High Holidays

For Lee Weissman, a Breslov Chasid in Irvine, Calif., the recent onset of Elul caps a spiritual journey he began a month earlier with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Weissman, a teacher at the Tarbut v’Torah Community Day School in Irvine and a scholar of Southeast… Read more »

Breaking the fast has its own set of traditions. Ashkenazim usually break the fast with something salty, like herring, because they believe the fish restores salt lost by the body while fasting. Herring also was the cheapest fish in Eastern Europe, where the custom originated. Egg and cheese dishes… Read more »

Don’t let Maimonides catch you napping on Rosh Hashanah. His famous quote, “Awake, awake, you slumberers from your sleep, inspect your actions and return” — usually found in the High Holidays prayer book before the sounding of the shofar — is meant as the ultimate shluf alarm, his righteous… Read more »

Washington Post reporter Sari Horwitz, center, receives congratulations in the newsroom on learning she won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize for “Deadly Force,” an investigation of D.C. police shootings. She is looking at her then-8-year-old daughter, Rachael. (Photo courtesy Sari Horwitz)

Sari Horwitz is a Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post reporter. She shared the 2002 Pulitzer for investigative reporting for her examination of the deaths of children in the D.C. foster care system, co-wrote an investigation of D.C. police shootings that won the 1999 Pulitzer for public service, and was a… Read more »

University of Memphis head basketball coach Josh Pastner, left, with Joe Jackson of the Memphis Tigers at a game against Centenary College on Nov. 12, 2010.

Josh Pastner is the head basketball coach at the University of Memphis. He is a former assistant basketball coach and player at the University of Arizona.… Read more »

Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Masorti movement in Israel, right, with then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in Jerusalem at the Bar Mitzvah of Emanuel’s son, Zach, on May 30, 2010

Yizhar Hess is the executive director and CEO of the Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel. He is a former community shaliach and director of the Israel Center in Tucson.… Read more »

Josh Protas, head of the Washington office of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, pauses in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building on Aug. 4, 2011, on his way to a meeting in the United Methodist building to discuss strategy for interfaith advocacy related to the debt “super committee” and the budget negotiations.

Josh Protas is a vice president and director of the Washington office of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. In Tucson, he was director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and JFSA senior vice president for planning and community affairs. Previously, he… Read more »

Mark Naseck, holistic healing teacher and new immigrant to Israel, celebrates Simchat Torah in Tzfat, Israel, on Oct. 1, 2010.

Mark Naseck is an internationally known lecturer, practitioner and teacher in the holistic healing arts.… Read more »

Robert Sarver is the principal owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team. He founded the National Bank of Arizona in 1984 and is currently chair and CEO of Western Alliance Bancorporation. He is also a director of Meritage Homes Corporation and SkyWest Inc. He lives in Paradise Valley, a… Read more »

Kerri Strug is a retired Olympic gold medal gymnast, best known for completing a vault on an injured ankle at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She is now a program manager in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In contemporary Jewish discourse, the worlds of the synagogue and the worlds of service and advocacy sit far apart. The former is a place of introspection, of prayer and of relationship with God. The latter is a place of action and engagement in the world.… Read more »

The Koren and "Lev Shalem" machzors are among the many High Holiday prayer books that have been published in the past year. (David A.M. Wilensky)

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (JTA) — New Jewish prayer books typically come in waves, the rarest of which bring new High Holidays prayer books, or machzors. The current wave has seen five new machzorim in a one-year span. Following on the heels of last year’s release of the official Conservative… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Among the familiar customs of Rosh HaShanah is the dipping of apple pieces in honey — but what is its origin? King David had a “cake made in a pan and a sweet cake” (II Samuel 6: 15, 19) given to everyone. Hosea 3:1 identifies the… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Yom Kippur, the fourth quarter of the High Holidays, is coming and time is running out. Our seats are waiting, the gates are closing. Each year we look for a new way to prep for the day: Could football offer a strategy? Though Yom Kippur… Read more »

NEW YORK (MyJewishLearning) — For most adults, the central experience of Yom Kippur is fasting. By abstaining from food and drink, we exercise control over our bodies and do not give in to our most basic impulses. This makes it pretty easy to feel the “affliction” that the Torah… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On his way to converting to Christianity, philosopher Franz Rosenzweig attended Yom Kippur services and was so moved that he decided to remain Jewish. One look at the most famous prayer for the occasion makes it hard to believe that he did not abandon Judaism… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) —  Breaking the fast has its own set of traditions. Ashkenazim usually break the fast with something salty, like herring, because they believe fish restores salt lost by the body while fasting. Herring also was the cheapest fish in Eastern Europe, where the custom originated. Egg and… Read more »

(JTA) — For Lee Weissman, a Breslov Chasid in Irvine, Calif., the recent onset of Elul caps a spiritual journey he began a month ago with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Weissman, a teacher at the Tarbut v’Torah Community Day School in Irvine and a… Read more »

Ivan Gur-Arie

“Jewcentricity:  Why the Jews are Praised, Blamed, and Used to Explain Just About Everything” by Adam M. Garfinkle, a very readable book, encompasses historical, psychological, cultural and sociological themes. It has always intrigued me why Jews throughout history always got the limelight, for good or bad. This book certainly… Read more »

Phyllis Braun

For me, it isn’t any one book, it is books in general — though I have fond memories of reading all of Louisa May Alcott’s works when I was a girl, despite what I see now as her somewhat overbearing preachiness. I can still remember being a pre-reader, at… Read more »