Family

Janet Kurland Honored by Comptroller Franchot and Jewish Community Services

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Apr 10, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Elderly, Family

Love was in the air as approximately 100 staff members of Jewish Community Services and community leaders gathered April 9 at the Park Heights Jewish Community Center to honor Janet B. Kurland. Kurland — who last November retired from her position as JCS senior...

This Cartoon Matzah Character is Huge in Holland — and Not Just Among Jews

by Cnaan Liphshiz | Apr 8, 2019 | Children, Community, Family, Religion

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Anywhere else in Europe, a muscular cartoon character named Max the Matzah would have amounted to little more than an inside Jewish joke. But in the Netherlands, where matzah for many non-Jews is a household item year-round, Max became an unlikely...

GEM Event Aims to Help Disadvantaged Girls in Baltimore

by Peter Arnold | Apr 8, 2019 | Children, Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Schools

High school girls from underserved communities in the Baltimore metropolitan area find inspiration and encouragement from Girls’ Empowerment Mission, a local volunteer-based organization. GEM is a three-year college preparatory program held twice a month after school...

A Family Haggadah Imagines a ‘Complicated, Engaging and Fleshy’ Passover

by Emily Burack | Mar 27, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Family, Religion

(JTA) — The Passover seder can be boring for kids. A new Haggadah is trying to change that. Published by Kveller, a Jewish parenting site, the Kveller Haggadah is “for curious kids — and their grown-ups.” The Haggadah’s co-creators are Elissa Strauss, a columnist on...

Jews United for Justice to Hold Water Rights Seder

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Mar 22, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Religion, Spirituality

“And justice shall be revealed like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:24) Every year before Passover, members of the seder committee for the Baltimore branch of Jews United for Justice contemplate a particular social justice issue to explore. For...

Transforming the Core

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Mar 16, 2019 | Children, Community, Community Resources, Family, Religion, Spirituality

Community-building is a never-ending concept. The other day, I was walking my dog through the Reservoir Hill neighborhood. I crossed through German Park, our community playground, and found a father pushing his baby on the infant swings. I smiled. I couldn’t help...

Opening Doors

by JMORE Staff | Mar 15, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Family

Jews of 21st-century Baltimore live all over the Charm City region. It must be something in the water. For generations, the conventional wisdom about Baltimore Jewry has been the following: nobody ever leaves. Of course, we know that’s not true. Plenty of Jews who...

Opening Doors: Let There Be Light

by Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief | Mar 15, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Family

When his life partner, Joel Pearson, died suddenly nearly six years ago, Jon Adler Kaplan says he never really considered moving out of their Bolton Square townhouse. “This is my piece of Joel,” says Kaplan, 56, looking around his living room of hardwood floors,...

Opening Doors: Classic Living

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Mar 15, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Family

When she and her husband, David, began house-hunting in 2009, they knew they wanted to live among neighbors who felt like “extended family,” says Brandy Dopkin. They found that type of close-knit atmosphere in a cul-de-sac at Creekside at Quarry Lake. “There aren’t...

Opening Doors: Where Upside Down Feels Right

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Mar 15, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Family

When first visiting her family’s Canton townhouse in 2012, Dr. Rebecca Dezube says there was no question in her mind that she wanted to live there. “I love the windows, the lights, the arched, wood-paneled ceilings in the master bedroom, and all the little details,”...