to your Rosh Hashanah honey in a review of “Queen of the Sun.”

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