On the Road to Ojai, Ruach Nashim 2012

By Lisa Niver Rajna
Published on June 6, 2012

A Passover surprise

By Noga Gur-Arieh
Published on April 5, 2012

Ghosts, Spirits and My Kids’ Wild Imagination…

By Julia Bendis
Published on June 23, 2011

Spirit and Chocolate Top Temple Emanuel Installation

By Norma Zager
Published on September 7, 2006

Circuit news; Spirit and Chocolate Top Temple Emanuel Installation; Big Fun in Big Apple; Rabbi on Board; Kids Raise the 'Roof'.

The Final Frontier

By Amy Klein
Published on July 21, 2005

Professor Ron Folman leads me down a few staircases of the science building of Ben Gurion University (BGU) in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva to show me his million-dollar, state-of-the-art nanotech laboratory.

It feels like we're descending to some basement bomb shelter of an old Israeli building. Actually, we are. Very recently, the laboratory was a bomb shelter. And despite the double doors leading to a white, clean room with an air-pressurized system to keep the expensive equipment immaculate, there is still a feel of the makeshift here, in the wall coverings, in the tiled ceilings, in the fact that it was formerly a bomb shelter before Folman came along.

"Building a lab was the condition for me to do my high-tech here," said Folman, a scientist in his 40s who is darkly handsome in a 1970s professorial way. Sometimes it's "frustrating," added the head of the Atom Chip Laboratory, to make do with a lab that's been improvised into a basement bomb shelter, "but in the big picture we're doing more than science. We're helping the Negev and making a difference. These are not just words for me."

Learning to Breathe

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on January 6, 2005

For the last several years I have had a relationship with a man in prison, and I have seen how his soul has become anguished and diminished by sitting in that cell.

I met William after he was released from prison the first time, and I helped him get back on his feet. Now I write him words of comfort from the Psalms, from the Torah and from meditations that I have found to enhance an ailing spirit.

A Graphic Anniversary

By Michael Aushenker
Published on July 10, 2003

"What the graphic novel has done is make it clear we're dealing with an art form," said Maggie Thompson, editor of Comics Buyer's Guide.

Marlene Marks’ Spirit on the Web

By Beverly Gray
Published on June 5, 2003

Jana Rosenblatt's founding partners in Five Chicks Unlimited are four local businesswomen who have been touched by cancer. They bring expertise in finance, product research, Web design and customer service to the site.

One Night for Israel

By Mike Levy
Published on November 28, 2002

The new Toys for Chanukah campaign comes hot on the heels of IESF's Rosh Hashana Honey campaign -- when you, dear readers, sent honey for a sweet new year to Israeli victims of terror, IDF soldiers and friends and family in Israel.

Sense From Senselessness

By Judea Pearl
Published on September 5, 2002

What follows is an edited version of a speech that Judea Pearl, the father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, delivered upon accepting an award on his son's behalf from the Los Angeles Press Club on June 22, 2002.

The Jewish Mambo King

By Michael Aushenker
Published on June 27, 2002

Real estate entrepreneur Brad Gluckstein had a vision. Perhaps not as dramatic as one of those sightings of Mary Magdalene, but a vision nonetheless.

Soul Care

By Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer
Published on June 7, 2001

I recently visited a hospital patient, an elderly gentleman with a name, a gaze and a life story from the old country. His deterioration had advanced to the stage of inhibiting verbal communication, so he spoke to me instead through gestures, nods and stares. But slowly, we drew closer. We shared sorrow, distress and worry. Eventually, exhausted, he told me he wanted to get some rest. I recited the "Shema" for him, and he closed his eyes in fatigue.

Exercising the Mind

By Ani Dumas
Published on May 3, 2001

As we enter the new millennium, fitness professionals are becoming more aware of the movement toward spiritual forms of exercise. Programs like Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi, meditation, and body work are common in fitness clubs and community centers. To keep up with today's stressful lifestyles, we must do more than increase our heart rates and pump iron to maintain maximum health. Mind and body fitness can facilitate this by achieving inner balance and harmony in mind, body and spirit.

The Oldest Diary

By Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben
Published on October 5, 2000

There is something otherworldly about the experience of a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. It is perhaps the preeminent spiritual-cultural paradox in all of Jewish life. When girls and boys focus so intensely on this personal lifecycle event, each possesses a transcendent, timeless and eternal quality.

Rich in Spirit

By Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh
Published on December 9, 1999

There's a Yiddish saying that goes: "I've been poor and I've been rich. Believe me, rich is better!" In the Midrash we read: "Nothing in the universe is worse than poverty; it is the most terrible of sufferings." (Exodus Rabbah 31:14)