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GOTV: What Would Susan Do?

On November 5, a middle-aged woman walked up to her polling place in Rochester, New York. She entered the voting booth, and filled out her ballot indicating her preferred candidate. She dropped her completed ballot into the ballot box and went home.

This Hanukkah, Light One Candle for the Rohingya People

Aaron Torop

Crises often continue long after they disappear from the headlines, and the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in Burma is no exception.

Rethinking the Holy Days

Rabbi Donald Kunstadt

I’ve come to the conclusion we need to change the date of Simchat Torah. Our Jewish festivals must be re-envisioned as inspirational community gatherings of joyful spiritual Jewish celebration. Every single festival needs to be a time of great community involvement and meaning.

Crop of Marilyn Monroe on the cover of New York Sunday News magazine

Marilyn Monroe's Prayer Book is Up for Auction

Aron Hirt-Manheimer

The upcoming auction of Marilyn Monroe’s personal prayer book is making news. The siddur contains many pencil notations in the margins from when she was learning about Judaism

Galilee Diary: Uncertainty Principle

Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein

The details of the lunar cycle have been understood for thousands of years.

A Special Worship Service for Jews with Disabilities and Their Families

by Nancy Crown When I was called to meet with a member of my synagogue’s Congregation-Based Community Organizing Committee, I almost declined. I was asked to think about what the temple could do that it was not already doing. My main reaction was to reflect on the many opportunities for learning, worship, and community that I wasn’t partaking of, due to limited time and a longstanding “outsider” feeling when it comes to religion. Like many others, my upbringing did not include much meaningful participation in the spiritual aspects of Judaism. My daughter, now 28 years old, has developmental disabilities. She was keenly interested in Judaism as a young child, but as a teen, she began to talk about converting to another religion. By that time, our son was enrolled in school at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, where we were members. We chose a Jewish day school for a number of reasons, including our desire for our son to feel more secure in his Jewish identity than my husband, my daughter, or I had felt. We began lighting candles on Friday nights. I took Hebrew classes. We attended services, where, at moments, I would feel an achy kind of longing, alongside a feeling of being an outsider. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite find a way in.

In Toledo, Asleep in the Room of the Moneylenders

Ilana DeBare

We took advantage of our empty nest status to take a week-long trip to Spain this month, the first time in almost 20 years that we could travel at a time when schools weren’t on vacation.

The Bar Mitzvah of Benjamin Avi Faber

Paula Krone

Michael Faber

Like most parents, from the time we gave birth to our son, we had many hopes and dreams for him. We wanted him to have a good education, have friends and grow up to live a happy and prosperous life.