Back to Basics series Jewish Family Education with Candace R. Kwiatek, The Dayton Jewish Observer In a study of murderers and drunk driving felons at the infamous Huntsville, Texas prison, Dr. Stuart Brown noted the striking absence of play in every one of their life stories. Intrigued, Brown created the

With Rachel Haug Gilbert, The Dayton Jewish Observer The Wesley Community Center in West Dayton honored Jeffrey Swillinger as one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in the center’s 50 years. Jeff has served on the board of directors as well as led the effort to set up its

Michelle Francine Gwynne (Himmell). A consummate musician, scholar, teacher, daughter, and sister lost her battle with cancer on Sept. 25, 2016, in Fort Mitchell, Ky. Ms. Gwynne was born Sept. 13, 1957 in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. to Roger and Vivienne Himmell of Dayton. She was preceded in death by her

By Michelle Tedford, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Karen Levin stood beside a field of yellow wingstem with flower heads stretching shoulder high, her outstretched arm motioning to the blooming prairie around her. “This is a paradise for bees,” she said. Levin is the “queen bee” — as her

Part Two: Black/Jewish relations from the Dayton riots through desegregation A Three-Part Series By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Even before Melissa Sweeny began high school at Colonel White in 1970, she heard about tensions in the building between white and black students. “There were what they were calling riots,”

By Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Temple Israel Every year, as I prepare for the High Holy Days, I turn to familiar texts to help me refocus on their meaning. For the past few years I have enjoyed rereading Rabbi Alan Lew’s book, This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared. This

By David Esrati There were times when I felt cheated for neither having a middle name nor a middle initial. Dad’s middle initial was G. for Gideon, which wasn’t pronounced Gidi-on, but the Hebrew way, Gee-don. It took me a long time to realize it was the same name. His

Look for The Adventures of Bark Mitzvah Boy each month at this website and in The Dayton Jewish Observer.     To read the complete October 2016 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.

By Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles Food can be a weighty issue, literally and figuratively, as we discover in My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes by Dawn Lerman (Berkley), which began as a blog on The New York Times website and

By Dawn Lerman, JNS.org In My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes, New York Times wellness blogger and nutritionist Dawn Lerman shares her food journey, and that of her father, a copywriter from the Mad Men era of advertising. Recipes include some of her grandmother’s