Today is April 20, 2024 /
Today is April 20, 2024 /
Several weeks ago, while visiting the US, I attended a Shabbat dinner of 15 very intelligent and kind adults, including Jewish professionals and rabbis. The conversation quickly moved to politics. Everyone assumed we were all voting for Donald Trump. Opinions were strong and unequivocal. I felt very unwelcome. Recently I attended several conferences in the Continue Reading »
Republished in San Diego Jewish World, October 14, 2016 by Toby Klein Greenwald In Becoming a Soulful Educator, by Rabbi Aryeh Ben David, every chapter has “aha” moments and statements that you will want to frame and hang on your wall, and he is liberal in attributing ideas to those who have inspired him—Rav Avraham Continue Reading »
Published in The New York Jewish Week, August 23, 2016 by Sandee Brawarsky Aryeh Ben David founded Ayeka: Center for Soulful Jewish Education in 2008. Before that, the Scarsdale native who moved to Israel in 1987 taught at the Pardes Institute for 20 years, serving as director of spiritual education. He is the author of Continue Reading »
For years, Jewish education has been searching for a means to inspire, to innovate, and redefine the standard curriculum to engage the next generation of Jews. Schools across the Jewish spectrum have received constant pressure to re-package and teach classic content in a style that speaks to the students. The fast-pace of today’s technology is Continue Reading »
Dasee Berkowitz’s first Yom Kippur as a young mother got her thinking. To more easily take part in the lengthy synagogue service, her son, then only a few months old, was wrapped upon her body in a sling. But when it came time for the traditional symbolic chest beating during which Jews confess their sins, Continue Reading »
If I invited you to do a Jewish program for Passover — and asked you to please bring a mattress, a bottle of wine, and some kind of aphrodisiac — you would probably look at me askance. Maybe even consider having me investigated. But what do we do on Passover Seder night? We drink 4 glasses Continue Reading »
We are right now in the midst of the journey from Passover to Shavuot. If Pesach is our moment of physical courage, Shavuot is our moment of spiritual courage. Shavuot is an encounter with God’s presence. How would you feel if you were told, “Next week you will have the most powerful life-changing spiritual experience of your life?” Continue Reading »
A friend of mine once aptly said: “A family vacation is really just relocation, but without all of your stuff that makes your life easier.” And after our recent jaunt down to Orlando to introduce our daughter to her grandmother, I realized just how right she was. Seeing the family was a hit, seeing this as our vacation, however, Continue Reading »
I know that many of us are struggling with how to be very present moms, and to do meaningful work outside of our homes at the same time. This delicate balance is thrown totally off kilter (for me at least) in the summertime. After sending my son to camp for a few weeks (who can afford that kind of Continue Reading »
