Educate to End Genocide

September 25, 2013 If your summer reading list included Witness to the Storm: A Jewish Journey from Nazi Berlin to the 82nd Airborne, 1920-1945 by Werner T. Angress (2012) or Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors by Helen Epstein (Penguin Books, 1979), you might be a 2nd generation Holocaust survivor. […]

What My Clever Mother Used To Say

  October 2012 Yiddish speaking friends listen “up”, and let’s speak a little. Not a literary Yiddish, but a common every day one: [whohit]What My Clever Mother Used To Say[/whohit] 1. Geh nisht mit shlechteh chaverim. (Don’t associate with bad friends.) 2. Ess ah bisseleh nor zaul daus zein eppes goot. (Eat a small amount […]

Shabat Shalom – Be Strong As The Leopard, Swift As The Eagle…

Dec. 20, 2013, 17 Tevet 5774, Shemot Exodus 1:1–6:1 Pirke Avot 5:23 – Judah ben Teima used to say: Be strong as the leopard, swift as the eagle, fleet as the gazelle, and brave as the lion to do the will of your Father in Heaven. He also used to say: The impudent are for […]

The Yiddish word for today

November 2013       Daus Yiddish vort far heist. (The Yiddish word for today.) Der zummer gait avek un balt vet shane veren kalt. (Summer is over and soon we will be getting cold weather.) Ahz ich haub geven ah clayneh ven der vetter is gevoren kalt flegen mir gain yehder mitvauch in shvitz […]

Childhood Memories In The Sukkah

October 2013     Ah gooten un gehzunter yor alleh meineh Yiddish lehenershaft un frynt. (A good and healthy New Year to all my Yiddish readership and friends.) Ich vil eich dertzalen vegen mein zaydes sukeh. (I want to tell you about my zayde’s sukkah.) Yeder yor glych nauch Yom Kippur fleckt der zayde tzuzamen […]

Tears No Longer Sting My Eyes

As a Holocaust educator, I see the need for all humanity to work for peace and justice so that “Never again!” becomes a reality for all people, and not just a slogan. For over a decade, I have been a member of a Jewish-Palestinian dialogue group and a multifaith group composed of lay leaders and […]

Meineh Yungeh Yorn (My Early Years)

June 2013 Yiddisheh kinder hert zach tzu ich vil redden mit eyech hynt fun meineh yungeh yorn. (Listen and I will tell you about my early years.) Ich haub zich gehaudevet in oremkeit, auber ich haub alleh mol geven tzufreeden mit vos haut pahsert. Der far vos ich haub gehat mein mutters mishpaucheh zayernaunt. I […]

Meineh Shayneh Gehdanke Fun Pesach (My good memories of Pesach)

March 2013     Ich gehdenk ahz glych nach Purim flegen mir aun hayben ramen tzu machen dee hoyz Pesachdik. Mir hauben nisht gehhat kein dindzt flegen mir alleh helfen dermahme. (I remember as soon as Purim was over we started cleaning to ready the house for Passover. We did not have maids so all […]

A Freilichen Purim

February 2013     “Haynt iz Purim morgen iz ouz, git mir ah groyshen un varft mir ahroys.” (“Today is Purim tomorrow it’s over, so give me a penny and I’ll be gone.”) Many years ago, little children would run from house to house in their little shtetl singing this on Purim. I heard it […]

Chicago Winters When I Was A Girl

January 2013   By Henya Chaiet Yiddisheh kinderlach hert zich tzoo un ich vel eych dertzalen ah bissel vegn mineh yungeh yoren. (Yiddish lovers listen and I will tell you a bit of my life story when I was a little girl.) Vinter is geven zayer kalt un greyleh shnayen in shtaut Chicageh. (The winters […]

How We Celebrated Chanukah

December 2012     By Henya Chaiet Yiddisheh kinder hert zich tzoo un mir vellen redden vegen Chanukah. Oy Chanukah; Chanukah ah yom tov ah shayner. (Yiddish friends listen up and we will talk about the holiday of Chanukah.) Ven ich hob geven ah klayneh kinde flegen mine mutters mishpaucheh cumen tzoo zamen bye dee […]

Israel and the Iran Effect

By Howard W. Karsh Within the history of any nation, there is a complex pattern of nature and politics that have shaped the life of the country. There is probably no nation like Israel whose history has been so dominated by its location and the quest for control. It has no buried wealth, but events […]

Cookbook by Chicago Hadassah Chapter

By Sybil Kaplan B’te Avon III Tasteful Treasures from North Boundary Hadassah, 3-ring binder, $25 plus $7 postage and handling; order from bigchapter.chicago@Hadassah.org or North Boundary Hadassah, 4711 Golf Road, Skokie, IL. 50076 For the 40-some years I’ve been involved with food as a food writer, cookbook author and cookbook reviewer, I have maintained that […]

Our first Israeli wedding

By Sybil Kaplan We had been in Israel one week short of three years, and although we have attended many simchot, heard about weddings from friends (and from my daughter who has gone to many weddings), when our friend called to ask if we would like to attend the wedding of his daughter, we were […]

Begrudging or Bust – Cinema Jews from Rosh Hashanah to New Year’s Eve

Jack and Jill There’s no denying that Adam Sandler has a talent for playing rather awkward and puerile Jewish men who are surprisingly likable, even appealing. Yet when Sandler applies this formula to portraying a Jewish woman, the result is the awkwardness without the appeal and likability factors. This is all too clear all too […]

Creating Meaningful Jewish Rituals – A Recipe For Well-Being

By Amy Hirshberg Lederman January 26, 2012 When I was growing up my family didn’t observe many Jewish rituals. We didn’t light candles on Friday night and my dad’s idea of keeping kosher was not putting bacon on a cheeseburger. None of us knew which prayers were said for eating, drinking, or celebrating the holidays, […]

Shevat Began Jan 26

By Melinda Ribner It may still be the heart of the winter in many places, but the month of Shevat marks a hidden and mystical time of new beginnings. Shevat is a time of rebirth, new inspiration and creativity. The first part of the month may still feel dark and harsh, but that all changes […]

For the Sake of Others

By Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D Sitting in my study I began reading a book about the life of Albert Einstein. To say that he was an interesting person would be to understate his importance or the impact he had on humanity with his Theory of Relativity – the concept of time and space. To this […]

Kvetching Andy Rooney Style

Andy Rooney alas is dead. I used to love to hear him kvetch. Chanukah and that other holiday have passed when the transliteration chachamim (Chelm “wise” men) were at it again. I received a card with the Chanuka(h) blessings (spelled with two k’s no less) and I noticed the Hebrew word a-tah spelled with two […]

Shlemiel the First resurfaces and a new Porgy and Bess

“Shlemiel the First,” the joyous 1994 Klezmer musical, reappeared this past month on the New York stage for, alas, too brief a visit. This revival was the joint production of the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene and the Theatre for a New Audience, staged at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. And […]

Ayin Caramba!

For most of the 20th century, Hebrew teachers dutifully taught pupils that the Hebrew alphabet had two “silent letters,” aleph and ayin. While this may be true of Modern Hebrew, both letters were pronounced in Biblical Hebrew. Eastern European Jews continued to pronounce the ayin until at least the 1700s. Ayin and aleph are still […]

Say Kaddish over your dead computer

By Ted Robert She was getting old. You could tell her passion was waning even though she was only 22 years old. Two out of three times when I clicked on her button she wouldn’t turn on. Well, she turned a dusky orange, but not that inviting – “here’s your mail” green that I had […]

A Zealot is a Zealot

By Jim Shipley In 1951, the Longshoreman / philosopher Eric Hoffer published The True Believer where he postulated that all extreme philosophies and movements were pretty much the same. Whether called Communism, Fascism, militant Islam or the Settler Movement, their tactics, extremism and lack of common sense are pretty much the same. Hoffer said “a […]

Fun vanen heybt zach aun ah libeh? (How does a love affair begin?

April 2013 Mein libeh haut zach aun gehaben ahz ich haub zich gehlerent zein ah nurse. (My love affair started while I was a student nurse at Mt. Sinai (Jewish) Hospital in Chicago.) Mein shziger iz geven krank in hauspehtal un ich fleg err bauden un iber biten deh kleyder. Ich fleg redden Yiddish mit […]

What’s with the fours?

by Rabbi Avi Shafran Despite the late hour and exhaustion(not to mention wine),many a Jewish mind has wondered long and hard during a Passover Seder about all the Haggadah’s “fours.” Four questions, four sons, four expressions of redemption, four cups.There’s clearly a numerical theme here. While some may superficially dismiss the Haggadah as a mere […]

Relationships Between Jews and Germans Today

By Miriam Zimmerman What happens when today’s Jews and Germans encounter each other face to face? What restraints cripple both parties in their attempts to communicate? Is there the proverbial elephant in the room that no one engages directly? Perhaps the different generations handle the awkwardness differently. What rights do contemporary Jews have to invoke […]

Moving Toward Vege-Veganism

By Mary Hofmann Eating Animals, by Jonathan SafranFoer, envisions a Passover without meatand provides compelling reasons why weshould consider moving toward becomingvegetarians/vegans in our scary newworld of factory “farming.” While Michael Pollan (Omnivore’sDilemma and Food Rules), Mark Bittman(Food Matters), Alan Weisman (The WorldWithout Us) and others aren’t as straightforwardin drawing parallels betweencurrent human behavior and […]

Yes, the Rabbanit (Rebbetzin, Rabbi’s Wife) Yemima, Not the Rabba

By Batya Medad I wasn’t quite sure what was acceptablerecently, so I only took a couple ofpictures after it was over, and only one iseven barely acceptable.You can see her inthe distance wearing a black hat. Strange for me, I have troubleremembering her points, even though Iwas mesmerized and listened to everyword. But I’m very […]

Rosh Hodesh: Finding strength one month at a time – by Amy Hirshberg Lederman

I listened to the phone message from Cindy and knew that something was wrong. I could hear it in her voice, even through the static on my answering machine. I called her back immediately and my worst fears were confirmed: Cindy had breast cancer We didn’t speak often because Cindy needed to conserve her energy […]

Wineries and an Artist’s Colony in the Golan Heights

  How would you feel if you could swallow less than a tablespoon of something every day and know it would prevent heart disease and bad cholesterol, destroy cancer cells and even stop the development of cancer? If you are a diabetic, it would balance the level of insulin in the blood. A miracle drug? […]

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