Or Adam is a different type of congregation. In the 1960s, the Secular Humanistic Judaism movement was founded, led by Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine. Dana Naimark attended his temple in Michigan, so years later, when she met her husband Rick and they found themselves in Phoenix, they decided to promote those ideas and concepts by…
By Rich Geller | Photos courtesy of NASA The lives and stories of intrepid Hebrew explorers have been marked by tragedy and triumph throughout history, mirroring the Jewish experience itself. Nearly every major Jewish holiday has been observed in space, and the Torah has flown to the heavens twice. Just as Jews have spread throughout…
Tikkun olam is alive and well at Pardes Jewish Day School. During the holiday season we like to sit back and reflect on our own lives and the lives of those less fortunate. As part of their first annual mitzvah project, Pardes Jewish Day School asked all the students to each take on a tikkun…
Top five musical suggestions for your Hanukkah party: 1. “Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah” by The Klezmatics. Woody Guthrie’s second wife and three of his children were Jewish, and he wrote some fine Hanukkah songs in his day. The youngest of these children, Nora, approached The Klezmatics and asked them if they would write music…
A few years ago at her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan was being grilled by Sen. Lindsey Graham about the Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airliner. “Where were you on Christmas Day?” Graham asked, setting up his line of questioning. Kagan understood the direction he was going in and attempted to…
About 30 years ago, Ed Asner tried and failed to convince his rabbi of the importance of Heifer International, so he narrated a documentary to convince others of the project’s unique benefits. This year he was joined by “Royal Pains” star Mark Feuerstein to create a Heifer at Hanukkah video to encourage other Jews to…
The recent U.S. presidential elections were the eighth I have witnessed as an Israeli. Going back to Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, the special and somewhat complex relationship between the United States and Israel has given each campaign an interesting angle in both the Israeli media and the daily street corner or coffee shop discourse. This…
Every day is the beginning of a new year. Why is it we all wait until Dec. 31 to declare our failures, faults and foibles? I, for one, have the uncanny ability to notice every flaw about myself on a daily basis. I eat too much chocolate. I yell at my kids. I forget birthdays,…
Neiman Marcus and Target collaborate for a very special holiday collection. The end of the year is always such a busy time — the last thing you want to worry about is what you, your spouse and your kids will wear to the various parties, events and family gatherings so that you all look put…
I grew up in the Boston area, where we had four distinct seasons, and a heck of a winter. I remember spending my Decembers making snow angels in the backyard and having massive snowball wars with my neighbor, Bryan. Winters back east were awesome in certain respects, but they were pretty rough on my sister,…
