This is great news and how often do we hear about great news in the Jewish genetic disorder sphere? From Haaretz Daily English Edition Tay-Sachs, the `Jewish disease,’ almost eradicated By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent The genetic mutation disease Tay-Sachs, a fatal inherited disease of the central nervous system that mostly affects Ashkenazi Jews, has…
I keep getting e-mail updates from my students who are studying abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Inevitably, each of the e-mail updates ends with a story about how the student has run into Natalie Portman who is also taking classes at the Mt. Scopus campus. Here is an update on what she’s doing in…
It may not be the only panacea for the Jewish community, but Jewish summer camping is where it’s at! (see my sermon “Looking to the Summer to Find Our Priorities“) Here is a great article written by JTS Rabbinical Student Dan Ain about Camp Ramah and Jewish summer camping: Summertime And The Learning Is Easy…
From the Detroit Jewish News (December 31, 2004) By Robert Sklar “Editor’s Notebook” Champion of Jewish Studies “One of my proudest activities has been to help the MSU Jewish Studies program become firmly established in our curriculum both intellectually and fiscally,” [Michigan State University President M. Peter] McPherson said, causing a swell of approval to…
From the Detroit Jewish News (December 25, 2004) by Sharon Luckerman A Jewish Issue Among those bringing attention to what the U.N. called “the worst preventable humanitarian crisis in the world” is the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills. In special lectures and as part of information imparted by the center’s guides, visitors learn the…
Catastrophology Our lives are formed by what we choose to believe—even about natural disasters By Marc Gellman Newsweek Jan. 8, 2005 Jan. 8 – The really big questions about life here on planet earth don’t normally flood into our lives the way they have after the Asian tsunami. Mostly we insulate and protect ourselves with…
I am posting from the beautiful King David Lounge at the JFK International Terminal. It is 5:00 PM (EST) and about 3.5 hours after twenty-two of my U-M Hillel students departed on our flight to Israel. Due to some computer problems from Delta Airlines and some computer problems from Northwest Airlines, I sitting at JFK…
From Being Jewishby Rabbi Jason MillerIt wasn’t the first time I traveled in a car with a Torah, but I’d never actually put one in my own car and driven with it. Awe-inspiring? Powerful? Confusing? It’s an odd experience if you’ve never done it. Maybe it’s akin to giving a ride to a great Torah…
THE JERUSALEM POST Calev Ben-David Dec. 22, 2004 A few years ago I interviewed Levi Weiman-Kelman, the rabbi of Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshema synagogue, the Reform Jerusalem shul of which I am a member. As I knew that Levi was the son of Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, a long-time leader of American Conservative Jewry, and was himself…
The highlights from Anna Quindlen’s Newsweek article this week: “After years of Jewish parents’ sitting through school concerts listening to the words ‘It is the night of our dear savior’s birth,’ maybe oversensitivity was inevitable, since any other kind of sensitivity had been in short supply.” “Christmas is being observed exactly where it ought to…