We’re visiting my mother’s cousin Reba, and I’m pretty excited because I get to play with her daughter’s Barbie. Shari is in high school, and uninterested in her Barbie, which is the real deal original. She has blond hair, swept into a curly ponytail, her face framed by curly bangs. Heavily lined eyes cast an […]
One of my favorite parts of the weekly Shabbat service follows the Torah and haftarah readings where we bless the congregation. After reciting one prayer asking for “the blessings of heaven,” kindness, compassion, long life, ample sustenance, health and healthy children, we move on to what I fondly think of as “the donor prayer.” Siddur […]
I recently spoke about JWB Jewish Chaplains Council and the work that it does as a program of JCC Association, where I work, at New City Jewish Center. I’ve adapted the text from the Shabbat d’var, which took place on Saturday, May 23, 2015, two days before yizkor for Shavuot coincided with our Memorial Day. […]
Golf, the venerable sport of country clubs, the Masters green jacket, sand pits, birdies, bogeys, Tiger Woods and tradition, is in trouble. Yes, golf. According to a recent New York Times article, the game has lost 5 million players in the past decade, a number roughly four times the size of the 2012 census for my […]
These fillings go with Nanny’s hamentashen, the dough I use each year for making Purim pastry. Prune or apricot filling 1 lb dried fruit water 2-4 tablespoons of honey grated ginger, lemon rind Put fruit in a medium saucepan and fill with water almost to cover. Add honey and ginger for apricots, grated lemon rind […]
First, I’d like to give you a little background about how I learned to leyn as an adult, more than 20 years ago. Avrom and I moved to North Carolina, and not knowing anyone, we started going to Beth El, a small Conservative congregation, figuring it was a good way to meet other people. It […]
Oh no! The sky is falling! The Jewish people are doomed! No, wait, that’s just the sound that the latest American Jewish population survey makes when it slams into the Jewish communal world. I wrote this column in the week following the publication of “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” the Pew Research Center’s survey […]
In early September, I stood outside JCC Rockland and with a group of about 50 people spanning generations, remembered the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered in the 1972 Munich Olympics. You could say it was an off year memorial, the 41st since Palestinian terrorists took the athletes hostage. It was small and simple, and […]
In a small, dimly lit building in Carnarsie, Brooklyn, Kenny Gomberg makes seltzer. Not seltzer in a plastic bottle, like you buy off the grocery store shelf — something Gomberg, a tall, lanky man, dismisses with the shake of his head — but New York City tap water, mixed with carbon dioxide, triple-filtered through sand, […]
by Sara Gilbert From the outset, the founders of the Jewish Federation of Rockland County wanted a newspaper as a way of informing and connecting the community, and giving Rockland what no other Jewish newspaper was doing – a steady diet of local news. They gave the community just that five years after forming the Federation […]
