"Lotsa Matzah" offers some tempting ways to enjoy the unleavened bread, including "syrup on fried matzah brei, Matzah pizza, cheese piled high." (Courtesy Kar-Ben Publishing) BOSTON (JTA) — Years ago, Nancy Steiner set out to make her family Seder a bit more entertaining for her own young kids. She wrote a poem that became very popular among family and friends. “On This Night: The Steps of the Seder in Rhyme,” Steiner’s first published children’s… Read more »
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics painted on a Hollywood theater wall inspire a new reading of the Passover haggadah. (Brenda Rodman) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — If the Passover haggadah seems like hieroglyphics to you, it could be a good thing. Though the Israelites left Egypt presumably to escape the ankhs and eyes of Horus of the ancient written language, recently I discovered that hieroglyphics — a system of pictorial characters… Read more »
"On the Chocolate Trail" is the latest book by Rabbi Deborah Prinz, the author of "A Socially Responsible Haggadah for a Chocolate Seder." (JTA) — Rabbi Adam Schaffer, who’s been leading chocolate Seders since he edited a chocolate Seder haggadah in 1996, acknowledges that “people often do feel ill” from all the chocolate. Still, Schaffer, the religious school director at Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills, Calif., says he was motivated to “experiment… Read more »
Terri Freed, a local Brandeis National Committee volunteer, interacts with children during an after-school literacy enrichment project at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Courtesy Terri Freed) About a year ago, the Tucson chapter of the Brandeis National Committee began discussing ways to bring more parents of young children into their fold. “We were told that the way to reach this age group was through their children,” says Roz Kraft, a co-leader of the Brandeis study… Read more »
Maddie Garfinkle, 4, plays the drum at a Yad b’Yad session at the Rose Schnitzer Manor at Cedar Sinai Park in Portland, Ore., as her mom, Ali, looks on and her brother, Ian, 2, shares an instrument with his grandmother, Annette Gerard. Other Rose Schnitzer Manor residents look on. ( Peter Korchnak, Cedar Sinai Park) Nearly two dozen senior citizens in their 70s, 80s and 90s sit in a circle. Seated on mats within that ring are babies and toddlers with their parents or caregivers. Kim Palumbis joins in, strumming her guitar, singing and calling out instructions. Participants — young and old — clap… Read more »
Sarah (Sue) Raizes, a resident of The Fountains who will turn 100 in May, rolls dough for hamantaschen at the Saddlebrooke home of her daughter, Sharon Triester. Raizes, whose mother was also a prolific baker, favors traditional fillings such as lekvar (prune) but also “branched out to cherry,” says Triester. 
Irving Olson, 99, with one of his water drop photographs (Renee Claire) Irving Olson has been capturing photographic images for nearly 90 years. He continues to create pictures in a dark room, just not the “dark room” one typically associates with photo development. In a specially outfitted kitchenette in his Oro Valley home, Olson shuts out all light and digitally captures… Read more »
Foodies across America are coming up with variations on hamantaschen, Purim's traditional triangle-shaped cookie. (Beryl Shereshewsky) NEW YORK (JTA) — Just because they’re the same shape doesn’t mean they have the same soul. Hamantaschen, the Purim season’s traditional triangle-shaped cookie, are conventionally filled with jam, but the pastry has come a long way since its namesake ruled in ancient Persia. From New Orleans, where hamantaschen… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — With Purim this year falling on the same weekend as the Academy Awards ceremony, I found myself wondering how best to get my once-a-year portrayal of a Purim character up to award-winning quality. My standard getup — fake beard, “Persian-style” bathrobe and slippers — is looking… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Little kids will laugh at anything. The simplest knock-knock joke or a tickle fest — even the threat of one — can so easily end in hysterics. They laugh because they are surprised by something unexpected in a world they are constantly discovering. If only… Read more »
Cari Frisch and Jason Drimer under the chuppah (Elyse Hall) Cari Frisch, daughter of James and Myrna Frisch of Tucson, and Jason Drimer, son of Jeffrey and Linda Drimer of Syracuse, N.Y., were married on Oct. 28, 2012, at Skyline Country Club, with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating. Honored guests included Jason’s grandmother, Selma Radin of… Read more »
(L-R) Jennifer Kern, Ashley Heather, Jodi Pulman, Shelley Hoffman, Katy Darnaby, Ilana Shenitzer, Lindsay Nagel, Megan Rovner, Bari Levine, Leslie Pearlman, Joey Blumenfeld, Sadie Reuben (Elyse Hall)
High school romances that endure and result in marriage are not unheard of. But marrying your friend from preschool days is a precious rarity. Ilana Shenitzer and Jeremy Rothstein have enjoyed a life-long friendship that blossomed into love in their late teens. They cemented their relationship under the chuppah… Read more »
(JointMedia News Service) — As borders become more faint, and online dating services more prevalent, many of us are pushed out of our respective ethnic bubbles and into the arms of a special someone from a different background. While Jews share many customs and traditions, we also have our… Read more »
A view of human chromosomes under a microscope (Courtesy Memorial University of Newfoundland) Expectant mothers long have faced the choice of finding out the gender of their child while still in the womb. But what if parents could get a list of all the genes and chromosomes of their unborn children, forecasting everything from possible autism and future genetic diseases to intelligence… Read more »
Back in the ’70s I considered myself an ardent feminist. I displayed a bumper sticker on the back of my pale green Rambler that said “Sexism is a Social Disease.” Most of my closest friends at that time were women and my two older sisters were great influences on… Read more »
A family reunites outside the New Jersey home of Elise and Hal Hirshberg, parents of Tucsonan Amy Lederman. Front row: (L-R) Sylvia Boris, Lederman, Lynn Pollan, Carol Lewis, Farida Deske, Elise Hirshberg, Myriam Nahmani. Back: Shelley Hirshberg, Bella Bernard, Jeff Hirshberg (Robert D. DeCuir) Since the beginning of time, in every culture, across every continent, one thing connects us all: the deeply human need to convey what is important to us from one generation to the next. The telling and retelling of the stories of our lives is essential to the creation of… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — It has become something of a White House Chanukah tradition. For the second time, the Obama White House used a menorah from a hurricane-hit region to mark the holiday. This Chanukah, Rabbi David Bauman brought to the White House one of two 90-year-old menorahs that survived… Read more »
The Silverman family's kindness yard at night in Winterhaven (Gila Silverman) I live in a neighborhood known for its Christmas festival. Several years ago, I wrote an essay for this paper, describing our decision to build a giant dreidel for the festival, and reflecting on the experience of living here. That essay ended with this thought: Sometimes a giant dreidel… Read more »
(StatePoint) — Owning a home is a 365-day-a-year commitment: a mortgage to pay, a yard to maintain and bills to juggle. But experts say that evaluating key exterior elements of your home at least once annually can prevent some bills from skyrocketing. “The key to saving money and keeping… Read more »
Use a brush to rub the applied metal into the surface and remove bits of unadhered leaf. December is the time to sparkle, and your thrift store finds can shine too. Gilding is a surprisingly easy way to get a luxurious look from the most inexpensive items. Traditionally, we’ve seen silver or gold leaf decorating ornate picture frames, applied to the domes of public buildings or… Read more »
