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May 25, 2026, 9:42 AM

The Sacred and the Light Up Dance Floor

My family and I just celebrated our middle daughter’s bat mitzvah, and throughout all the moments–the ceremonious, the silly, the profound–I couldn’t help but to ponder this millenia-old tradition. Growing up in suburban Houston in the late 80s, I was...

Mihran Kalaydjian

May 25, 2026, 7:22 AM

When Jews Are Told They Don’t Belong Again

For decades after the Holocaust, civilized society agreed on one moral line that could never be crossed again: Jews would never again be treated as outsiders in the societies they helped build. Today, that line is eroding before our eyes. Across...

May 23, 2026, 11:33 AM

What Adam Sandler knows about being Jewish

Idina Menzel and Adam Sandler in a scene from the Netflix film 'You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.' (Scott Yamano/Netflix)

A joke in a teen comedy hides a Shavuot lesson about the meaning of accepting — and choosing — Judaism today

May 22, 2026, 5:39 PM

Treasure Trove: The Original Selfie Machine Turns 100

From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photo taken in a photo both at Montreal's Expo 67.

The original selfie machine turns 100 this year. The photo booth made its first appearance in September 1926 on Broadway in New York City. It was the invention of Anatol Josepho (1894-1980, born Josephewitz), and first called the Photomaton. Siberian born,...

Andy Blumenthal

May 17, 2026, 8:16 AM

Why I Came Back to Shul

For years, one of the absolute best perks of returning regularly to synagogue has been rediscovering a very specific, distinctly Jewish superpower: our humor. It’s warm, deeply self-aware, and forged through millennia of practicing the art of the collective...

Apr 13, 2026, 1:11 PM

How Did We Get Here?

I must admit I’m really not all that smart. This won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows me, but what the people I am closest to have figured out is while this is true, I...

Reuven Chaim Klein

Jan 17, 2026, 11:38 PM

Fillin’ Up the Tefillin – tefillin and totafot

One of the first commandments that the Jews received is the mitzvah of wearing phylacteries, which is a sort of ritual garment meant to symbolize and commemorate the Jews’ miraculous exodus from Egypt. Although those phylacteries are commonly known in Hebrew...

Miriam Kaplan Aron

Nov 18, 2025, 8:10 PM

Celebrating Three Events on One Trip To Israel

Author Miriam Aron and her husband Marc Aron and their granddaughter Bat Mitzvah Aliza Auman. Photo courtesy of the author.

When you have children and grandchildren living far away, you tend to always be planning or waiting for the next trip. As our daughter, son-in-law and their five children live in Israel, my husband and I are definitely among...

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi

Sep 5, 2025, 10:42 PM

Harnessing the Wind: The Fight for a Clean Energy Future

Jen Brock speaks with Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Maryland's First Lady, Dawn Flythe Moore, about offshore wind.

When you meet environment, energy and offshore wind leader Jen Brock, you’re struck by her warmth—her smile, her thoughtful listening, her deep smarts. But beneath that engaging presence lies formidable grit: decades of advocacy, coalition-building, and real-world change. Now,...

Feb 6, 2025, 7:55 PM

Inches to Metric: The Magic of Hebrew # 1

The Magic of Hebrew... Part one in a three part series is a brief overview of the creation of Modern Israel and Hebrew, how the two are interconnected and essential to who we are as a People. One of my...

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