(JTA) — Jewish eras can be defined by events (the fall of the Second Temple, the Inquisition, the founding of Israel) and by ideas (the rabbinic era, emancipation, post-denominationalism). A community reveals itself in the things it argues about most...

Every year during Hanukkah, we read part of the Joseph story. In parashat Miketz, this week’s parashah, Joseph is let out of jail and finds himself in pharaoh’s palace. He rises to power, is given an Egyptian name, an Egyptian wife, and he becomes...

Sunday night I did something I don’t often do these days. I watched a movie — with commercials — on “regular” TV. It happened to be “The Sound of Music,” one of my all-time favorites, which clocked in at four hours on ABC. I realize I could...

Editor’s Note: This commentary is a composite of participants’ responses to the Newmark Institute trip to Washington, D.C. Quotes from those responses are interspersed in the text below in italics.   “This was a life altering experience...

As the year ends and some of us make resolutions, looks often come up in what we can change. We suggest a different strategy. Looks have never been topmost, though we like to look good. We have our reasons. Growing up, Margaret's mother preached: "Pretty...

Happy Hanukkah! The candles are lit, the wax is dripping, the latkes are sizzling, and the house will smell like it for a week. Let’s celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah with eight random thoughts, one for each night, from my brain to yours. I don’t...

The Book of Genesis is divided into four major narratives. They are marked by deceit, violence, double-crossing, payback, redemption and reconciliation. This week’s portion, Vayeshev, is read during the month of Kislev, a month of darkness,...

Editor’s note: Amy Fenster Brown was part of the Light’s 2015 Class of Unsung Heroes because of her outstanding volunteer contributions. Here, she writes about what she knows, though she isn’t one to tout her many achievements. It’s our favorite...

Stand up to book banning efforts In Nazi Germany, 25,000 books were burned in one night in 1933, the beginning of a series of censorship actions during the Holocaust. Now 90 years later, we are seeing a worrisome rise in censorship attempts across the...

This is the season of long nights, so it is fitting that we are reading the story of our ancestor, Jacob, the patriarch most closely connected with the night. When Jacob first leaves home, he is running from the rage of his brother, Esau, and stops to...