MIMI DAVID, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
• Published July 20, 2022
Yael was a recent college graduate looking for her first teaching job in Israel. She finally found a position she thought she would enjoy, teaching beginner Hebrew skills to new Israeli immigrants in an ulpan. Nervous but confident in her creative classroom...
(JTA) — Norway’s Jewish community said it will petition the country’s Supreme Court unless observant Jews get more of their holidays recognized in the national calendar system.
The current law on national holidays, which was updated last year,...
What happens when we look at a painting? We see a familiar world through the eyes and brushstrokes of another, and suddenly it looks different from the way we normally see it.
Poetry uses words we know to create unexpected images and comparisons...
NAAMA BARAK, Israel21c.org
• Published June 2, 2022
Now that summer is upon us, it’s time to get ready for what is commonly considered the best holiday on the Jewish calendar: Shavuot. Coming seven weeks after Passover (Shavuot means “weeks” in Hebrew), Shavuot begins this year at nightfall on June...
The holiday of Shavuot is almost upon us, and here in Israel the country is opening up steadily day by day, bringing new festivity into the air. This will be the first chance for many families to celebrate a holiday together since Tu Bishvat in February,...
BILL MOTCHAN, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 18, 2022
Lag b’Omer begins tonight (May 18) at sunset. It’s a bit of a weird holiday because it commemorates a number: the 33rd day of the Omer, the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot.
Lag b’Omer is also an oddity because there’s no real consensus...
Joshua Shanes, College of Charleston
• Published May 17, 2022
The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel – which in 2022 falls on Wednesday night, May 18 – until recently has attracted as many as half a million visitors every year. The annual gathering, which takes place at what is believed to...
MARK D. ZIMMERMAN, Special For The Jewish Light
• Published May 16, 2022
Lag B’Omer will be celebrated this Thursday. The name of the holiday means “the 33rd day of the Omer,” a period that begins on the second day of Passover. Counting the Omer historically references the harvesting of the new barley crop to be brought...
Bill Motchan, Special For The Jewish Light
• Published April 21, 2022
A tri-lingual Crown Center Senior Living Passover event on April 21 combined food, wine, and memories. The occasion was a special seder for the Jewish Russian immigrants who call Crown Center home.
A joyous group of 20 residents gathered at the Circle@Crown...
(JTA) — A 13th-century Sephardic haggadah from Catalonia, Spain. A 15th-century haggadah from Prague. A 20th-century haggadah from Fez, Morocco.
For the first time, a selection of some of the most historic haggadahs from the National Library of Israel’s...
(JTA) — Just days before Jews around the world gather with their families and friends to read the Haggadah as part the Passover holiday, one family of reunited Holocaust survivors filed a lawsuit to reclaim a 700-year-old haggadah that they say was...
Julia Silverberg Nemeth, Special For The Jewish Light
• Published April 15, 2022
Passover was on March 30 the first year I ever celebrated it. I remember it was a stormy spring in Los Angeles. Rainwater roared through the city aqueducts. I had never witnessed so much rain in Southern California before. Everything seemed to be moving...
