‘We were all young, we all grew up together’ By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer “Oh, I remember it vividly,” Rabbi Judy Chessin says of Temple Beth Or’s first Friday night Shabbat service, Jan. 25, 1985. In the worst snowstorm of that winter, more than 100 people came out

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Thanks to an anonymous donor’s matching gift of $450,000, the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton project has the potential to raise $900,000 over the next two and a half years. With the $3 million Jewish Cemeteries has already raised, that would easily put

Temple Israel and Omega Baptist Church will hold their 30th pulpit exchange over MLK weekend. The tradition began in 1994 with Rabbi P. Irving Bloom and Pastor Daryl Ward when Omega Baptist purchased Temple Israel’s building on Emerson Avenue and Temple Israel moved to Riverside Drive. Pastor Joshua Ward will

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer With two Wright State University uniformed security officers standing visibly at the entrance of the Student Union’s Apollo Room, about 50 students attended the Palestine Diaspora Movement’s Resistance 101 Community Teach-In, Nov. 20, hosted by the university’s Muslim Student Association. The Palestine Diaspora

Members vote for synagogue to become Modern Orthodox and to affiliate with Orthodox Union By Marshall Weiss, The Observer As of Nov. 10, Beth Jacob Congregation now identifies as a Modern Orthodox synagogue, with separate seating for men and women on either side of a mechitzah (physical divider). That was

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Boston-based attorney Doug Hauer says he and his spouse of 30 years, Jack, were “100-percent destroyed” when Jack’s family in Israel called them at 4 in the morning, Oct. 7, 2023. “His entire family is in Israel,” says Doug, who was born and raised in

Henry Guggenheimer, who escaped Nazi Germany at age 12 in 1940 with his widowed mother, died Nov. 7. He was 96. Born in Stuttgart, he and his mother traveled through Eastern Europe and ultimately by freighter from Japan to San Francisco. He attended high school in Lima, Ohio, was drafted

Rabbis recited prayers and Psalms, leaders of Jewish community organizations lit memorial candles, and “victory before peace” emerged as a rallying cry at the Jewish Federation’s program to mark one year to the day since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. From the podium of the multipurpose room at the

Story and Photos by Talia Doninger, Special to The Dayton Jewish Observer Local Native Americans visited children with Beth Abraham Synagogue’s religious school Oct. 13 to share the art of their traditional storytelling. The Conservative congregation’s new religious school director, Elyssa Wortzman, organized the program to explore how Native Americans

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Who do you call when you need volunteers to help clean headstones at a cemetery that dates to 1875? In Beth Jacob Congregation’s case, they called on the Air Force Junior ROTC at Tecumseh High School in New Carlisle. Nine cadets teamed up