The summer before 10th grade, some friends of mine pulled off what I have long thought had to be the most outrageous prank of all time: spoiling the biggest twist in the Harry Potter series for an entire sleepaway camp. It happened at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., on July 18, 2005, two days after…
For many, our slow-motion exodus from the pandemic has yielded a harvest of mundane yet miraculous firsts — handshakes, hugs, houseguests, days back in the office, unmasked cappuccinos at our favorite cafes and many more. I have savored these reunions with life as I once knew it, yet none of them prepared me for dropping…
The Chalutzim program at Wisconsin’s Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, the Reform summer camp known as OSRUI, is famous for its Israeli counselors, two hours of daily Hebrew class, and a “British Haganah” reenactment of emigrating to the land of Israel. This summer, Chalutzim will do Israeli dancing on Friday nights as always, but other aspects of…
It’s been nine months since Seth Rogen agitated the Jewish community by expressing a sentiment increasingly common among his generation. You’d be forgiven for forgetting all about it. In August, the actor-writer appeared on Marc Maron’s podcast and said he was “fed a huge amount of lies about Israel” throughout his Jewish education. The backlash…
Dr. Kenneth Freedberg was standing at his wife’s bedside in a Boston hospital’s intensive care unit when an unexpected visitor entered: Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “We were there for no more than 45 minutes when Rochelle walks in,” said Freedberg, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “She didn’t work there,” he said, recalling his…
The Shalom Hartman Institute is known for its intellectual leadership within the Jewish sphere, producing research, holding events and educating influencers on contemporary challenges in Israel and American Jewry. The Institute works with scholars and professionals to become thought leaders in the Jewish world. However, Hartman rarely works with younger students, focusing its energy on…
Read this article in Yiddish. When my family and hundreds of others got the email from SAR Academy back in March, telling us that all classes were cancelled after a student tested positive for Covid-19, most of us were just excited that we were getting a day off of school. Little did we know that…
(JTA) — Camp Modin, a Jewish overnight camp in New England that opened even as scores of others closed this year, got some good news last week: All of its campers have tested negative for COVID-19. “We informed the campers and staff this evening that our collective efforts have delivered the successful results we have…
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