J-Serve

By Emma Graham In BBYO, the unspoken rules of high school do not apply. All are welcome, and everyone is made to feel important and included. In this environment, weekly meetings and events become outlets for teens who shy away from raising their hands in class or joining school clubs.Continue Reading

Sophie will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on April 18, 2015, at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation. Sophie is the daughter of Patty and Jonathan Lazarus, and the sister of Jake and Micah Lazarus. Her grandparents are Joseph and Maryellen Eastern of Woodinville, Earl Lazarus of Mercer Island, the late Merielle Eastern, andContinue Reading

Lauren will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on March 28, 2015 at Temple Beth Am in Seattle. Lauren is the daughter of Jess and Judi Harris of Kirkland and the sister of Aliza. Her grandparents are Don and Alice Schindel of Highland Park, Ill., Joyce Harris of Atlanta, Ga., and theContinue Reading

Gabrielle will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on March 28, 2015 at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Bellevue. Gabrielle is the daughter of Deb and Marc Kadish of Issaquah and the sister of Elana. Her grandparents are Judy and Norm Rosenbloom of Portland, Ore., and Susi and Ira Kadish of Seattle.Continue Reading

(JTA) — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas criticized President Barack Obama’s relationship with Israel while announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. “Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with Israel,” Cruz said during his announcement Monday at LibertyContinue Reading

(JTA) — Israel slammed a U.N. commission’s resolution blaming “the Israeli occupation” for the lack of advancement of Palestinian women in their society. The resolution passed Friday by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is “politically motivated, factually disconnected and morally flawed,” Israeli diplomat Nelly Shiloh said inContinue Reading

By Beth Kissileff, JTA World News Service (JTA) — Forget Iran and anti-Semitism. Lavie Tidhar and British fantasy author Rebecca Levene’s newly released short-story anthologies “Jews Versus Aliens” and “Jews Versus Zombies” (both published by Jurassic London, with all profits going to MOSAC, a British group that assists victims ofContinue Reading

caprese salad

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Vegetarian food brought Cantor Jenna Greenberg and Rabbi Josh Ginsberg together. The two met as students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, when a classmate organized a singles dinner at a kosher vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown. Greenberg had become a vegetarianContinue Reading

By Rabbi Olivier BenHaim, Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue Our tradition assumes the possibility of four different levels of interpretation to any text, from the literal to the esoteric. One of these levels, the allegorical level, allows us to understand our Biblical stories as universal archetypes relating to the human spiritualContinue Reading

Exodus from Egypt

By Dasee Berkowitz, JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA) — Transitions are never easy. You decide to leave one place you know for unfamiliar territory. You don’t feel quite like yourself (and probably won’t for a while). You try to act like everything is fine even though you know thatContinue Reading

March of the Living

By Michal Lotzkar, Special to the Jewish Sound I went on a trip to Israel a few months ago. I had been to Israel many times before, and each time I travelled there by way of a different route. This time I traveled to Israel via Auschwitz, on the MarchContinue Reading

kids books

By Rita Berman Frischer, Special to The Jewish Sound The Hebrew people may have schlepped on foot for 40 years, but modern transportation has updated traveling to and through the Promised Land. Kar-Ben Publishing marks this year’s Festival of Freedom, Passover, by featuring “Engineer Ari” and his intrepid train asContinue Reading