As with all Jewish holidays, Shavuot begins at sundown. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. It is commanded in the Torah and was observed as a pilgrimage in ancient times – all Jews were to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice. It is described in the Torah as a…
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The First Step towards Planning a Wedding
Here’s a useful, basic article on planning a Jewish wedding. It covers finding an officiant, pre-marital counseling and picking the date. This would be the place to start very early on. Take a look at this outline and then give me a call so we can discuss the various rabbis, cantors, maggids and lay officiants…
Read More »Divvy up Holiday responsibilities
Do you have holidays that are ‘assigned’ to a particular family member or friend? That is, we’ll all be at Susan’s for Thanksgiving, at Mom’s for Chanukah and we’ll meet the Tanners in the park for our 4th of July picnic. Some years ago I figured out that while I have lots of wonderful…
Read More »Jewish and Asian in San Francisco
A 2004 study of the bay area Jewish population found that 14% of families in our community include Jews of color. That means that at least every tenth Jew you see is a multiracial Jew or lives in a multiracial family. But that was nine years ago. That percentage can only have grown. You would…
Read More »Jewish and Asian in San Francisco
We had such a wonderful series of panel discussions in the East Bay about our multiracial Jewish community. I asked Sherith Israel to host the next gathering and several of our panelists grew up at Sherith Israel! Come on over and hear from all of them. The Jewish community if the San Francisco bay area…
Read More »Teaching Children about the Holocaust
It can be quite difficult for some non-Jews to grasp the profound depth of feeling that many Jews have about the Holocaust. I’ve heard non-Jews says, “Why dwell on something so terrible? Just get on with your life.” Others fear that it will frighten the children or that negative thinking will bring on negative events….
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