Jewish Blogs

Menorah of the Week: Shadowplay

OK, so the Menorah of the Week is not actually a menorah. But it still involves a flame and Jewish symbology and thus makes a fabulous gift for the Festival of Lights, nu?A clever crafting of hand-wrought steel, shadow and light, the Tree of Life candleholder was created by sustainable designers Joost Elffers and Diana Sierra (click on that link ...

Memorial Day – Hakaros HaTov

Today is Memorial Day here in the United States. It is the day that we mourn those soldiers who gave their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms offered by this great land. Although we are still in Golus, it’s incumbent upon us to appreciate all of the good bestowed upon us by our country and to honor the ...

Melted Crayon On Wood Craft

Here’s a great little craft activity for the whole family (excluding toddlers) — drawing with crayons on hot wood! While this craft does require caution due to the very hot wood, it is just so completely satisfying to draw with crayons that melt as you apply them to your hot surface. I got this idea from the wonderful website The ...

Meet Jaclyn Friedman: Jewess with attitude

I recently had the pleasure to sit down for brunch with Jaclyn Friedman, Executive Director of Women, Action and the Media and co-editor of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. Jaclyn Friedman is writer, speaker, activist, and rising star in the current feminist community. She’s also a “Jewess with attitude.”Read More: @ jwablog.jwa.orgYou might also like:Jaclyn ...

Meet Gwen, JWA Summer Intern

This summer, I was lucky enough to spend six fabulous weeks as an intern at the Jewish Women’s Archive. I hail from Lancaster PA, and I’m a rising senior at Smith College, with a major in History and a minor in Archival Studies. My primary historical interests are the social and cultural history of modern Britain and Ireland. And what, ...

Meet Elizabeth, JWA Intern

It is my third day here as a JWA intern. It is a privilege to be working at such a fantastic organization, and I am so grateful to everyone at JWA for their warm welcome. In my first-ever Jewesses with Attitude blog-post, I want to take this opportunity to share with you a little bit about my background and why ...

Media Matters: Glenn Beck says Reform Rabbis are like Radicalized Islam

Glenn Beck says that Reform rabbis are like radicalized Islam because they took out an ad asking for his termination.(a) Glenn Beck, come to my local synagogue where an Orthodox rabbi talks radical right wing politics every week.(b) Have you lost your mind making such comparisons? No wait, obviously you have.Here is the recording, check it out at minute 3:00, and the transcript, courtesy ...

Meaningful Prayer: Consistent Dedication

Our sages teach that the prayers were enacted to correspond to the sacrifices. The korban tamid, which was brought daily in the beit hamikdash, signifies the idea of dependability and regularity. It is the concept of a continuous relationship, of absolute dedication to Hashem, which is a fundamental aspect of prayer.We must maintain a continuous connection with our Creator. We are intrinsically bound ...

Meaningful Prayer- Asking For Mercy

The core section of Shemoneh Esrei is the blessings of bakasha – asking for mercy. This comes after we have already established through the first three blessings of praise, that Hashem has the power and will to help us in any way He sees fit. The Rambam writes that the thirteen requests for individual and communal support are archetypes for ...

McSweeney’s #40: (Literary) Mixtape of the Month

So it’s always given me a thrill when a bunch of musicians I love play a song together, and I also sort of feel that way about writers. If anything, writers are even more of a thrill — since ordinarily writers are such solitary creatures, and outside of mystery novels and James Patterson marathon novel-writing sessions, the idea of writers ...

MC Hammer Performs at Jewish National Fund Party

For generations, fundraising efforts for the Jewish National Fund have centered around dropping loose change into little blue metal boxes. In fact, stories abound regarding the millions of dollars sent to the JNF from Hebrew School children to plant forests and make the dessert bloom in Israel during the first decades of statehood.Apparently, the Jewish National Fund has now moved ...

Mayor of the Minyan

Every synagogue minyan (daily prayer group) has the one person who always seems to be there. In some congregations, this might be the gabbai (a ritual director of sorts). In other shuls it might be the rabbi. And in others it might be a lay person who is very dedicated and wants to ensure there is always a minyan (quorum of 10) so others ...