Non-Jews help bring music to temples on High Holy Days and Shabbat Non-Jews hired to perform liturgical music for liberal Jewish congregations is not unusual. But the stories of those who come to do it and why they continue are unique. By Renate Frydman, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

By Rabbi Karen N. Bodney-Halasz, Temple Israel, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Parents will do nearly anything to protect their children. To see a child suffer is often more than a mother or father can bear. We wish we could fight our children’s battles for them, especially when they

By Michele Alperin Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer The Zohar, Dr. Daniel Matt says, dares to be imaginative with the Torah, empowering individuals to interpret the story in totally new and individual ways. Most powerful are its views of God. “It is the divine energy that is animating all

By Rabbi Samuel Fox, Rabbi Emeritus, Beth Jacob Congregation With Rosh Hashanah around the corner, each of us should engage in the national pastime of making resolutions for self improvement. Some of us will try to cover the waterfront with a multitude of resolutions, listing a catalog of sins and

By Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin, Chabad of Greater Dayton Hot enough? At that point of the year when the heat is usually at its hottest, when it’s hard to bear and we seek relief — that’s when we find the anniversary of national disaster, Tisha B’Av, an anniversary of such horrors

By Rabbi Levi Simon, Chabad of Greater Dayton We have just celebrated Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah. In the Midrash, Rabbi Meir teaches that before the Holy One, Blessed Be He, gave the Torah to the Jewish nation, He asked them for a guarantor, one

          Barely remembered today, service delivery for itinerant Jews was a hot topic during the Federation’s first decades By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Judaism teaches that all Jews are obligated to give tzedakah, to provide righteous giving to those in need. A Jew is