I grew up in a Jewish home of minimal Jewish traditions. I discovered Torah Judaism when Modern Orthodoxy was beginning to shake off the "new immigrant" mentality where the priority was to fit into American society. That was about forty-five years ago, and since then Jewish learning and delving into the Halachik (Jewish Law) literature has grown amazingly. Just take the Rosh Hashannah meal...
The Miami Herald yesterday reported that when Florida's legislature in 2008 moved the dates for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test later in the year to give students more time to prepare, they failed to consider possible conflicts with religious holidays. Now it appears that the dates mandated for the 2011 tests for math, reading and science overlap with Passover and Easter. Officials are concerned...
Once again Barack Hussein Obama is reaching out to the Muslim World. This time it is a message to celebrate Ramadan. And once again he is showing his preference towards Islam.President Obama gave no special speech or address on Easter, or Passover. In fact, all he did was add a paragraph to his weekly address.This will be his fourth speech to the Muslim World. His first being a warm New Year
Update: Approximately 25,000 people protested the shootings in Tel Aviv on Saturday, according to Yetnews.com. President Shimon Peres said "The gunshots that hit the gay community earlier this week hit us all." My best friend in third grade in Hempstead, Long Island in the late 1950s was Esther Rudnick. I was a good little Sunday school Christian with smart parents who approved of my going...
Tracing the Tribe has been trying for several years to get to the annual Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies conference. Unfortunately, it usually is timed to compete head-on with the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. I'm hoping that in 2010 it will be possible, as the Jewish genealogy conference is much earlier than usual. Here's a report on the SCJS conference held in Denver this...
The story of mine and Lauren's British Thanksgiving. Though probably not something you'll find in a Charlie Brown special, it was lovely nonetheless. I am a child of divorce, and as such, have despised Thanksgiving for the past decade. It’s the only day of the year for which I can’t come up with a King Solomon way of splitting my time. My mother converted to Judaism when she married my...
There's a lovely thread going on at That Is So Queer involving how to cope with being both Jewish and Agnostic/Atheist. As an Agnostic Jew, I felt compelled to offer my two cents, and I thought it'd be great to spread the conversation across the blogsophere. Here are my answers to the questions Faith asked on her blog, and I hope all of you can provide your own experiences... whether they be with Judaism...
We all know that moving to a brand new city without family or friends can be quite intimidating. For those of you that have come to Shanghai but left behind your much beloved bubbies (grandmas) at home with noodle koogle, white fish salad, lox and bagels, don't fret: We've found a community that will make you feel as if you never left home. Shabbat at Beit Menachem Synagogue , a Chabad in Shanghai,...
by Steve Brizel The Lighting of The Menorah R. Berel Wein shows us a similarity between the lighting of the candle, parenting and education: link R. Yissocher Frand reminds us that even actions that seem to have minute importance can have lasting importance: link R. Yitzchak Etshalom examines the unique nature of the front of the Menorah: link The Journey of the Mishkan The Nesivos Shalom, as understood...
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-12-05/news/pews-for-jews.php Joe Fuiten (right) has taken evangelicals’ embrace of Judaism to unforeseen heights. First, evangelical pastor and onetime Bush campaign activist Joe Fuiten brought high-profile conservative author Dinesh D'Souza to speak at his Cedar Park Church in Bothell. A month later, on Dec. 2, Fuiten had the former Israeli ambassador to the...
One of the safest bets in town is that Fr. "Red Ken" Overberg, S.J., will cast doubt on the historicity of the events described in the New Testament during a homily delivered at Xavier University's Bellarmine Chapel: Throughout the Easter season, we have been reading selections from the Acts of the Apostles and from John’s Gospel. In Acts, Luke presents an idyllic view of the development...
The Festival of Weeks, Shavu'ot (Pentacost), is about to begin in Israel. Israelis normally celebrate the Festivals for one day (two days in the Diaspora), but with Shabbot coming the next day, Israelis will have a two-day holiday. Shavu'ot comes on the evening of the 50th day from Passover, the date of which was traditionally established by the siting of the New Moon in the month of Nisan. Although...
Yoram Ettinger (based on ancient Jewish Sages) 1. Shavou’ot commemorates the receipt of the Torah, which took place over 3,300 years ago, setting the Jewish People on the Road Map to the Land of Israel. Shavou'ot reflects the human path from the murder of Abel, by Cain, to the receipt of the Torah. Thus, the first and the last Hebrew letters of Shavou'ot ((שבועות...
There are three main holidays in the Jewish religion: Pesach, Shavuous, and Succos. Pesach is the holiday where G-D took the jewish people out of Egypt and saved them from bondage. Succos is the holiday where Jews recollect how G-D protected them in the desert by surrounding the hebrew nation with his cloud of glory. Shavuous is the holiday where the jewish people received the Torah from Mount Sinai....
Oh, Passover, why did you have to end so quickly? Usually I'm the first one to speak out against holidays, for the way they guilt us into letting people go home for a few hours, or the way they remind us that for some people there are things in their lives besides the job, but Passover's one of the few I like. First of all, no one's allowed to use it as an excuse to miss work, because the celebrating...
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