We marked Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Memorial Day, on April 17-18. I don’t remember the details of the story, but I do remember some of the names. He was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. We met him on sabbatical to Israel, mid-’90s. I was studying music...

What moment was the G.O.A.T. in Jewish history? We often focus on our “lachrymose history,” tallying up tragedies, expulsions, destructions, and slaughters. It might be harder to come up with good moments. There is a certain intense relief and...

It happens every year. By day two of Passover, thousands, maybe millions of Jews begin to feel a little … stuck. You know, constipation.  While no formal, peer-reviewed studies have been published on the link between Passover and constipation,...

(New York Jewish Week) — Miriam Tohill, a Jewish chaplain intern at Rikers Island, is looking forward to co-leading Passover seders for Jewish inmates this year for the first time. But conditions at the New York City jail complex are not ideal. For...

(JNS) The Torah reserves some of its most elegant poetry for nautical phenomena amid the Red Sea parting. Exodus 15 describes the “heart of the sea” and Divine nostrils blowing “majestic” waters. Immediately after Miriam’s song celebrating the...

After years of analyzing Rachel Bloom’s musical sitcom “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” we have created this audio Passover Haggadah filled with songs from the show. It comes with rules, of course. In this episode, Erin and Esther carefully considered...

For more than a millennium, the haggadah has been the centerpiece of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The book sets out the ceremony for the Seder meal when families tell the biblical Exodus story of God delivering the ancient Israelites from slavery in...

If there is one hotly debated topic just as polarizing as politics, it’s whether gefilte fish is delicious or disgusting. I’m parked firmly in Camp Yuck, but many Jews pitch their tents in Camp Yum. We are just wrapping up Passover with the final...

This story was originally published by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and is republished here with full permission.  Private Joseph A. Joel noticed on his calendar that Passover was coming. He and 20 fellow Jewish soldiers requested relief from...

This chicken and kneidlach (AKA matzah balls) casserole is my mother-in-law’s creation, invented as an alternative to the sacks of potatoes consumed throughout Passover. It’s my husband’s favorite thing to eat, so we usually eat it on seder night...

Oh, how I love a good Jewish holiday parody video. First of all, they usually are well made, with impressive production values that I appreciate. But the real win is how well these groups sing and how funny they can be while somehow staying true to the...

The pre-Passover tradition of ridding one’s home of chametz can be done in a number of ways. Those include using it up, giving it away, or destroying by fire, (usually just before the chametz prohibition begins in the sixth hour of the day before Passover). There...