Birkat Chaverim
This is part three of the Israel Kids Cultural Exchange about Food what was sent in the Israel Kids Cultural Exchange. You can read part one or part two here. This part was about food. As part of the Israel Kids Cultural Exchange about food we included recipes, a story, about favorite foods as well as some favorite Israeli samples that could be shipp ...
I'm happy to welcome a guest post about Voices of the Generations for Yom Hashoah from Marcia Reines Josephy, former curator and director of the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum, and longtime Holocaust educator. Disclosure: also close relative. Difficulty of Teaching Holocaust It is hard, oh so hard to teach about the Holocaust and genocide. It is hard ...
From Lag BOmer to Shavuot I will be hosting a blog series called Mitzvot Unplugged. The main theme of the series is teaching tiny tots/kids/young adults Jewish values in a creative way. I am pretty excited about this series, and about the people who have already agreed to participate in the series who range from creative bloggers to organizations to ...
I had to share this idea organized by my cousin Shmuel, rabbi of Congregation Ohev Shalom, and his shul. In honor of the 100 birthday of one of his congregants, Anna Yuter, the synagogue organized a "drive" in January. What was unusual about the drive was it asked members to do an act of chesed or kindness. The synagogue then collected the acts into a b ...
This post is intended as extra material for an article I wrote with my mom for the winter CCAR journal. This is a special issue entitled "Inspiration and Opportunity: The Arts and Jewish Life." It is chock full of interesting articles. I have been slowly reading the other contributions and learning new things. Our Article is entitled: A Gift to the Com ...
Last Sukkot I had the opportunity to discuss with my daughter the concept of Rosh Chodesh, lighting of the beacons and the beginning of the month in the Jewish calendar. We got to the topic in a round about way- we had several young women from the US and UK who are learning in seminary for the year, staying with us for the first day(s) of sukkot. They w ...
NOTE: The bookswap is back in business. Now on the ground floor. Frequently asked questions about the community bookswap. The bookswap is a community resource- if you think you are using it in a way that is contrary to its nature, ask. We want people to use it, not to stop using it because its not interesting anymore. What is the bookswap? This is a ...
Its a difficult time now for families in many different places. Our thoughts are with innocent victims and families that are suffering. It has been inspiring to hear how some people are expressing gratitude, given the trying times. Maybe I'll share some of them at another time. This post is supposed to be about helping kids give thanks to Gd. In t ...
Kids are both the best and the worst at showing gratitude in general because they have incredible honesty. For instance, you might hear something like "Wow! Thank you so much for giving me a hamster! You are the best parents in the world!" uttered with complete feeling, followed by "Now I want two" or "I wan't a dog" or "How come you won't get me a hors ...
Part of the Global Day of Jewish Learning topic of blessing and gratitude is the topic of "Blessing the Bad." I had not intended to speak about this at all. I did watch Rav Steinzaltz's video on the topic. This is available if you sign up for the Global Day of Jewish Learning. Then I stumbled onto Mayim Bialik's Kveller piece about thanking the firefigh ...