Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Bread (Shannon Sarna)
(JTA) — For many families, the Yom Kippur break-fast is a bagels and schmear-filled inevitability — just add some lox, maybe some slices of tomato and orange juice, and everyone is happy. For other families, the break-fast is one of the most important meals of the year — almost… Read more »
Paul Golin NEW YORK (JTA) — I just bought Rosh Hashanah tickets for the first time ever. The last time I attended services for the High Holidays was on my parents’ dime. That was back before the World Wide Web, when Ross Perot heard a giant sucking sound and the… Read more »
Serve the frybread with honey for a sweet New Year treat. (Rebecca Firkser)
(The Nosher via JTA) — Ah, Rosh Hashanah. The holiday in which we’re not only allowed to eat leavened bread, but are encouraged to slather honey over fat slices of the stuff. As my sister and I used to shout from the backseat of our car on our way… Read more »
The author as a child with her mother. (Courtesy of Diana Bletter)
(Kveller via JTA) — My mother died on the morning right before Yom Kippur two years ago, and my sister and I were not at all surprised. Irreverent, quirky and eccentric, my mother always kvetched about Yom Kippur and would have done anything to miss it. Dying right… Read more »
Fish heads are commonly included in the Sephardic custom of "yehi ratzones." (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — For Rosh Hashanah, many of us eat an apple dipped in honey as an auspicious sign for a sweet new year. The symbolism is clear, and the ritual as easy to pull off as squeezing a bear-shaped plastic bottle of honey. But what kind of a… Read more »
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(Kveller via JTA) — Two essential parts of preparing for Rosh Hashanah, our clean slate for the year, is asking forgiveness from anyone we wronged and making a list (mental or written) of the ways we fell short since the last time we heard the shofar. Ideally that hard… Read more »
Looking ahead (StockSnap/ Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain)
RICHARDSON, Texas (JTA) — Urbandictionary.com is an open-source site where the average citizen contributes definitions to new and old words and slang. As the High Holidays approach, I’ve been contemplating the phrase “epic fail.” According to one entry on Urbandictionary.com, epic fail means “complete and total failure when success should… Read more »
Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople, is building cisterns to collect rainwater in Los Angeles. (Photo: James Kellogg, courtesy of TreePeople)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — While preparing for Sukkot in drought-ridden California, I hoped that the holiday’s joy had not dried up alongside much of the state’s water supply. For a holiday also called “the season of our joy,” one that celebrates the harvest and is filled with greenery and fruit,… Read more »
Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli police during clashes in eastern Jerusalem, Sept. 18, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — For Israelis, the Ten Days of Repentance from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur have turned into days of violence. Unrest has swelled in Jerusalem following an Israeli ban on a protest group at the Temple Mount, the holy site known to Muslims as the Haram… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman When my husband, Ray, was diagnosed with cancer almost four years ago, we became a team, determined to face the challenge of living with cancer head on. From the onset, we talked openly about risks and probabilities as we aggressively researched and pursued treatments and clinical trials. We sought… Read more »
The High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are prime time for rabbis. On these Days of Awe, above all others, sanctuaries are filled to overflowing with Jews seeking spiritual connection or simply to embrace timeless traditions. With all… Read more »
Rabbi David Ebstein, right, speaks to Congregation Bet Shalom members and friends at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in July 2014. From left, Kathy McGuire Rubin, Paul Araiza, Helena Lamb, Elinor Engelhard, tour guide (name unknown) and Bernard Engelhard.
There were three rabbis who deeply influenced me as a young man: my director at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, my Hillel director at Washington University and the rabbi of my hometown synagogue. All three were marvelous role models, learned men and righteous Jews. My hometown family rabbi, Rav Bill… Read more »
Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, regional director of Chabad Tucson, right, and Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild light the grand menorah at El Presidio Park in 2011.
My aspiration to become a rabbi and lead a Jewish community dates back to my childhood years in New York, having been raised in the Grand Central Station. I am not referring to the landmark train station in midtown Manhattan. “Grand Central” is what we called my parents’ home… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron celebrates her birthday during a special oneg Shabbat with members of Congregation Chaverim on June 19.
A Reform rabbi and an Orthodox rabbi were my mentors, my guides and my inspirations to become a rabbi. Rabbi Joseph Weizenbaum, z’l, the Reform rabbi of my youth, my bat mitzvah, and my teenage understanding of Judaism, was certainly the rabbi who led the way, who motivated me… Read more »
Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz, right, with Rabbi Moshe Klein at the writing of a Sefer Torah for the Foothills Shul at Bais Yael, Oct. 19, 2014.
I grew up in South Africa in a vibrant Jewish community. As a child I was encouraged to join Jewish youth groups. I loved the activities and discussions. However, about Judaism I had many unanswered questions. Then it all unraveled. There was a youth Shabbaton in Johannesburg. It was… Read more »
Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin of Chabad Tucson holds a Sunshine Club program at Atria Valley Manor in December 2014.
The spacious room was lined up with green cushioned chairs ready for another session of “Chat with Rabbi Yudi” at a retirement community in Tucson. As I walk in, I found a single person sitting there. “It’s just me …” she sheepishly said. “Will you still stay?” “Of course!”… Read more »
Rabbi Thomas Louchheim teaches in the Congregation Or Chadash Religious School on Sept. 29, 2013, using the St. Joseph Torah Scroll that had been donated by a congregation in Missouri, which Or Chadash had repaired in 2013.
I always wanted to be a lawyer. As a project in elementary school, we were asked to determine what classes in high school and college we would need to take to prepare us for our chosen professions. I interviewed one lawyer, sent letters to a few law schools and… Read more »
Rabbi Batsheva Appel, left, and Temple Emanu-El congregant Susan Brish hold the lulav during Sukkot services on Oct. 10, 2014.
It was either astronaut or rabbi. As a fifth grade student, the homework assignment was to prepare a drawing about what we would like to be when we grew up, and I handed in two very different drawings. One of me as an astronaut and the other of me… Read more »
Rabbi Robert Eisen points to the Torah being held by Fay Green, left, and Hyla Windham at Congregation Anshei Israel’s Mitzvah 613 Celebration on Dec. 16, 2012.
How I became a rabbi is easy to describe: I went to undergraduate school and rabbinic school; spent the requisite number of hours studying, writing papers and preparing for exams; and had a student pulpit for three years of “hands-on training.” But why I became a rabbi is something… Read more »
Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman and Esta Goldstein of Saddlebrooke hold an old Megillah scroll at Oro Valley Meet Yourself: A Celebration of Diverse Cultures on March 22.
I grew up in Chicago, number seven in a family of 11 children. Being that I was born into a Chabad family, I was involved in Jewish outreach since I was in elementary school. My first experiences were when my father used to take me with him to the… Read more »
