A healthier Thanksgiving

By Elana Horwich
Published on November 20, 2012

For a Thanksgiving seder, it’s all about the ‘hodu’

Published on November 12, 2012

Sitting down to the well-set table every November, even though it is filled with family and food, I always feel that something is missing -- a Jewish connection to the Thanksgiving story.

Slice of Life: Cider recipes for adults

Published on October 24, 2012

When my boys were younger we had hot cider for them and the neighborhood kids after a hard day playing in the leaves. Now that my kids are out of the house and all I’m doing all the raking (yeah, right) I’ve decided to invite other “parents of children too old to do the chores we don’t want to do” over to share stores of epic piles of laundry that engendered shock and awe to all that beheld them.

Bahia de Kino, The Foundation Part 1

By Lisa Niver Rajna
Published on December 12, 2011

Jon Stewart defends Obama’s godless Thanksgiving message

By Lauren Bottner
Published on December 1, 2011

Lone soldiers mark Thanksgiving in Israel

Published on November 25, 2011

Several organizations in Israel held Thanksgiving dinner for lone soldiers.

Thankful for living in 2011

By Michelle K. Wolf
Published on November 23, 2011

N.J. bus drivers working on Thanksgiving driving Jewish students

Published on November 23, 2011

Some school bus drivers in Lakewood, N.J., are expressing their displeasure with having to work on Thanksgiving driving Orthodox Jewish students to school.

Reflections on Gratitude

By Albert Fuchs, M.D.
Published on November 23, 2011

Opinion: Proud bastards

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 22, 2011

A few weeks ago we sent out one of our regular e-blasts with the following headline: “Poll: One in five Americans believes Jews have too much control of Wall Street.”

Opinion: Grateful for what?

By David Suissa
Published on November 22, 2011

One of the great human virtues is gratitude. In Jewish tradition, we are encouraged to make at least 100 blessings of gratitude a day. The very first words we say every morning are “I give thanks before you, eternal King, for having restored to me my soul.”

Jewish leaders meet Biden in Thanksgiving week appeal for Pollard

Published on November 22, 2011

Four drug dealers, a trafficker in stolen goods, a gambler and a turkey made President Obama’s Thanksgiving freedom list, but Israel’s best-known spy did not.

Happy Thanksgiving! Realize Your Dreams! (video)

By Lisa Niver Rajna
Published on November 20, 2011

Giving thanks deliciously

By Judy Zeidler
Published on October 21, 2011

Whether you call it Thanksgiving or Turkey Day, the holiday is a festive time for American Jewish families to enjoy the best of both heritages — hearty American food and an occasion to give thanks for blessings.

Being Grateful

By Misha Henckel
Published on November 24, 2010

New Mumbai Chabad house to memorialize Holtzbergs

Published on October 20, 2010

Tentative plans for a new Chabad House in Mumbai feature a memorial to the emissary couple slain in the 2008 attacks in the Indian city.

Calendar Girls Picks and Clicks Nov. 22 - 28: Toots Shor, turkey and theater

By Dikla Kadosh and Lilly Fowler
Published on November 20, 2008

Tasty Middle Eastern flavors tweak Thanksgiving table

Published on November 19, 2008

The couple, accustomed to the piquant taste of French, Italian and Middle Eastern cuisine, were unimpressed with the traditional meal's relatively bland flavor. They decided to develop a Thanksgiving menu that would reflect their signature style, infusing holiday staples with exotic ingredients like date syrup, wine and dried fruits.

On Thanksgiving,  open your hand to the poor and needy

By Rabbi Arnold Rachlis
Published on November 22, 2006

Thanksgiving is the holiday to which most American Jews fully relate. It's based on the biblical Sukkot, and it's the American holiday most associated with family gatherings and food. And yet, there is much more to the holiday than stuffing and pumpkin pie.

I’m dreaming of a Jewish Thanksgiving

By David Suissa
Published on November 22, 2006

Ever since I moved to this country 25 years ago, I've been in awe of how 250 million people stop everything during the fourth Thursday of November to gather around cranberry sauce, stuffing and bread pudding.This year, however, being in the Orthodox hood, where they celebrate a Jewish version of Thanksgiving twice a week -- on Friday night and Shabbat lunch, without turkey and TV but with lots of prayers, blessings and songs, and at least as much food -- I've been experiencing something a little different: a respectful but slightly blasé attitude toward this big American holiday.

Thanks for Everything

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 24, 2005

At Chanukah we celebrate the miraculous rededication of the Second Temple by Judah Maccabee. In so doing the festival's complex historical background fades to backstory. The part we more typically overlook is that the Maccabean revolt was not just a struggle versus Antiochus, an anti-Jewish ruler, but against a larger group of Jews who wanted to be more Greek and less Jewish.

Give Thanksgiving a Jewish Flavor

By Linda Morel
Published on November 18, 2004

"My sister-in-law stuffs Thanksgiving turkeys with a matzah ball mixture," says Faye Levy, food columnist and author of 14 cookbooks. "Instead of making patties and poaching them, she cooks this tasty mixture inside the turkey."

This never struck Levy as odd, because her mother used to make noodle pudding on Thanksgiving.

"Her Thanksgiving dinners were almost like Shabbat meals," she says.

One of Levy's all-time favorite dishes is Thanksgiving potato kugel with asparagus. "I first tried it at the home of a friend from Colorado," she says, explaining that it was his grandmother's recipe.

"In his family, that dish was the essence of Thanksgiving."

Yeladim

By Abby Gilad
Published on November 18, 2004

Yeladim

Soup for the Sukkah

By Judy Zeidler
Published on September 30, 2004

Sukkot is called the Jewish Thanksgiving. It offers thanks for the bountiful harvest of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains.

Thanksgiving’s Sukkot Roots

By Linda Morel
Published on November 20, 2003

Did you know that Thanksgiving is really a Jewish holiday?

Is Thanksgiving a Holiday for Jews?

By David Klinghoffer
Published on November 21, 2002

In some religious Jewish circles, Thanksgiving is controversial. The holiday troubles certain Orthodox Jews not because they are unpatriotic -- considering how faithful a friend America has been to Israel lately, they are probably more patriotic than ever -- but because some believe that the Torah forbids participating in any non-Jewish observance.

Thanksgiving’s Jewish Roots

By Abby Gilad
Published on November 21, 2002

The Pilgrims of New Salem, Mass., were so moved by the stories of the ancient Israelites that they thought of America as their Zion and New Salem as their Jerusalem.

Your Letters

Published on November 29, 2001

Letters to the Editor.

Needful Things

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 22, 2001

Thanksgiving even manages to unite the disparate members of the Jewish tribe. Orthodox or secular, eating soy Tofurkey or kosher birds, we almost all mark the most spiritual of our American holidays.

Thanksgiving Traditions

By Jane Ulman
Published on November 22, 2001

This Thanksgiving, following the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, we are already a patriotic and unified country. But, we are also a frightened and anxious country, in need of the comfort that tradition brings.

A Kosher Holiday

By Rabbi Eli Hecht
Published on November 22, 2001

I was especially proud to be a fourth-generation American Jew. I played a great game of baseball, enjoyed reading the Sunday funnies and celebrated American holidays. My mother's family was the complete opposite. They all came from Europe and had no appreciation for baseball or any American pastimes.

Many Thanks

By Teresa Strasser
Published on November 22, 2001

Thanks, but no Thanksgiving. That's my motto for this year.

New Places Like Home

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on November 23, 2000

Yet fish gotta swim, Jewish children gotta fly. The comings and goings of the flock is an expected, if personally wrenching, experience.

Operation: GobbleCrying ‘fowl’ on Thanksgiving by feeding, not eating, a turkey.

By Jane Ulman
Published on November 16, 2000

Judaism commands us to be kind to animals.

The Story Behind Us

By Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Published on September 18, 1997

Is the story true?