The Heroes That Reside Among Us: Celebrating the Ger Toshav
Growing up, my family attended services every single Friday night. It wasn’t that my family was wildly pious. I think my parents found great value in the consistency of Jewish […]
Living a Legacy: Rabbi Solomon T. Greenberg Created My Favorite Place in the World
There is a picture that hangs in the Valley Temple Board Room of four men at a pizza restaurant. Taken in the summer of 2023, this picture represents the great […]
A Joyful Funeral: The End of Ordination in Cincinnati
In the fall of 2018, a classmate was getting married at Plum Street Synagogue, and I was asked to recite one of the Seven Blessings. We were told to walk […]
This One’s A Kippah: Debating My Daily Head Covering Practice
“From this moment on, people will look to you as a rabbi, whether you like it or not. You’d better start behaving like one.” These were the words shared at […]
Playing More Than Just the Classics: How We Can Lift Up Diverse Voices in Jewish Scholarship and Why It Matters
Every year during Chanukah, I buy each of the teachers in my religious school a book as a gift. I go to Joseph-Beth in Rookwood and spend well over an […]
How Our Shabbat Dinner Turned from a Disaster Into a Profound Gift
Historically, our congregation’s Middle School class has taken a trip to either Chicago or Detroit every year, both as a learning opportunity and a chance for bonding and memory-making. Over […]
The World Baseball Classic Allows Jews to See Israel in a Different Light
The Olympics came to a close this weekend, concluding our bi-annual celebration of athletic prowess and national pride. In a political climate where supporting one’s country is perhaps as hard […]
As a Jew – Sarah Hurwitz Confronts What It Means to Reclaim Jewish Self-Identification
If they were alive to see it today, the Maccabees would hate the way American Jews celebrate Chanukah. For the Hasmoneans (the dynasty the Maccabees founded), the central conflict of […]