Religion

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...

Taking Things a Little Too Far

by Rabbi Andy Gordon | Mar 15, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Religion

Right now, we are preparing for one of the most celebratory Jewish holidays of the year: Purim! This festival, which will be observed this year March 20-21, truly lives up to the old phrase, “They tried to kill us, we won, now let’s eat!” Long ago in Persia, the evil...

Beth El’s Mikvah Serves Multiple Roles for Baltimore’s Jewish Community

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Mar 13, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Religion, Spirituality

After having a miscarriage three years ago, Cara Parsons found solace and healing by way of an ancient Jewish practice. “I thought the cleansing ritual of the mikvah could help me move on,” says Parsons, who was 30 at the time. “Each month we didn’t conceive...

Communication in the Digital Age Doesn’t Always Inspire ‘Just’ Speech

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Feb 1, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Religion

The great satirist Tom Lehrer said, “… One problem that recurs more and more frequently these days, in books and plays and movies, is the inability of people to communicate with the people they love. … And the characters in these books and plays and so on, and in real...

African Jewish Communities Get Some Mainstream Recognition After Years on the Margins

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Jan 30, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Education, Religion

NEW YORK (JTA) — At a conference here on Jewish life in Africa, Magda Haroun spoke of being only one of a handful of Jews left in Egypt, a country that was once home to a Jewish community of 80,000. Abere Endeshaw Kerehu shared the struggles faced by the approximately...

Kabbalah Finds a Home in Judaism Between the Mystics and Madonna

by Ben Sales, JTA | Jan 29, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Religion, Spirituality

NEW YORK (JTA) — When Jews recite a core hymn welcoming the Sabbath on Friday night, they’re also singing about the holiness of sex. That was part of the message delivered by Reuven Kimelman, a Jewish studies professor, at a conference Jan. 27 on Kabbalah, the Jewish...

‘Women’s Night Out’ to Explore Wellness, Fun and Fellowship

by Aliza Friedlander | Jan 29, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Religion, Spirituality

Nisa Felps describes herself as a “spiritual entrepreneur” who enjoys bringing together Jewish women of all backgrounds for such gatherings as the Shabbat Project and the Pink Challah Bake. Now, Felps, a Northwest Baltimore resident, is working on a project of a...

The Three M’s of Visiting the Sick

by Rabbi Eli Yoggev | Jan 28, 2019 | Community, Elderly, Religion, Spirituality

Sniffling, coughing, fatigue, scratchy throat. No, this is not an ad for a flu relief medicine. Sadly, this is a reality for many of us as the winter season approaches with its insidious colds and flus. During this stretch, rabbis visit many sick congregants with the...

Welcome to Wawa — and Shabbat Shalom!

by Stephen Silver | Jan 24, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Religion

PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — There’s something uniquely American about an event that combines secular ritual with actual religion. In six states and the District of Columbia, but especially in Pennsylvania, shopping at Wawa is very much a ritual. It’s the convenience store...

KSDS and Cardinal Shehan School Come Together for Special Concert

by Linda L. Esterson | Jan 18, 2019 | Bar Mitzvah, Children, Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Milestones, Religion, Schools

Harrison Fribush has the music in him, and he wants to share that passion with other kids throughout the Baltimore area. A seventh grade student at Krieger Schechter Day School, Harrison has embarked on a bar mitzvah project unlike that of most of his peers. On Jan....