Look for The Adventures of Bark Mitzvah Boy each month in The Dayton Jewish Observer and at this site.     To read the complete January 2021 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.

Elaine Pack Jaffe Brinn, age 89, passed away Dec. 12 in Sarasota, Fla. She was born July 6, 1931 in Dayton. She was the loving wife of the late Albert Brinn and previously Louis Jaffe. She was predeceased by her parents, Manny and Sara Pack. Beloved mother of Leslie (Mitch)

The Dayton Region Israel Trade Alliance will host a webinar for local businesses to learn more about the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) program, Wednesday, Dec. 16 beginning at 9 a.m. According to DRITA consultant Hadas Bar-Or, the BIRD Foundation provides matchmaking services and funding of up to

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer “Ruth, I’m going to call you Regina,” Ira Segalewitz said from his home in Kettering when he saw his childhood sweetheart for the first time in 69 years, via Zoom on Nov. 8. “Call me whatever you want, just call me!” Ruth Brandspiegel

By Rabbi Benjamin G. Azriel, Temple Beth Or Electing a “precedent” is never an easy time for a community. Evaluating values, learning about the history of the concepts, incorporating morality into our lives are all parts of determining the precedent that we will elect. At Makor, Temple Beth Or’s Sunday

By Sophie Panzer , Jewish Exponent In 2012, a woman named Alice took a DNA test and expected it to reveal that her entire family hailed from Irish American and British ancestry. Instead, the test revealed that half her DNA was Ashkenazi Jewish. Her attempts to understand the results and

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer When Tablet’s Stephanie Butnick, Liel Leibovitz, and Mark Oppenheimer started their Unorthodox podcast in 2015 as a side project for the magazine, they had no idea it would become the most popular Jewish podcast on iTunes. They also didn’t know their emerging roles

With Scott Halasz, The Dayton Jewish Observer Zach Kurland, son of Emily and Jayde Kurland, has earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Dr. Corinne Daprano of the University of Dayton School of Education and Health Sciences has received the 2020-21 Jerry R. Thomas Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Kinesiology

Considering Creation Series Jewish Family Education with Candace R. Kwiatek, The Dayton Jewish Observer As a baby, my grandson could easily identify cats and dogs out and about, and in books. Although he had cats and dogs as pets, one might have expected some confusion, since his 200-pound American mastiff

Samuel Lauber, who survived the Holocaust as a Hidden Child in Belgium, died Nov. 4 at the age of 78. Lauber was born in Antwerp in 1942. Belgian nuns arranged for the Detry family in Lalouviere to hide Lauber when he was 3. His sister, 19, escorted Lauber to the