Your JCC’s preparing to welcome dozens(!) of new members for Friday night services and dinner tonight continues a longstanding tradition known as Oneg Shabbat, or Oneg Shabbos for the more Ashkenazically inclined. In early 20th century America, Blue Laws prohibited businesses from opening on Sunday. To put challah on the table, or more likely pay for...
With literal minutes to go until Shavuot starts (we’re still within the 18 minutes) and ChatGPT unable to compose a paragraph that brilliantly combines the holiday of Shavuot with our Bat Mitzvah Kayla Kleiman’s roots in Chicago, lets focus on what is important. Tonight, Thursday the community will bring in Shavuot with Cholov Yisroel (über...
“Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is as a body without a soul.”Elhanan Leib Lewinsky; Hebrew writer & Zionist leader (1857-1910) “In a way, I was born twice. I was born in 1934 and again in 1955 when I came to Pittsburgh. I am thankful to say that I lived two lives.”Roberto Clemente; Baseball Legend...
Cartago Delenda EstCarthage Must be Destroyed The famous quote, at least famous to those who spent time in AP European History, was spoken by Cato the Elder in the 2nd Century BCE during a debate in the Roman Senate prior to the Third Punic War. Following that pronouncement, the Carthaginians led by Hannibal’s grandson Hasdrubal...
In the cavalcade of six Bat/Bar Mitzvahs that dot the calendar over the next eight weeks, we begin with the Fishelbergs, one of the finest families to come out of Middlesex County, New Jersey. While the Jewish history of the Garden State could fill several volumes, our tribesmen’s relationship to the Fishelberg Family favorite, the...
“To be free, we must let go of hate.”-Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt”l In his 22 years as Chief Rabbi and until he died of cancer in 2020, Jonathan Sacks completely changed the global landscape with his uniquely inspirational, thought-provoking discourse that gave a Jewish response to contemporary issues without compromising religious ideals. Far from arguing...
What’s more Jewish? A Family-Owned Union Shop or Private Equity? In the late 19th/early 20th century, Jewish representation in organized labor was a given. Organizations like the Bund with origins in Europe or others like the Workmen’s Circle, United Hebrew Trades and the Jewish Labor Committee founded by European Jews in America focused their efforts...
As we set the tables and make final preparations, there is only one last borderline esoteric ritual left for Jewish communities throughout the world. Figure out how to get firstborn sons from having to fast the morning before Passover starts. Let’s back up. Among the minor fasts spread throughout the year including one before Purim...
Chametz. Leaven. Food containing one of the five species of grain (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, rye) that is mixed with water and left to rise for more than 18 minutes. Chametz’s antithesis of course is matzah, namely non-leavened food made from those same five species of grain mixed with water but left to rise for...
The Bank of United States. No, not Bank of America. No, also not Alexander Hamilton’s First or Second Bank of the United States for our AP American History scholars. The grammatically problematic but very real The Bank of United States got its start in 1913 and failed spectacularly 18 years later ushering in a series...