By Martha Moody Jacobs, Special To The Observer Melanie Barrett, 20 years old and a junior at Wittenberg University, is an entrepreneur who designs and markets clothing. You might imagine she sells custom T-shirts or dresses made of repurposed fabrics. No. Barrett’s passion is creating specialized apparel for people in

By Martha Moody Jacobs, Special To The Observer Women who are activists in Dayton’s interfaith community met their counterparts from Israel when the Jewish Federation hosted a delegation of 13 Israelis over four days in November as part of the Federation’s Partnership2Gether program. For almost a year before their arrival

By Martha Moody Jacobs, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Fourteen-year-old Nour Shahadi, an Arab Israeli who thinks of Dayton as the place she really learned English, is still kvelling about the three weeks she spent at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Maine this summer. The camp —

By Martha Moody Jacobs, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Anyone who’s seen a child learn something new knows the thrill of an “aha” moment. And such moments need not take place in a classroom. Since taking over as co-administrators of Hillel Academy Jewish day school in summer 2011, longtime