By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Maryna Braginsky had never met her niece Polina in person before. The 12-year-old girl’s resemblance to her is striking. And Polina had never met her first cousins — Maryna and husband Michael Braginsky’s six children. The Braginsky house in Centerville is now Polina’s

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer “I don’t know what baseball is, but I’m trying to figure it out,” says Rawa’a Serhan, 18, a visitor to Day Air Ballpark from the Israeli Arab village of Majd al-Krum in the Galilee. Serhan just graduated from high school. She works in

A three-part, six-hour PBS series directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick & Sarah Botstein Review By Martin Gottlieb, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer The Ken Burns operation now tells the American angle of the Holocaust: The U.S. and the Holocaust, to be aired on PBS in September in three

Playwright will discuss The Interview after matinee By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer When second-generation Holocaust survivor Helene Gordon saw Faye Sholiton’s play The Interview at Actor’s Theatre Fairborn in early 2020, she felt like she was reliving her childhood. The drama is about a Holocaust survivor and her

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Longtime labor relations consultant Mary Rita Weissman — a stalwart volunteer in the Jewish and general Dayton community — was elected president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton at its annual meeting, Aug. 17. Here, she talks about her pathway to Jewish

By Rabbi Haviva Horvitz, Temple Beth Sholom, Middletown Although it may be hard to believe, September is right in front of us! Do you know what that means? That means that the football season has just begun, and the baseball season is coming to an end soon. It also means

The Power of Stories Series Jewish Family Education With Candace R. Kwiatek, The Dayton Jewish Observer A devoted husband and father of seven, Rabbi Isaac Hurwitz writes a weekly Torah commentary and runs a marriage advice blog. Every day, he welcomes friends and strangers into his home for study, prayer,

With Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Oren Watson, son of Meryl Hattenbach and Richard Watson, won a bronze medal in tennis for boys 14 and under at the JCC Maccabi Games, held July 31-Aug. 5 in San Diego. He was part of Team Ohio, comprising teen athletes from medium

By Andrew Esensten, J. The cover of Michael Twitty’s new book shows the culinary historian and chef with several multicolored challahs in front of him. There is a rainbow Pride one, a blue-and-white Israeli flag one, and a red-black-and-green Pan-African flag one. The largest loaf includes all of the colors

In a July letter to Beth Abraham congregants, President Scott Liberman informed members that their new rabbi, Aubrey L. Glazer — who was to arrive in Dayton by Aug. 1 — would instead begin his work on that date remotely from Montreal because of a U.S. Government backlog on visa