An interview with Ayelet Shaked

Published on August 15, 2012

With the run-up to the first-ever internal primaries for the Jewish Home Party (Ha-Bayit Ha-Yehudi) in full steam, one of the most hotly discussed issues is the candidacy of 36-year old Ayelet Shaked.

The embrace

By Rob Eshman
Published on February 8, 2012

At the end of Shabbat services last Saturday, I watched a 7-year-old boy recite the blessing over the wine, the Kiddush. His voice was pure, the Hebrew, a learned language for him, flowed fast and flawlessly from his mouth. His face shone.

Late to shul, on time for kiddush

Published on November 1, 2011

My friend and I go to the same synagogue but almost never run into each other. “How come?” I was musing the other day.

Stumbling through my bat mitzvah

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Published on January 10, 2008

My bat mitzvah was an unmitigated disaster.

I'd hoped the guests would be as taken as I was with my dress, first high heels and the orange and yellow petit fours at the Kiddush.

Pico-Robertson Live in the ‘hood: Little sukkahs, on the hillside, little huts made of ...

By David Suissa
Published on October 5, 2006

One of the great rituals of Jewish life: The sukkah.

Sukkot: the beauty of fragility

By Rabbi Daniel Greyber
Published on October 5, 2006

On Sukkot, the time tradition tells us is zman simchateinu, the season of our joy, we dwell in a fragile hut, open to the winds and rain and cold of the world, to remind ourselves that our joy is enriched, is deepened, when we glimpse, if only for a moment, how weak and fragile we are.

Herring and Haftarah

By Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin
Published on February 10, 2005

Single malt Scotch. Schmaltz herring. Cholent. Kugel. Marble sheet cake. What do all these delicacies have in common?

Yes, they all contribute to heart disease, but there's something more: They are all served at the Kiddush Club. A Kiddush Club is an exclusive group of shulgoers that meets somewhere outside the sanctuary during services -- usually during the chanting of the Haftorah -- to have a private "pre-Kiddush" Kiddush.

The New Year’s Sephardic Seder

By Julie G Fax
Published on September 13, 2001

It may not be as long and involved as the Passover seder, but for Raquel Bensimon, the ritualized dinner of Rosh Hashana is just as sweet and just as replete with memories.

Jewish Art Makeover

By Julie Wiener
Published on September 6, 2001

A women's tefillin set with a beaded velvet box and blue satin straps.

A silver "Kiddush" cup in which ceremonial wine passes through a delicately crafted silver net formed from the Hebrew word for "blessed."

A sukkah with brightly painted walls made of the long, plastic

strips found in industrial-sized refrigerators -- and furnished with stools and a mirrored table symbolizing the self-reflection expected during the High Holy Days.

Finding Their Way

Published on June 5, 1997

Like most converts, the Hardins take the precepts of their adopted faith more seriously than many born to it, and they display an intense hunger for knowledge, as if to make up for what they missed during their childhoods.