Judaism

Torah

Blessing the People With Love and Joy

Local

Does Birthright Stifle Teen Travel?

Shavuot

Synagogues Celebrate New Arrivals

Education

ADL Program Gives Educators a Look at the Shoah, Up Close and Personal

By:

Michelle Mostovy-Eisenberg, JE Feature

Growing up as the daughter of a German mother and a Polish father, Regina Weyer of Phoenixville said that she's probably more familiar with the Holocaust than many other Catholics. A first-generation American, she said that she thinks her upbringing has influenced her teaching on the subject to sixth-graders at St. Basil the Great School, a parochial school in Kimberton...

Torah

Laban's Hidden Message: 'They Made Me Do It'

VAYETZE, Genesis 28:10-32:3

By:

Rabbi Joyce Newmark

There is no doubt that Laban is the villain in this week's parshah. He takes advantage of Jacob's intense love for Rachel to make Jacob an indentured servant, and then deceives him by substituting Leah for Rachel and extracting another seven years of unpaid labor from his nephew. Later, when Jacob's unpaid service has been completed and they agree on...

Learning

'Reb Zalman' on Aging, and Then Awakening

By:

Michelle Mostovy-Eisenberg, Staff Writer

Influential spiritual leader Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi explained that, as he approached his 60th year, there came a moment that he wasn't expecting and wasn't ready for: feeling an achiness all over his body -- a "cumulative tiredness." At some point, he related at a recent program, "you have to come to terms with your own mortality," and listen to your...

Torah

40: It's Clearly a Magic Number in the Bible

Toldot, Genesis 25:19-28:9

By:

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman

If you have turned 40, you know it's no ordinary birthday; if you're not yet 40, pray to God you get there -- with appropriate trepidation. These thoughts on "40" are prompted by our parshah's curious insistence that Isaac married Rebecca when he was 40. Commentators are taken aback, if for no other reason than that 40 is pretty old...

Synagogue Life

Another Northeast Shul Forced to Close Its Doors

By:

Michelle Mostovy-Eisenberg, JE Staff

Northeast Philadelphia -- once a stronghold of the Philadelphia Jewish community -- has said farewell to yet another synagogue: After 113 years, Adath Zion Congregation has closed its doors and merged with Congregation Ner Zedek-Ezrath Israel-Beth Uziel on Bustleton Avenue, in the Rhawnhurst section of the city. Adath Zion president Neil Schmerling said there were several reasons why it was...