Religion

How These Young Jews Found Spirituality Outside the Synagogue

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Aug 10, 2017 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Religion, Spirituality

NEW YORK (JTA) — Michelle Reyf isn’t really a synagogue-goer. Until recently, the 28-year-old, who works for a Jewish nonprofit, was perfectly happy to get her spiritual fulfillment at Buddhist prayer services and meditation retreats. Synagogue did not appeal to her...

Polish Villagers Hold a Jewish Wedding Without Jews

by Cnaan Liphshiz | Aug 9, 2017 | Community, Religion, Weddings

(JTA) — Nostalgia for Jews is a well-documented phenomenon in Eastern Europe, with cultural and even substantial commercial aspects. In Ukraine, so-called Jewish-themed restaurants with pork-heavy menus compete for tourists, while figurines of Jews are sold at...

How Tisha b’Av Can Help us Understand the Refugee Experience

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Aug 1, 2017 | Community, Religion, Spirituality

NEW YORK (JTA) — For many Jews, Tisha b’Av is centered around mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. But that interpretation misses out on an important lesson that is made more relevant by recent events, Rabbi David Seidenberg argues....

Getting Lost is Crucial to Growth and Self-Discovery

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Religion, Spirituality

I write these words from Jerusalem, where I am spending a month of study. This Jmore column has been devoted to Baltimore justice, but what can I learn about justice in Baltimore from thousands of miles away? Jerusalem and Baltimore are very different cities. One is...

Street Smarts

by JMORE Staff | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Family, Religion

The organized Jewish community gets hip to city living “Communities come into being when and where a critical mass of people choose to live, for whatever reason. Communal institutions sometimes materialize in anticipation of people’s arrival, and sometimes they follow...

In The House!

by Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Family, Religion

The Moishe House offers informal Jewish programming to millennials living in pockets of the city. Yitzy Childress recently stood on a deck atop a Federal Hill rowhouse, gazing at the city skyline on a clear, breezy afternoon. The bearded, lanky 27-year-old, who this...

Playtime in the City

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Family, Religion

The Downtown Baltimore JCC brings a sense of Jewish community to Federal Hill. Situated in an unobtrusive, three-story office building on 1118 Light St. in Federal Hill, the Downtown Baltimore Jewish Community Center bears no resemblance to the sprawling campus of the...

Repair and Relevance

by Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Family, Religion

Repair the World: Baltimore taps into millennials’ desire to find meaningful community service opportunities. On a busy, gritty stretch of Eastern Avenue in Highlandtown, a nondescript storefront bears a sign on its façade distinguishing the operation from the area’s...

Urban Learnin’

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Family, Religion

For Ilene Vogelstein, director of Beth El @ Federal Hill and an expert in the field of Jewish early childhood education, preschool is all about “making memories, making connections and building community.” For families living throughout downtown Baltimore, the school...

What Happens When a Jewish Professor Teaches at a Catholic School in a Muslim Country?

by Ron Kampeas, JTA | Jul 31, 2017 | Community, Education, Religion

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Near the end of his first year teaching American studies at the Georgetown University campus in Qatar, Gary Wasserman introduced a dozen Israelis to a dozen undergraduates from across the Middle East. Then he left the room so the students...