Unpredictability

By Howard W. Karsh We live in a chaotic world. We are often at the edge of our seats because all of the media by which we are surrounded seems to all be “Breaking News” and everything that follows is tragic and nerve racking. In addition, we are in the final weeks of an Election […]

Tribute to Jacob Neusner, 84, columnist and friend

Neusner who passed away on Oct. 8, at his home in New York was one of the most influential voices in American Jewish intellectual life in the past half-century. A tribute to Jacob Neusner This followed his lecture and receipt of an honorary doctorate from HUC-JIR, NY on Dec. 1, 2009 and was published in […]

Indianapolis teen in Israel through Camp Koby

By Hanna Fogel Indianapolis native Lauren Schwartz is only 17 years old, but is already making her mark on the world. She recently returned from a summer in Israel, two weeks of which were spent at Camp Koby, a summer program for children who had lost loved ones in terrorist attacks. Lauren first heard about […]

June 5-Camp Livingston Family Fun Day

2nd Annual Russian Festival

The second annual Russian Festival will take place on Sun., May 22 from noon to 7 p.m., at University High School in Carmel, Ind. The Festival is organized by the volunteers of the Russian School of Indiana to raise funds for School’s programs and activities. The Russian School of Indiana – a Sunday enrichment program […]

Dealing with Stress the Jewish Way

A lecture by Edward Hoffman, Ph.D., given at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center in 1988 By Jennie Cohen The following list offers Jewish beliefs, customs and practices to help us cope with a myriad of challenges and situations: 1. HAVING A SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK “People who see life as having a larger purpose, as something […]

Pesach from a Kabbalistic perspective

By Rabbi David Zeller, z”l Temple Beth Abraham, Oakland, Calif., March 22, 1987 One can’t talk about Passover without mentioning a little bit about Purim. Purim is about costume – what we wear and don’t wear. The very first Purim costume was God dressing up in the universe. It says in the psalms, “He puts […]

Open house for Bar/Bat Mitzvah Venue

502 Event Centre Open House LOOKING FOR A BAR OR BAT MITZVAH VENUE? Come tour 502 East! (317) 843-1234 www.502east.com Sunday, March. 6 from 3–5 p.m., at 502 East Event Centre in Carmel. Join us for a complimentary Bar & Bat Mitzvah party tasting. The tasting will include a specially crafted menu from our award-winning […]

Four Firsts — American women rabbis at Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis 4-30-15

Joseph and the Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat

2015 Indiana Writers Center Gathering of Writers

2015 GATHERING OF WRITERS – MARCH 21, 2015 ONLY CONNECT: PROSE, POETRY, PASSION Breakout sessions on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting by noted authors from Indiana and beyond The Indiana Writers Center’s annual Gathering of Writers, Only Connect: Prose, Poetry, Passion, will take place on Saturday, March 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at […]

Congregation Har Shalom in Missoula, Montana

  Fountain of Judaism flows in the mountain of peace By Matthew J. Silver When I first contacted members of the Har Shalom Congregation in Missoula, Mont., in 2003, they were holding services, Sunday school and meetings in the public library, sometimes in a church and other times in members’ homes. An Orthodox-trained rabbi came […]

Our Health, Our Future

  Our Health, Our Future   By Dr. Lisa Harris, CEO Eskenazi Health The following is an excerpt of a speech given from the pulpit of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis on Sept.6, 2014 at the Bat Mitzvah of Ella Eskenazi. I have always admired the Jewish tradition for its focus on social responsibility, for […]

The Klezmatics

THE KLEZMATICS HAPPY JOYOUS HANUKKAH SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13 8PM | PURDUE UNIVERSITY’S LOEB PLAYHOUSE TICKETS: $20-28 | CONVOCATIONS.ORG/TICKETS | (800) 914-SHOWhttp://www.convocations.org/portfolio/the-klezmatics-12-13-14/

Book Review– Maimonides: Life and Thought.

High praise for English version of Maimonides book By Professor Arnold Ages Maimonides: Life and Thought. By Moshe Halbertal. Translated from the Hebrew by Joel Linsider. Princeton University Press. 2014. 385 Pages. As Voltaire once observed – The Bible is plus célèbre que connu – The Bible is more celebrated than known – a comment […]

Rabbi Zoberman opening prayer

    On Dec. 11, 2014, Rabbi Israel Zoberman (left) will offer the opening prayer at the session of the U.S. Senate, sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (Va.), on the occasion of his 40th anniversary of this rabbi’s ordination. It will be carried live on C-SPAN. Rabbi Zoberman is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth […]

Peace through music

In my brother Rabbi Benzion Cohen’s column, he writes that love is one of the ways to bring peace to the world. I agree and add that music is also a powerful method. For the past several years, we have been publishing stories by Jerusalem Peacemaker Eliyahu McLean. He frequently writes about the interfaith events […]

Blessing The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart

Guide for times we seek presence of mind and heart Review by Bonnie Maurer Blessing The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart. By Marcia Falk. Brandeis University Press. 2014. Pages 260. $24.95. If you are new to Marcia Falk’s book for the Jewish High Holiday Season, you may find as I have, […]

Elul and Ethical Wills

Below in italics is the Ethical Will Rabbi Steven Z. Leder created for his children. While ordinary wills tell our loved ones what to do with our material possessions, an ethical will teaches our values that we hope will live on. Elul, the Hebrew month before Rosh Hashanah, is a good time to create an […]

Yiddish Far Alleh Taug (Yiddish for Everyday)

By Henya Chaiet Ah gooten morgen tzu eich tyereh Yiddisheh kinder. Onshuldicht mir far derfar vaus ich haub nisht gehret mit eich far etlehcheh maunahten. Ich haub geven nisht gezundt, uhn in hauspital. (Good morning, my dear Yiddish children. Please excuse me for not writing to you these past few months. I was ill and […]

Passover: Why is My God
Different from Your God?

Ever since I can remember, I have been in a relationship with God. Despite growing up in a family of agnostics, I always believed in, and even felt, the presence of God in my world. My idea of God as a child was that of a Biblical God – all-knowing, omnipotent, father-like, and ubiquitous. God […]

Filling the Hands of Leaders

Most of us, if we think of ourselves as Jews, inevitably ask this question:  What accounts for the phenomenal survival and success of the Jewish people? [whohit]Filling the Hands of Leaders[/whohit] By all logic we should have disappeared long ago, as did dozens of other ancient civilizations and nations. The Greeks and Romans, with all […]

Florida’s Boca Raton Resort and Club
is like fine wine (especially on Passover)

[whohit]Florida’s Boca Raton Resort and Club[/whohit] One of the linguistic curiosities in the names of some American cities is the startling cleavage between the meaning and reality of those names. A case in point: Boca Raton, in the original Spanish, means “rat’s mouth” a designation which the Spanish explorers gave to the indentation on the […]

Florida’s Sun, Sand and The Arts

[whohit]South Florida’s flourishing arts scene[/whohit] South Florida’s flourishing arts scene, and its growing potential as a meeting place for singles, is now drawing more than just snowbirds in the winter. The numerous theaters, concert venues, exhibits, festivals and fairs of all sorts are attracting visitors of every age. Among the singles groups in South Florida […]

Why Israel Will Miss Ariel Sharon

JERUSALEM – I was privileged to know, appreciate, and befriend Ariel Sharon for both before and during the years he served as Israel’s 11th prime minister. He became, through the years, a dear friend. In today’s parlance, we were on each other’s “like list.” We frequently spoke on the phone. Whenever I visited Israel, or […]

Inside Llewyn Davis – (movie review)
“In Ways Normal To His Place”

“Folk song calls the native back to his roots and prepares him emotionally to dance, worship, work, fight, or make love in ways normal to his place.” Alan Lomax, Folk Songs of North America. Over sushi in Brooklyn the other night, I was asked to justify why we made the kids see Inside Llewyn Davis, the […]

A New Peace Plan For Israel
And The Palestinians

My wife and I are in preparations for a trip to Israel, the Holy Land, Eretz Yisroel. It will be the 4th time in a year and a half, because we are parents, grandparents and great-grandparents of family in Israel, and because, as long as we can, we want to be at every simcha.  Did we […]

Shevat – A Month Of Renewal – Kabbalah of the Month

This new month of Shevat beginning sunset on January 1, 2014 is pregnant with new possibilities. Some of us may have lived through a cold and challenging winter this year in our lives, but spring is coming. Be patient and never lose hope. The first part of the month of Shevat may still feel energetically […]

Shipley Speaks – What is A Green Grocer?

There are words, expressions and entire languages that rise, spread and then seem to just disappear. Today it would seem even the e-mail is going out of style, replaced by texting which replaces words with single letters (You = U). This is not a judgment, just a statement of fact. Remember when you sent a […]

Judah ben Teima used to say:
At 5 years Old A Person Should Study The Scriptures

Pirke Avot 5:24 – Judah ben Teima used to say: At five years old a person should study the Scriptures, at ten years for the Mishnah, at thirteen for the commandments, at fifteen for the Talmud, at eighteen for the bridechamber, at twenty for one’s life pursuit, at thirty for authority, at forty for discernment, […]

Updates on the current situation in Israel