Jewish Holidays and Culture

Capturing the High Ground

June 8, 2008

We were walking home from a friend’s house after lunch on Shavuot a couple of years back. It had been a blazingly hot day, a real Jerusalem sharav, but at one point we were sure we felt a slight drizzle. As we entered the courtyard to our apartment complex, we felt it again. Then we […]

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An Eye-Opening Experience

March 13, 2008

A new documentary titled Eyes Wide Open premiered last week at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Directed by veteran filmmaker and Jerusalemite Paula Weiman-Kelman, the film explores the complex relationship of North American Jews with Israel by following several groups from the US as they visit Israel, many for the first time. From the spiritual excitement of […]

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The Rabbi’s Daughter and Me

February 15, 2008

Despite the controversial subtitle “A True Story of Sex, Drugs and Orthodoxy,” Reva Mann’s new autobiography “The Rabbi’s Daughter” is neither as shocking or inflammatory as its name would suggest. Rather, Mann’s powerful memoir will seem familiar to many Jews who grew up in secular homes, crossed over to a more extreme practice of religion […]

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Reinventing Zemirot with Pharaoh’s Daughter

January 11, 2008

“Lunch was very nice, but I was hoping we could sing a few zemirot,” commented one of our guests this past Shabbat. He didn’t mean it in a critical way; he was just expressing his hope that would sing a bit around the table before tidying up the dessert and heading for a Shabbat afternoon […]

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A Puzzling Wedding

October 26, 2007

My brother Dave and Jen got married two weeks ago and it was a very puzzling wedding. You see, Dave runs Dr. Clue, the world’s largest corporate training organization focused exclusively on using treasure hunts as a team building activity. Jen, who has a doctorate from Stanford in economic sociology, has worked with Dave at […]

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New Girls Religious Schools To Shake Up Jerusalem Educational Landscape

October 3, 2007

Options for modern religious education for girls in Jerusalem just got a whole lot more interesting with the recent openings of two new schools this fall, both backed by immigrants from North America. The modern Orthodox Shalom Hartman Institute, which trains rabbis, teachers and scholars from Israel and the Diaspora in a pluralistic environment and […]

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New Minyan in Jerusalem Brings Jews, Christians and Muslims Together

September 26, 2007

A rabbi, a monk, and a Sufi walk into a minyan. It sounds like the set up to a bad Internet joke circulating by email. But it’s a reality every month at Nava Tehilla, Jerusalem’s first – and only – “multi-faith” Jewish renewal gathering. Started a year and a half ago in the living room […]

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Rosh Hashana Food Fight

September 7, 2007

Hosting a dinner party is an art. It takes careful planning and balancing. You’ve got to have the right number of men vs. women, singles vs. families, little kids, big kids, shy adults, dominant Type A’s and not too many teenagers obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. Now, try hosting a dinner party every single week. Well, […]

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Shabbat without Harry

July 27, 2007

“This is the longest Shabbat ever,” pouted thirteen-year-old Merav over the weekend. The reason for her distress was having to wait until Shabbat was over in order to claim her copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from our local Steimatzky’s book store. Religious Jews around the world were at a distinct disadvantage in […]

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Graduation Israeli Style

June 22, 2007

Fifteen-year-old Amir’s school held a graduation party last week. Parents were invited. The event epitomized everything I both love – and hate – about living in Israel. First of all, the evening, which wasn’t limited to just the graduating class but included every year from 7th through 12th, was called to start at 7:00 PM. […]

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