Special Sections

In "Jodie's Passover Adventure," Jodie and her American cousin Zach discover ancient secrets on their exploration of Hezekiah's Tunnel in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Courtesy Kar-Ben Publishing)

BOSTON (JTA) — A vacuum-like robot that cleans the house and a spunky Israeli girl on an underground adventure in Jerusalem are among the characters featured in new children’s books for Passover. This year’s crop offers more than the typical retellings of the Exodus story. Two books have Passover… Read more »

Some new Haggadahs for this Passover: "Sharing the Journey," the "New American Haggadah" and "Journey to Freedom."

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (JTA) — Leading a Seder for the first time this year? There’s an app for that. Entries in the annual stream of new Haggadahs this year include a Reform version that comes in hardcover, paperback and iPad app editions. Two others  feature a gorgeously designed Haggadah… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Passover celebrates the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, their wandering in the desert for 40 years, and their ultimate deliverance to the Promised Land. But a contemporary observer might be forgiven for imagining the holiday marks a different sort of migration:… Read more »

Teddy Weinberger

Since 1993 the Jewish Agency has been running a network of summer camps in the former Soviet Union. The Agency describes these camps as “a cultural lifeline to Jewish identity.” These summer camps are supported by several Russian Jewish philanthropists and by Jewish Federations in such cities as Atlanta,… Read more »

Bubbes Marlyne Freedman and Sharon Klein enjoy breakfast at the Sunny Daze Cafe.

Breakfast is touted as the most important meal of the day. It starts us off each day on the right foot and sustains us until lunch. Marlyne Freedman, senior vice president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and I have taken this motto to heart and have met… Read more »

Brownie Ebner at a party for her 100th birthday on Nov. 11, 2011 at Atria Campana del Rio. (Sheila Wilensky)

  Brownie Ebner turned 100 on Nov. 11. “Why is everybody making such a big deal? If I could take credit for curing cancer or something like that I’d brag about it. What do I have to brag about?” she asked the AJP last month, sitting in her tidy… Read more »

Bills or bug juice? With the economic recovery still struggling to take hold, many American Jewish families are finding they face a difficult question as deadlines for summer camp enrollment approach: Can they both pay their bills and send their kids to Jewish overnight camp? “It’s a difficult decision,”… Read more »

In November, Anna Melman and Ari Bronstein were planning their wedding, held in January in Israel. They had a venue and a rabbi. But they wanted to find ways of making the traditional ceremony more egalitarian. “In the wedding ceremony as it is now, the bride is inherently passive,”… Read more »

Discount Purim basket with a rich theme: Products purchased at a 99 Cents Only Store connect to characters in the Purim story. (Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Falling between the giving season of Chanukah and the getting season of tax refunds, Purim time finds households like mine searching for ways to keep holiday expenses down to earth without losing the mirth. What with the cost of fancy, professionally made kosher shalach manot… Read more »

Michele Goldstein and David Clementi (Shelley Wellander/She.we Studio

Michele Goldstein, daughter of Dana Goldstein and Gene Goldstein of Tucson, and David Clementi, son of Rosanne Clementi and Frank Clementi of Tampa, Fla., were married on Sept. 4, 2011 at Skyline Country Club. Rabbi Marc Sack of Tampa and Ronald Sandler of Tucson, a family friend, officiated. The… Read more »

If you think of your garden as a canvas, then a custom designed trellis is like a living sculpture. Aesthetically combining ornamental metal work and climbing plants, a custom trellis can be an expression of both your green thumb and your artistic taste. It can be a simple flat… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — So it’s nearly Purim and the excitement in my house is rising every day. I’m not a great one to fuss with costumes, but my mind is bubbling over with ideas for mishloach manot, the Purim gift baskets. It’s more than mere “tradition” to give… Read more »

Wood-burning fireplaces can be a pleasant source of comfort in winter months but for some people, burning wood in a fireplace can literally take their breath away. Wood smoke contains hundreds of chemical compounds and some of them can harm people with heart or respiratory disease, babies, young children… Read more »

(L-R) Dr. Scott Sherman, Dr. Elihu Boroson and his wife, Sarah, with Boroson’s ‘Excalibur’ sculpture, which he donated to the University of Arizona College of Medicine in honor of Sherman, a Parkinson’s researcher. (Photo courtesy AHSC Biomedical Communications)

For some people it takes a lifetime to find their passion. Dr. Elihu Boroson, a veterinarian for 23 years, found his when he became a full-time artist in 1980. He and his wife, Sarah, a librarian, lived in Stamford, Conn. She became the breadwinner. “When I stopped working I… Read more »

Tucsonan Bryan Jaret-Schachter relaxes during his second donation of stem cells for a recipient identified by the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. Blood from his right arm is fed through a machine to separate out the blood-forming cells, then returned to him via his left arm.

 “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” — Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a Bryan Jaret-Schachter, a 27-year-old financial analyst in Tucson, picked up the phone at work early one morning in September 2010 and was stunned by what he heard. The caller,… Read more »

After I offered parenting advice to Jewish mothers in these pages a while back, a couple of readers asked if I had advice for Jewish fathers. One asked whether there was a stereotypical “Jewish Father.” I dislike all stereotypes whether based on gender or religion so I prefer to… Read more »

Kayla Tilicki at her Bat Mitzvah with her grandparents Joe and Sandra Bolze

Sandra Bolze and her husband, Joe, have an unusual marriage: for 43 years, he’s gone with her every Friday night to Shabbat services. And she’s gone with him every Sunday morning to church. Their daughter, Tucsonan Niki Tilicki, is in a similarly successful interfaith marriage. But Bolze is quick… Read more »

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama listening to a performance by the West Point Jewish Chapel Cadet Choir in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Dec. 8, 2011. (Pete Souza/Official White House Photo)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It doesn’t get more “only in America” than this: A Christian president with an African-born Muslim father throws a Chanukah party at the White House, and the featured act is the West Point Jewish Chapel Cadet Choir — a group that serves as a beacon of Jewish pride… Read more »

(N.J. Jewish News) — Marlene Stevens says she gets goose bumps when she thinks that very soon she will meet the daughter of the sister she lost 70 years ago during the Holocaust. Her sister Frima died in 1984 before they were able to reconnect, but thanks to Marlene’s… Read more »

(Tablet Magazine) — Last May I traveled, along with about 75 ultra-Orthodox, to Mako, Hungary, for the yahrzeit of my great-great-grandfather. Specifically, I’m referring to my mother’s father’s father’s father, Reb Moshe Vorhand, aka the Makove Rav (usually pronounced roov), a minor-league but well-respected Chasidic rebbe, who died in… Read more »