How High Holiday services and arrival of 5781 are going to look across America
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, also known as the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim (“Days of Awe”), one of the prayers reads: “Who will live and who will die … Who by plague … .”
“Most...
Lighting up a world of darkness: Celebrating Hanukkah in a corona winter
Just saying the word “Hanukkah” brings smiles. As does conjuring up the sight of candles ablaze and hearing the sounds of boisterously off-key renditions of “I Had a Little Dreidel” and “Maoz Tzur.” And...
Comparing and contrasting Halloween and Sukkot
The month of October unleashes a tension of sorts in our predominantly Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in Los Angeles. As one walks farther from Pico Boulevard, the ubiquitous sukkot on front lawns give way to macabre Halloween...
Baking matzah in the Gulf
The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) announced Sunday that it will bring matzah-making to several Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries ahead of Passover, which begins on Friday, April 15.
Additionally, the AGJC, the umbrella...
Yeshiva University produces Haggadah guide to prompt introspection at seder table
With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine and rising inflation as Passover approaches, faculty and graduate students of Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education have produced an interactive Haggadah companion that...
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is different this year
As the author of two post-Holocaust novels and a former high school history teacher, my guiding assumption before the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel was that the Holocaust was a unique event in...
US President Donald Trump wishes the Jewish people a ‘Happy Hanukkah’
U.S. President Donald Trump released a statement wishing Jews a “blessed and happy Hanukkah” in honor of the first of eight lights lit on Sunday night.
“Melania and I send our warmest greetings to our...
March of Light concludes with chanukiah lighting
Story by Donald H. Harrison, Photos by Shor M. Masori
SAN DIEGO – Undeterred by last month’s massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, or by more recent anti-Semitic vandalism in Poway, more...
National Library of Israel releases rare photographs of Sukkot during 1973 war
Nearly 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, the National Library of Israel has released a number of rare photos showing how the festival of Sukkot, or “Feast of Tabernacles,” was celebrated during the conflict, even...
A festive Passover table, with hints of east and west
For American Jews, observant or secular, Passover is a big deal. In fact according to a Pew Report, almost 70 percent American Jews attend a Passover seder. It’s a time when friends and family...