From The Bima To Carnegie Hall
By Abigail Yadegar, Fresh Ink for Teens, in the Jewish Week
Even in challenging moments, my love for singing has never wavered
When I was younger, I never considered myself a singer. I attended weekly lessons in Shotokan at Karate Kids and would often crack open my art suitcase to doodle on colored construction paper with scented Mr. Sketch markers. It was not until my parents joined the congregation at Wilshire Boulevard Temple and enrolled me in religious school that I truly fell in love with the art of singing.
Bring ADL to Your School or Community
From the ADL Website
Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in high schools and on college campuses. Have your children been a target? Will they, or you, know what to do if it happens to them?
Rely on ADL’s expertise
Do you want to make your school and community more respectful? ADL is on your side and here to help. You can request through this website or through your regional ADL office that we bring any number of programs to support and deepen your efforts. For example, we educate teachers and students against bullying and bias. And we work with community leaders and train law enforcement personnel to understand hate crimes and discrimination—how to spot them and how to work together to combat them.
Find out how you can bring ADL education programs to your child's school.
Together, Grandparents and Grandkids Make Magic
By Hilary Danailova for Hadassah Magazine
Judah Maccabee Marcus hardly lacks what his grandmother, Carol Marcus, calls “Jewish reinforcement.” The Basking Ridge, N.J., sixth-grader has a rabbi grandfather and attends Orthodox day school.
Even so, “I’m the one who knows all the family stories,” said Carol Marcus, 76, of Bloomingdale, N.J. “That’s what I can provide.”
Judaism’s “First Reformed” Moment Is Here
BY ARIEL WEXLER for newvoices.org
The central question of “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader’s film about a pastor reckoning with climate change, is, “Can God forgive us for what we’ve done to this world?” It’s a good question for American Protestants, and for all of us living between skeptical optimism and righteous despair.
It’s high time for Jews to have our own “First Reformed” moment, and the answer might be a biblical and rhetorical tool that was staring us in the face all along: tikkun olam.
Outside Hillel, Northeastern Jewish Students Struggle After Rabbi Leaves
BY HANNAH BERNSTEIN for newvoices.org
This is part 3 in a series about politics, identity, and Jewish community on college campuses. Click here to view part 1, and here for part 2.
Ben Novak came to Northeastern University in 2016 from a Catholic high school in Kingston, Massachusetts. His father was raised Jewish, and his mother converted to Judaism before he was born. Novak wanted to find his own Jewish community in college, a place where he could grow.