Author: Steve Lipman

Jewish Ukraine is a different place today than it was thirty years ago. A lot has changed.

Reichmann used his business and political connections to lobby on behalf of Jews throughout the Soviet Empire, leveraging his influence with world figures on behalf of unknown Jews.

Worried about the Pesach sized hole that enters your wallet each spring? Here’s how to shop smarter this year.

In this column, we highlight small and not-so-small acts of kindness that happen each and every single day.     A Warm Final Sendoff an a Below-Freezing Day  On a frigid Ontario afternoon in January 2019, more than 150 members of Toronto’s Jewish community stood on the open grounds of a snow-covered cemetery in the freezing […]

I had forgotten that you only get out of Shabbat what you put into it.

His financial outlook was clouded; with no store, he would have no income. Then the local Jewish community stepped in.

“There’s no question that Rabbi Goldzweig was a pivotal player in the development of kashrut in America,” Rabbi Israel Paretzky, an OU RC told Jewish Action in a 2011 interview. “He was the OU.”

Combatting sinat chinam by highlighting acts of kindness.

She had learned two expressions in Russian. “You are in a safe place.” And, “You are not alone.”

Despite Mom’s earlier Seder disinvitation, I got to spend another Pesach with her. This time, she did not object.

“There’s the Jewish People—and Jewish people,” the larger Jewish community and individual, often unsung Jews. “He understood both.”

Rabbi Miller played an active role as a volunteer, often as the public face and voice of the Jewish community, on behalf of the JCRC, Holocaust survivors, Soviet Jews and other causes, as well as several Orthodox and Zionist organizations.

Covid-19 has spurred an unprecedented interest in aliyah. Why?

“It’s a major game-changer,” restoring millions of dollars of potentially lost salaries to members of the Orthodox community.

Why camps play such an important role

“So, who’s your latest victim?” That was the sarcastic question a colleague at work—a Sabra who has picked up the snarky US sense of humor—would ask me every Thursday or Friday when he spotted me rolling a suitcase into our office. It meant I was going away for Shabbat. Single, I am blessed to have […]

“Rabbi, I prayed for my zeidy to get better, but he died. Didn’t God listen to my prayer?”

I wanted to make my extended time in our family home over Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah memorable. I didn’t realize how memorable Nature would make the chagim.

Jews have been able to bring the light of humor to even the darkest of times. We survive because we tell jokes, jokes that allow us to laugh even when tragedy, up to the point of death, threatens.

Soldiers began delivering groceries, loading prepared meals into ambulances, and bringing medicine and toys to quarantined homes. And the men dressed in black-and-white bonded with those in khaki green.

How does the Jewish community raise a generation of readers?

As the virus spread into other corners of the Jewish world, the chesed spread as well.

How we can sanctify G-d’s name in everyday life

Children need to learn from failure, just as successful adults do.

What is it like to remember, in such a somber setting, loved ones you had lost?

Getting and keeping the attention of people of any age during a Seder, a meal with a surfeit of readings and rituals that can stretch over several hours, is always difficult. But it is particularly challenging for teenagers and young adults at the table.

How do you celebrate a holiday dedicated to memory when a person’s memory is fading?

One day this winter Ronit Comrov will make dozens of latkes, and sufganiyot, “just raspberry,” for her friends in Milwaukee. In London, Rabbi Hillel Simon will host a Chanukah party for friends and Rabbi Rashi Simon, also in London, will sponsor one at the outreach organization he founded. In Bnei Brak, Shira Pollack will arrange her work schedule to get home at the earliest possible moment to light the menorah with her family. Sounds like typical frum life in a big city. But the four Simon siblings are products of small-town America.

The husband shrugged. “What are latkes?”
I thought he was kidding. Who doesn’t know from latkes?

“Why is this night not like all other nights?” we ask ourselves at the Seder each year. I answer that question by remembering a Seder that was not like all other Sedarim.