Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. Jewish tradition teaches us that our fate for the year ahead is sealed on Yom Kippur — and our Book of Life was a raging epic this year. The book was on fire as our lives and our cities and our lungs were plagued by an invisible silent killer. On Yom Kippur, I am used to praying all morning, chanting haftarah as I have done for 20 years, crying through yizkor — my father z”l in heaven listens as we weep and shuckle. And then my ex-husband takes our boys and my mom home, and I stay behind to daven m...
Abba, are you there? You died 4 1/2 years ago, but I still forget sometimes. I was driving in sixth gear the other day. I went to exit the freeway and, on the off-ramp, I downshifted enough that I was able to shift directly into fourth. You taught me never to skip a gear. You said it was bad for the car. I never asked more about it; I just did what you said. Because you were Abba and I was me and you knew best. You knew all. That was your job. But now I want to know why. I bet you knew but I didn’t think to ask. I didn’t know to ask. Like: Does...
The incidents at my alma mater, UCLA, in the past weeks have shaken us all. As a Bruin, to hear that members of the student government were considering not electing a perfectly competent student to a position because she was Jewish is astounding and frightening. As a Jew and a Hillel supporter (having been the product of the leadership education, social and cultural and religious programming provided by Hillel organizations around the world) the accusations and inanity felt way too close to home for comfort. When fellow Kveller contributor...
(KVELLER/JTA)-I grew up in a public school that had enough Jewish kids that I felt represented. I went to Hebrew school twice a week and had a chavurah, or fellowship, through my Reform synagogue with kids my age. A portion of my family was Orthodox. I was surrounded by Jews. I always felt like there were a lot of Jews in the United States and the world based on my childhood experience. I was wrong. We are less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, and 0.2 percent of the world population. Last...