Beth Abraham Synagogue will celebrate women who provide spiritual leadership in the Dayton area at this year’s Women of Valor luncheon, May 10. Honorees are Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Rabbi Judy Chessin, Courtney Cummings, Cantor Andrea Raizen, Mary ‘Mahira’ Rogers, and Rabbi Tina Sobo. Event chairs are Mindy Greene and Janice

Look for The Adventures of Bark Mitzvah Boy each month in The Dayton Jewish Observer and at this site!     To read the complete February 2023 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.

James Ross Levinson, age 80, of Harrison Township, passed away unexpectedly on Jan. 20. Jim was a good man. He was smart, kind, sympathetic, ethical, Jewish, funny and more. He loved to cook, loved to hug, loved to play catch, loved to kvetch, loved to give, loved a game of

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer With the recent hiring of three Judaic scholars in our region, we introduce you to them here. They are Jenny Caplan, Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Chair in Judaic Studies at University of Cincinnati; Elliot Ratzman, chair in Jewish studies and visiting assistant professor

Seeds project offers $500 a year for K-12 Jewish student experiences By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Beginning Jan. 3, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton will offer each Jewish student in the Miami Valley from kindergarten through 12th grade a $500 annual subsidy toward Jewish programs locally or

By Marc Katz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Native Daytonian Justin Hollander was already 29 years old in 2008 and three-plus years into a law career when he took a tedious, low-paying, entry-level job as a “stat stringer” at San Diego Padres games. During home games, he sat next

By Elli Wohlgelernter, JTA Kibbutz Gezer, Israel — Bill James, the influential baseball writer, historian and statistician, once described the great Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly in only four words: “100 percent ballplayer, 0 percent bulls—.” The same can be said of Alon Leichman, the first athlete born in Israel

By Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin, Chabad of Greater Dayton Servants of time are slaves of slaves, The servant of God alone is free, Therefore, when each man makes his choice, My soul says, ‘I choose God for me.’ This short poem, written by Yehuda HaLevi near a millennium ago, is about

The Power of Stories series Jewish Family Education with Candace R. Kwiatek, The Dayton Jewish Observer Yakov joined a local Minchah (afternoon) service and sat a few rows behind a father and his four kids. The man in front of them drummed his fingers on the bench. The kids fidgeted.

Julie and Dr. Robert Bloom participated in their third Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Annual Israel Bike Mission, an intensive six-day bicycle ride through Israel from Eilat to Jerusalem, Nov. 11 to 17. Along the way, they cycled near the Egyptian border on a private military road and visited