Blog

July is National Blueberry Month in the United States, but who really needs an excuse to enjoy this favorite summer fruit? Check out some of our favorite Jewishly inspired recipes to enjoy until you're blue in the face!

My search for “silver linings” in no way minimizes the toll in suffering, pain, loss, and inconvenience the pandemic is exacting from our lives; I fervently pray it will end soon. Still, I believe that the secret to Jewish survival despite all the hardships and tragedy history has imposed on us is our ability to cling to the hope that things will get better.

This work is our calling, and it doesn’t pause for a pandemic. Instead, we find creative ways to engage and mobilize our communities at a distance.

The determining factor, in my opinion, as to who can be considered a Zionist and who not, is not dependent on one’s solution for the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s not about one state versus two states, nor is it about one’s perspective on the potential annexation of territory. It's about two determining factors.

Rep. John Lewis’ memory inspires us to work harder and be more courageous as we join with millions of our fellow Americans to further his prophetic vision for our country.

I once had the opportunity, the privilege, the honor, to Rep. Lewis, face to face, exactly why he was my hero. Now, in honor of one of the most remarkable, most American, lives ever lived, I want to suggest four key lessons (among hundreds) that we can all learn from John Lewis’ life and work.

We've learned to procure the basics and meet many of our needs in new ways; with digital technology, we have found substitutes that have enabled us to learn and socialize virtually. Yet the Torah reminds us that individualism and isolation are not the ideal state of being.

Friday’s sunset could be no different than Thursday’s, a time marker notching off another day or another week, but Shabbat requires us to mark a more substantial difference,  Regularity is key to keep track of our lives between other Jewish times and when days blur into each other.

What was it like to grow up in a communal children’s house on an Israeli kibbutz? Rachel Biale was born in 1952 and raised on Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, overlooking the Jordan River. She is the author of the new memoir Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood.