One woman can’t do it because she is breastfeeding her newborn. A man can’t do it because he is diabetic. And another can’t do it because he is on daily medication that must be taken with food and water. There are so many reasons why fasting—a way in which we practice self-denial—is just not feasible on Yom Kippur. Still, Jews can observe the holiday in ways that are personally meaningful. Putting your health first is a ...
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By Jared Rogers Upon arriving at the University of Pennsylvania, I was terrified of not finding authentic communities to call my own. Before college, I lived and breathed Conservative Judaism; I was a student at Schechter Long Island, a counselor at Ramah Nyack and an officer on USY’s International Executive Board. Unsurprisingly, I fell in love with the Conservative Jewish Community (CJC) at Penn. CJC provided me...
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It’s said that you can’t truly understand and empathize with someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes. While that wasn’t possible, 43 staff and teens traveling on one of the USY on Wheels Classic buses this summer got close while revisiting the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which was the target of the worst anti-Semitic mass shooting in U.S. history last October that left 11 members dead ...
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Loved and respected by everyone around him, Benjamin Beezy seemed to have the world at his fingertips. After attending Milken Community High School, Ben graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, completed law school and was working at a high-caliber law firm—all while still being involved in the Valley Beth Shalom community in Encino, California. Still, all this wasn’t enough to overcome the h...
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(L-R) Ariella, Gideon and Eliana doing theHamotzi blessing on Challah before eating. As far back as Gideon Manzur can recall, he helped his father plan and build the sukkah in their backyard every year right after the high holidays in anticipation of Sukkot. First, the 10-by-10-foot structure would go up. Then, his father would take Gideon and his brother in the family truck to nearby train tracks lined with palm tree...
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Rabbi Kevin Hale, a trained sofer STaM scribe and member of the Rabbinical Assembly whose work focuses on evaluating and restoring Sifrei Torah, shares a special journey with his scribal mentor: It is an exquisitely beautiful day in the middle of Elul in Western New England, and I am in my studio, hunkered down over an unusually tall 250-year-old Torah scroll with quill in hand and inkwell safely to one side, quietly ...
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