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

With Rachel Haug Gilbert, The Dayton Jewish Observer With a Western hoedown theme, CARE House, Dayton’s advocacy center for abused children, will hold its first fund-raiser on Nov. 4 at Top of the Market. The event will feature live music, raffles, a silent and live auction, and even a mechanical

      Recipes And Photos By Shannon Sarna, JTA Some people take great pride and pleasure in planning their Rosh Hashanah menus for weeks or months in advance, chugging away at kugels and cakes and soup to put in the freezer. I know my grandmother and Aunt Ruth both did

Apple and Honey Pie Pops By Sheri Silver, JTA The High Holy Days bring to mind certain traditional food customs, the most well-known being the dipping of apples in honey. And while a classic apple pie or cake is a lovely way to mark our hopes for a sweet new

Back to basics series Jewish Family Education with Candace R. Kwiatek, The Dayton Jewish Observer The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a Jewish couple who asked about getting a train home late one night overheard the CityRail customer service manager telling his staff, “They won’t mind getting a taxi because

Dayton Playhouse and the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra will present a fully-staged concert version of the musical Fiddler on the Roof on Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. at Dayton Masonic Center. Based on Jewish folklorist Sholem Aleichem’s stories