(This first appeared in my Mixed and Matched column in the J-Weekly, Monday June 9, 2021) Dear Dawn: I am Jewish and planning my wedding to a non-Jewish man. I have not been very involved in Judaism since my bat mitzvah almost 20 years ago. I don’t want to have a rabbi, but I want to…
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(Image is from www.noshartfun.com) Please don’t spend time worrying about the non-Jewish holidays you want to get rid of. Focus on making the Jewish holidays robust! Let them fill up your family’s life with warmth, celebration, ritual and good memories. I recently read an article, How to Hanukkahize other Jewish Holidays. In it the author suggests…
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You may be thinking, it’s still ONLY JANUARY! Who the heck is thinking about summer camp for kids? The camps are! So they are sharing information about their programs. There are many sleep-away camps but there are also the synagogue camps right there in town. Read more about it here and then go call Maytal. Thinking ahead…
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(The Shir Joy musicians) Another in-person and online opportunity to celebrate Shabbat! Join B’nai Tikvah of Walnut Creek for a musical service. This unique service, Shir Joy, occurs the third Friday of every week. —– Tonight’s service (January 20) is sponsored by the Membership Committee to welcome our new members and families who have joined…
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The short answer is a resounding NO. You might even say 13 is an auspicious number in Judaism. Gematria is the Jewish practice of assigning a numeric value to each letter in the alphabet. Through this method a word gains numbers and vis versa. For 13 you get the Hebrew word for “one” אחד. In…
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There was a good article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the surge in antisemitism in the Bay Area titled, Even in Bay Area, Jewish residents face ‘drumbeat’ of antisemitism. But you can only read it if you are a subscriber. You can, however, read many articles about the issues on the website of the…
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