Three Jewish Mothers

By Ilana Angel
Published on May 6, 2012

A Blessing for Hitler? May His Memory Be Eradicated

By Pini Herman
Published on January 25, 2012

Who by water, and who by fire?

By Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky
Published on August 31, 2009

VideoGuide to L.A. - Volume 5 - Jew vs. Wild

By Jay Firestone
Published on November 3, 2008

USC Trojans march for restored Torah; Backyard tashlich in Fairfax

Published on September 21, 2006

USC Trojans march for restored Torah; backyard tashlich in Fairfax.

Questions, Prayers and Shabbat Lights

By Amy Klein
Published on April 27, 2006

Questions, Prayers and Shabbat Lights.

Just One Shabbat

By Amy Klein
Published on March 2, 2006

"Just one Shabbos and we'll all be free," religious rocker Mordechai Ben David sang back in the 1980s. Well, for the last decade, one Jewish organization has tried to get people to experience Shabbat at least once a year.

Between the Pages for Young, Young-at-Heart

By Gaby Friedman
Published on September 15, 2005

Let's face it. Many people go to synagogue on the High Holidays because they have to. A feeling of poorly understood and unappreciated obligation can pervade this time of year. But it doesn't have to. You can put yourself or your children in the spirit and in the know with help from this by-no-means-comprehensive list of titles that elucidate the prayers and customs of the holiday.

A Prayer for Victims of Hurricane Katrina

By Rabbi Naomi Levy
Published on September 8, 2005

Are You watching, God?

Have You seen the innocent swept away?

Are You listening, God?

Have You heard their cries?

Be with them, God.

Be their strength and their comfort.

Let them know You are near.

Work through us, God.

Teach us to be Your messengers on earth.

Wake us up, God,

Show us how to help.

Use us, God, shine through us,

Inspire us to rebuild the ruins.

Open our hearts so we can comfort the mourning.

Open our arms so we can extend our hands to those in need.

Shake us out of our complacency, God.

Be our guide,

Transform our helplessness into action,

Our generous intentions into charity,

Turn the prayers of our souls into acts of kindness and compassion.

Amen.

City’s Plight Brings Flood of Memories

By Rabbi Anne Brener
Published on September 8, 2005

In New Orleans, the Jews are the only ones buried in the ground. Others, if their mourners have any means at all, are laid with the expectation of eternal rest in stone crypts to protect them from rising waters. My mother used to say, "Someday, we Jews'll all be floatin' down the river."

Just as in California, where we know that one day "the big one" will come, in New Orleans, we knew that someday the water would overtake us. But the denial overtakes the wisdom, and we stay and build lives. I think of Pompeii. New Orleans was so beautiful.

Boy Scouts Blend Values at Shul Tent

By Aliza Karp
Published on August 25, 2005

When Boy Scout troop 711 from Alaska lost four of its leaders in a freak electrical accident on the first day of the recent National Scout Jamboree here, the one Jewish Scout in the Alaska contingent was left in a quandary.

On the Sunday morning of the gathering, when jamboree activities were suspended for a few hours, all of Noah Magen's troop mates were headed to religious services for their respective faiths. But what does a Jewish Scout do on Sunday?

For Noah, the answer was the Shul Tent, where daily services and special programming were provided for Jewish Scouts.

Spiritual Help Can Benefit Hopelessly Ill

By Judy Gruen
Published on March 31, 2005

When my friend, Debra, learned that a young man she knew had been in a tragic accident and was comatose, she went to the hospital to visit him every day for three months. No one knew if the man would emerge from his deep, distant sleep, but Debra believed that he would.

A Daf a Day

By Dr. Warren Klein
Published on March 3, 2005

Growing up religious in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, I didn't have much choice when it came to religious studies: it was full time till I was 18. I always felt it was being shoved down my throat.

So I stayed away from religious studies for about a decade -- from college, through marriage, a year of service in Vietnam and three children.

During that time I stayed close to religion through observance, community and friends, but I avoided any formal religious study.

Time to Go Home

By Nathan D. Wirtschafter
Published on February 3, 2005

I felt a great, humbling appreciation that I was now doing what so many of my ancestors had wished to do for thousands of years.

Faith Holds Fast

By Neil Steinberg
Published on January 15, 2004

Almost every Friday afternoon for the last few months, I've been visited at my office by a pair of young Chasidic Jews -- high school students in big black hats and sporting the wispy beginnings of what I am certain will someday be fine beards.

‘Light’ From Darkness

By Rita Berman Frischer
Published on January 2, 2003

The UPS man brought an envelope containing a beautiful ray of hope, an exceptional picture book by Jane Breskin Zalben titled "Let There Be Light: Poems and Prayers for Repairing the World" (Dutton Books, $15.99).

Beth Sholom’s New Siddur

By Journal Staff
Published on December 5, 2002

To address the needs of congregants not fully comfortable with Hebrew liturgy, Rabbi Shelton J. Donnell, along with a group of lay leaders, spent eight years developing a new siddur.

Sin

By Amy Klein
Published on September 12, 2002

By the time you read this, it's probably too late for me. To repent, I mean.

The Golden Calf

By Abby Gilad
Published on August 8, 2002

We are entering the homestretch. Aug. 9 is the first of Elul, the last month in the Jewish calendar.

UCLA Hillel Mourns Victims

By Michael Aushenker
Published on August 8, 2002

It was a postcard-perfect afternoon outside Kerckhoff Hall on UCLA's campus on Tuesday, Aug. 6., but Debra Bach could not stop crying.

Red String

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on January 3, 2002

I wear a piece of red string around my right wrist, a talisman for healing.

YULA Alumna Injured in Blast

By Julie G Fax
Published on December 6, 2001

Tuesday morning prayers at the girls school of Yeshiva High School of Los Angeles (YULA) took a little longer than usual this week.

The Most Dangerous Game

By Rabbi Yakov Vann
Published on November 29, 2001

Today I received a phone call from an 18-year-old named Steven. Steven and I were scheduled to meet at Starbucks in a few days, prior to his leaving for U.S. military service. He called to let me know that he could not keep our appointment as the Marine Corps insisted that he report for duty that very evening, two weeks ahead of schedule. I asked him for his Hebrew name (Shlomo Yakar ben Nechama) to add his name to our prayers recited each Shabbos on behalf of the entire American and Israeli Defense Forces.

Find the Gems

By Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Published on September 27, 2001

There once was a man who could provide only potatoes for his family's subsistence. As the monotony and the poverty wore on, he prayed, and his prayers were answered. There fell into his hands a mysterious map to a magical Island of Diamonds.

By Journal Staff

Published on August 9, 2001

Three Rabbis were talking over a regular Sunday morning breakfast get-together.

Nighttime Devotion

By Dennis Gura
Published on April 12, 2001

During the past few years, an effort has been made to retrieve women's devotional literature and present it to a contemporary Jewish world.

Do You Believe

By Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Published on July 17, 1997

Torah Portion.

Alligators Under

By Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Published on June 19, 1997

I learned most of my theology not from my teachers but from my children. When my daughter, Nessa, was 3 years old, we had a routine. Each night, I would tuck her into bed, sing our bedtime prayers, kiss her good night and attempt to sneak out of the room. Halfway down the hall, she began to scream, "Abba!" An avid reader of Parents magazine, the Torah of parenting, I knew what to do: I walked back to the child's room and turned on every light. I looked under the bed. "No alligator, Nessa." I checked the closet. "No monsters, Nessa." I surveyed the ceiling. "No spiders, Nessa. Now go to bed. Tomorrow is coming, and you've got to get to sleep," I'd say. "Everything is safe. Good night." "OK, Abba," she said, "but leave the light on."