Russian immigrants to Israel / Courtesy of Alona Sibuk Her story is well known. She came from a foreign land where she lived like a princess. Despite a very questionable connection to Judaism, she chose to follow her mother-in-law to Israel. There, she lived in abject poverty, getting by only by taking charity. Even when…
As a Jewish food educator, I’m often asked for ways to enhance holiday celebrations with authentically themed dishes for the season. What was once a simple plate of apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah becomes a series of prepared desserts featuring these key ingredients. Chanukah gelt can now be acquired with fair trade certification. Vegans…
I am of the firm opinion that it is always a good time for cheese. I recently learned that the Shavuot holiday has a strong dairy component. I had never known this before, but I was very happy to discover this a day or two after I had completed a highly successful experiment in cheese…
The contemporary notion of freedom is twisted, at least in Judaism’s eyes. Many moderns feel fettered by — depending on the particulars of their lives — their jobs, finances, parents, children or spouses, and they imagine that cutting whatever bonds they find bothersome will make them free. But freedom isn’t shaking oneself loose of human…
The Rolling Stones have pushed back the start time of their Tel Aviv show to enable religiously observant concert goers to attend. The Stones are scheduled to perform at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv on June 4, which is the holiday of Shavuot. The concert originally was scheduled to begin at 8:30, minutes after the…
(JTA) — Rabbinic tradition teaches that when God spoke at Sinai, the world was silenced — birds did not sing, breezes did not rustle leaves in the trees. Out of that profound silence came the word, and were the world silent again, for even an instant, we could hear the everlasting echo of God’s voice….
Nigerian women call for the freedom of Chibok’s kidnapped girls / Getty Images Last month, an Islamist armed group called Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria. Presumably, these girls will be killed or sold into slavery and child marriages. Even though I sit here in Los Angeles, this crisis affects…
This year, like other years, I am doing nothing special (read: nothing at all) for Shavuot. It is not, as Marissa Brostoff recently noted in Tablet, not hugely popular as Jewish holidays go. Every year I see Shavuot on the calendar and think, What’s that one again? And then I remember, That’s the one about…
