1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (328+ words) “Vayehi erev, vayehi boker, yom hashishi….” In our home, these first words rise softly at the verge of Shabbat, marking the sacred threshold at which weekday time gives way to something slower, deeper, and whole. Shabbat is a gift. It…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (451+ words) In his recent State of World Jewry address, journalist Bret Stephens suggested that the “proper defense against Jew hatred is … to lean into our Jewishness as far as each of us can.” It can be the antidote to those who…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (161+ words) “For our community, which is so diverse, but also so engaged, having that added push is a really powerful resource,” said Dara Cameron, Director of JUF’s Young Family Engagement. Cameron added that she used Get Together to host a group…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (181+ words) “We did the best we could,” said Laura Schwartz, then-president of Bene Shalom. “We hired a wonderful rabbi who also served as our cantorial soloist, [Rabbi] Charlene Brooks. She did a phenomenal job for about four years. And then we…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (398+ words) For most of us, to be a Jew is tied not only to belief or practice, but to a deep sense of being a part of a people, even as we remain, in some ways, apart from others. Our connection…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (613+ words) There is strength in numbers—and organizers of Jewish Restaurant Week are counting on Chicagoans to show up. From May 11 through May 15, this initiative—part of Jewish American Heritage Month—invites diners to support Jewish-owned restaurants across the city and…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (698+ words) In 1985, Fayge Siegel was not an activist—until a private meeting changed everything. While helping arrange a Shalom Bayis lecture in Chicago featuring Rabbi Yaakov and Rebbetzin Dena Weinberg of Baltimore, Siegel and several other women were asked to gather…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (532+ words) Sam Harris, a stalwart in the Holocaust survivor community who was instrumental in the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, died on April 1 at 90. Known for his good humor, optimism, and unwavering persistence, Harris, a longtime Northbrook resident…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (508+ words) Growing up in the holy Islamic city of Mashhad, Iran in the 1960s, Fred Hakimian faced discrimination regularly while on his way to school. “The kids would throw rocks and say ‘Jew, Jew, Jew,’” recalled the Chicago jeweler, now 70. Decades earlier,…...

3+ mon, 2+ week ago  (401+ words) In his new book, author Michael Kimmel examines America’s largely Jewish toy industry. You may not recognize the names of Morris Michtom, Joshua Lionel Cowan, or Ruth Moskowicz and her husband Elliott Handler. But if not for them, your childhood…...