The Synagogue Forum of Greater Dayton will present its 14-session Introduction to Judaism course on Tuesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. beginning Nov. 1 and running through Feb. 28. The annual class is open to anyone interested in Jewish learning, dialogue, and exploration. The course offers an in-depth look at

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

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

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

A place to call home By Marshall Weiss and Marc Katz Ohio Gov. James Rhodes described the site as the “finest community complex that I have seen in the state” when he spoke at the dedication of the Jewish Community Complex on Denlinger Road in Madison Township (now Trotwood), Sept.

By Marc Katz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Two small boxes of documents tell some of the story of Dayton’s Jewish community on Sept. 10, 1978: dedication day for the Jesse Philips Building and the Jewish Community Complex. They hold the contents of the Jewish community time capsule, which

The Dayton Jewish Observer Vegetarian food brought Cantor Jenna Greenberg and Rabbi Josh Ginsberg together. The two met as students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, when a classmate organized a singles dinner at a kosher vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown. Greenberg had become a vegetarian in her teens,

By Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin, Chabad of Greater Dayton There were many reasons why my path should never have crossed that of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whose 20th yahrzeit (anniversary of his death) the world has just marked. My Jewish experience was limited to the liberal variety, and my