By Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director Have you ever thought about all the teachers you’ve had in your life? Can you imagine what you would be without them? Do you remember your kindergarten teacher? First grade? My first grade teacher was Mrs. Rowbottom. Yup, Rowbottom. She ate her triangular sandwich quarters by wrapping them […]
Continue Readingby Caroline Potter I always found something special and appealing about Jewish culture and community. In my late teens and early 20’s, it came to my more immediate attention that people did convert to Judaism, and I made this decision myself in September 2012. My own religious background is Presbyterian/Episcopalian. I attended an Episcopal grade school […]
Continue Readingby Sherri Goldman, Administrative and Finance Director November can be a tough month. The month begins with a transition to longer nights and shorter amounts of daylight. Saying goodbye to the sun can leave many people feeling depressed and sad. There can be a tendency to hibernate, causing us to sleep and eat more. Very tough […]
Continue ReadingBy Chaya What do the mikveh, Orthodox Jews, and sex addiction have to do with one another? As an Orthodox woman, and a member of S-Anon, I can safely say that they are deeply intertwined. S-Anon, modeled on 12-step fellowships like Al-Anon, is a support program for spouses, partners, and others affected by another person’s sex […]
Continue Readingby Walton Clark, Office Assistant I have an app on my phone called Duolingo. It’s a free language learning app that teaches you a language through taking quizzes. As you take the quizzes new material is introduced with simple questions. As I considered what I wanted to write about for this blog post, I thought about how […]
Continue Readingby Rene Katersky This letter was sent to us by Rene, a long-time mikveh guide and educator, following the “Get Ready: Releasing the Past, Embracing the Future” program that Mayyim Hayyim ran before the High Holidays this year: My favorite local beach beckons, with its sparsely inhabited sand, picturesque beauty, and crystal clear waves lapping the shore; a perfect […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein It’s Slingshot release day – one of my favorites each year. Mayyim Hayyim is celebrating our inclusion in the guide once again as well as being featured in their supplement on Women and Girls. And this time around we’ve hit a special milestone: ten years in a row of being included in the guide. […]
Continue Readingby DeDe Jacobs-Komisar, Development Manager ISIS. Israel/Gaza. Climate change. Rampant inequality and poverty. Women’s reproductive rights being chipped away. Oh yeah, and an Ebola epidemic. We’re living in pretty troubling times, and that’s not even taking into account the challenges we sometimes have being good family members, friends, and colleagues. Or just getting through the […]
Continue Readingby Naomi Malka There is so much sechel, or wisdom, in the Jewish calendar. I love that our year ends with the conclusion of summer and the entry of fall. We’ve celebrated, davenned, and fasted, but this week we’re taking the party outdoors. Sukkot recalls the harvest season in ancient Israel, when the land was so […]
Continue Readingby Rachel Hillman Hineni, I said aloud. Here I am, marking today as a transition point from one part of my life to another. I removed my nail polish, which covered the discoloration due to chemotherapy on my once-beautiful (and soon-to-be-beautiful-again) nail beds. I appreciated my body as I undressed, remembering that even with my […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director There’s a great scene from one of my very favorite movies of all time, Parenthood, with Steve Martin. At one point, seemingly out of context, the grandmother says to Steve, “You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. Up, down, up, down. Oh, what […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Sarah Tasman For the last number of years, preparing for the High Holidays has been full on. As most other Jewish professionals and clergy will tell you, preparing for the High Holidays is a whirlwind that includes creating service outlines, tutoring volunteer Torah readers, sermon writing, rehearsing with lay song leaders and so on. […]
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