Jewish teen creates COVID-19 website. Courtesy: Avi Schiffmann People searching for the most up-to-date statistics on the Coronavirus outbreak need to look no further than ncov2019.live—a website created by Avi Schiffmann, a 17-year-old Jewish teenager living near Seattle, Washington. It’s currently a top-visited site with more than 100 million visitors—60 percent of whom live outside the U.S. Avi came up with the ...
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Art and in particular, dance, has the power to educate and effect change. That’s the mission behind the Keshet Chaim (Colors of Life) Dance Ensemble, which draws from timeless themes of Jewish culture to preserve tradition and bring stories alive on stage worldwide. Founded in 1983 by Artistic Director Eytan Avisar, Keshet Chaim, under the creative direction of Choreographer Kobi Rozenfeld, develops original ...
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Elyssa is a certified instructor for Youth Mental Health First Aid, a program where adults help young adults struggling with mental health or substance abuse. According to the World Health Organization, mental illness afflicts 450 million people worldwide and half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14. Left untreated, mental health issues in kids can lead to school truancy, suicide, incarceration, r...
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Valerie Weisler was having a moment of incredible validation: Last year, she had received a grant from a foundation for Jewish camps to be a teaching artist. She spent her summer traveling to camps, community centers, and synagogues in 13 states and in five countries, where she delighted in sharing her story of founding The Validation Project and working with young people on solving issues and problems they see in th...
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Photos by Scott Saltzman Calligraphy literally means “beautiful writing.” It’s no wonder Linda Coppleson—a soferet STaM who is one of the growing number of today’s female scribes—was attracted to this meticulous art form that blends beauty, proportion, and posture. A Soferet STaM is a Jewish scribe who, governed by thousands of Halachot, or Jewish laws, copies sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls), tefillin (phylact...
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