Is it really all pray, no play at Ramah camps across the country?
This was the question posed by a Forward article this week. The piece, looking particularly at Ramah Berkshires, wonders if praying three times a day as well as having Judaic studies decreases the amount of “fun” that goes on at the summer camps.
It […]
UJC reported this week that the number of young Jews who applied for Birthright Israel was far greater than the number who became bar or bat mitzvah this year.
Over the past 12 months, 44,675 Americans have applied to the Birthright program, which offers free 10-day educational trips to Israel for Jews between the ages of […]
Posted in General on June 28th, 2007 
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A Jew spends time in Earth orbit. He took a mezuzah along, but on Passover, no Matzah. (San Diego Jewish Journal)
A San Diego Jew visits the struggling Jewish community of Wellington, New Zealand. (San Diego Jewish Journal)
The eclectic Jewish community of Taiwan, such as it is, centers on the efforts of the island’s sole rabbi, […]
Posted in Culture on June 28th, 2007 No Comments »
The latest installment of Adeena Sussman’s MJL food column “The Inspired Kitchen” is now available. The newest recipe: Yerushalmi Kugel. Looking for a new Shabbat recipe? This sweet and peppery noodle pudding is perfect for a summer Sabbath.
I’m currently in Vienna as part of a delegation of (youngish) Jews from New York. The trip is being organized by the City of Vienna as a sort of diplomatic introduction. Why are they interested in introducing the city to a group of 20 Jewish lawyers, businessfolks, and educators?
I’m still a little unclear about this, […]
Posted in History & Community on June 27th, 2007 1 Comment »
We here at MJL have a strong appreciation for the internet. We have to in our line of business.
But, as JTA reported yesterday, many other Jewish non-profits haven’t learned how to harness the power of the web–in this case, for donations.
Only one or two national organizations raise a significant portion of their donations from the […]
Should Israel try to negotiate a “shelf agreement” — a final-status deal that would then be put on the shelf until Abbas is strong enough to actually implement it, or should any negotiations wait until Abbas is strong enough to implement what is agreed to? (Haaretz)
Gideon Levy says that the “boycott on the Palestinian Authority […]
Posted in Lifecycle on June 26th, 2007 10 Comments »
June is a popular time for Jewish weddings. Being a newlywed myself, we went through all of the traditional aspects of creating the simcha: finding a rabbi, deciding what customs to use, having an aufruf and designing our Ketubah.
But all of this was well overshadowed by other decisions. Those about the celebration after the ceremony: […]
Posted in General on June 26th, 2007 No Comments »
A groundbreaking ceremony for a new museum dedicated to the history of Jewish life and culture in Poland is set for next week.
Polish Jewry is worth memorializing, of course, but the number of museums dedicated to remembering decimated European Jewish populations makes me wonder: How much are these physical structures about the past […]
Probably the only Jewish woman in Gaza. (Haaretz)
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter. (The Jerusalem Post)
Prof. Uriel Reichman, who seeks “to develop an interdisciplinary university on a world-class level” for Israel. (The Jerusalem Post)
Norman Podhoretz, winner of the 2007 Guardian of Zion award, by his journalist daughter. (The Jerusalem Post)
Shoshana Gugenheim Jerusalem soferet (female Torah scribe). […]
