Raymond L. Smith, 92, of Atlanta, passed away peacefully on March 6. A 12-year survivor of lung cancer, he was preceded in death by his loving wife of 67 years, Esther; and his younger siblings, Vern Smith and Mildred Smith Byrne. Born in Dayton to Frieda and Ben Smith of

Everyone’s talking about Pew. Since the Pew Center released the results of its survey of U.S. Jews in September, Jewish community leaders on the local and national level have plunged into parsing the data, absorbing and debating their significance, and beginning to shape priorities for the future. On the whole,

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer For 20 years, Chabad of Greater Dayton Co-Director Devorah Mangel has been preparing Shabbat meals for individuals in hospitals or at home following surgery or illness, or when they are in mourning. Now, she and volunteers with the Chabad Women’s Circle will expand

By Marc Katz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer In the early 1970s, Rinaldo’s Bake Shoppe on West Fairview Avenue in Dayton used to turn out 180 to 200 challahs a week – along with counter shelves full of other goodies – selling out long before Shabbos lights were kindled.

  By Marc Katz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Within the structure of a writing class, Elizabeth Weizman teaches more than just writing to a group of eager fifth and sixth graders at Hillel Academy, housed on the expansive third floor of Beth Abraham Synagogue at Sugar Camp in

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Dayton, Montgomery County, and the Dayton Development Coalition have contracted Hadas Bar-Or of Tel Aviv to serve as business development director for the Dayton Region Israel Trade Alliance office. Bar-Or, formerly the trade representative to Israel for Massachusetts, has signed a contract to

  Look for The Adventures of Bark Mitzvah Boy each month in The Dayton Jewish Observer and at this site. To read the complete March 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.

A look at the Holy Book series by Candace R. Kwiatek, The Jewish Family Identity Forum, The Dayton Jewish Observer My middle-school students recently expressed interest in learning Kabalah. A topic with the qualities of quicksand, Kabalah traditionally is not studied until the age of 40, and even then only

By Rabbi Haviva Horvitz, Temple Beth Sholom, Middletown, Ohio It is safe to say that there are many Jewish holidays which could be described as: “they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat.” But none more so than Purim. If you do not know the story, the Book of

Hillel Academy has hired Patty Caruso as its director of development. She’s assisting with fund raising, marketing, public relations, publicity, and outreach to continue the Jewish day school’s already growing enrollment. Elaine Bettman is one of eight honorees for this year’s YWCA Women of Influence Awards Luncheon, to be held