Israel celebrated her 62nd year of statehood today and should still be considered a miracle. After reading Dan Senor’s book Start Up Nation, I was left amazed by how successful this tiny nation in the Middle East surrounded by hostile neighbors has become in the past six decades. In an update to the story about…
Cross-posted at Jewish Techs My grandmother sometimes complains about charitable organizations. She’s a very generous woman who donates to many charities, but she often gets frustrated by the amount of solicitations she receives. With each complimentary pen, notepad, wall calendar, or other complimentary gift sent in the mail (so she’ll remember to donate again), she…
There’s a concept in Judaism named “ma’aseh avot siman l’banim,” which roughly translates as “the deeds of the ancestors are a sign for the children.” Of course, this phrase can be used positively, but it’s most often used in a negative context. I thought of this phrase recently when I read that Bernard Madoff’s daughter-in-law…
On an early morning this past June, I stood in a synagogue parking lot taking temperatures of the Jewish children before they boarded the buses to take them off to summer camp. Along with every other staff member in the parking lot, I was wearing a brown shirt — the official staff shirt of the…
James Besser, Washington Correspondent and New Media Editor of The New York Jewish Week, asked me to come up with a Top Ten list of uses for leftover Passover matzah. But being busy trying to catch up with post-Passover work, I was only able to come up with five. (Who am I kidding? Even if…
Cross-Posted at Jewish Techs There are thousands of Passover Haggadahs that have been published throughout the world. And with the increasing popularity of the Internet, new forms of haggadot are being created each year. This year’s Passover, which concluded a few short days ago, saw the return of the Facebook Haggadah as well as some…
Cross-posted at Jewish Techs As we approach the Passover Seder, here are a few cool sites and videos to enhance the Passover experience: Bangitout.com – Seder Sidekick 2010Isaac and Seth Galena, the brothers behind the popular Jewish humor site Bangitout.com have once again published a Seder Sidekick to help bring some levity to the Passover…
Cross-posted to Jewish Techs Much has already been made of the social media posting habits of William Daroff. Whether on Twitter or Facebook, the well-connected director of the Washington Office of The Jewish Federations of North America (and its VP for Public Policy) isn’t afraid to go public with his whereabouts, upcoming speaking engagements, or…
Cross-posted to Jewish Techs Is Facebook kosher? If so, is it kosher for Passover? I’m not posing the question of whether it is acceptable to log on to Facebook on the first and last days of Passover, when observant Jews refrain from using computers or the Web. Rather, is Facebook activity allowed at all during…
Cross-posted to Jewish Techs The other day I received a call from a reporter at the Detroit News. She was just about to submit a story about a motorized scooter that can be used by observant Jews on Shabbat, but she wanted a local rabbi’s comments first. It was fortuitous that she contacted me since…