Look for The Adventures of Bark Mitzvah Boy each month in The Dayton Jewish Observer and at this site.   To read the complete December 2017 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.

Mike Alan Bondurant, age 54 of Xenia, passed away Nov. 3. Mr. Bondurant attended Miami East High School and MVCTC. He was employed by Ernst Concrete and formerly by Moraine Materials for more than 28 years. Mr. Bondurant is survived by his wife of more than 22 years, Jaime (Alpert)

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer It’s the first run-through for Act I, only three weeks from opening, and members of the production team can’t help breaking up with laughter at the homespun quips that volley in front of them. “From such children come other children,” Yente the matchmaker

Area rabbis: ‘Messianic Judaism’ is Christianity with Jewish overlays, not normative Judaism By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer On Sept. 28, Ahavat Torah Yeshiva – Dayton, OH launched its community Facebook page. In an early post, it describes itself as “a place for Torah learning and drawing close to

By Ed Carroll, Cleveland Jewish News Graffiti on campus restrooms at Wright State University displaying inflammatory messages have been found at least twice since Oct. 12. The messages reportedly included the phrase “Jews go home,” among other racial and anti-gay slurs. The messages, written in dry erase marker, promptly were

By Marc Katz, Special To The Observer To most of us, the 1952 Gary Cooper/Grace Kelly film High Noon is a classic Western about nothing more than an ex-convict threatening the sheriff who put him in jail. It was much more than that, as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Frankel points

By Michele Alperin, Special To The Observer There are good deaths and bad deaths. Often, the bad ones happen when the family or the patient refuses to accept that death is near, no matter how many medical procedures doctors try. Giving up is hard, even if the alternative is increased

Three events are scheduled across the Miami Valley to remember Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass — Nov. 9 and 10, 1938 — considered the start of the Holocaust.   University of Dayton The University of Dayton will hold its observance for Kristallnacht at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7 in

By Rabbi Nochum Mangel, Chabad of Greater Dayton When the young Rabbi Moshe Feller first arrived in St. Paul, Minn. as shliach (representative) of the Chabad movement, he was invited to write an article in the local Jewish newspaper. He felt honored by the opportunity, and wrote an article about

With Rachel Haug Gilbert, The Dayton Jewish Observer Attorney Jane Novick will receive the Lloyd O’Hara Public Interest Law Award at the Access to Justice Awards Dinner on Nov. 2 at Sinclair’s Ponitz Center. The event benefits Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Legal Aid of Western Ohio, and the Greater