Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

The original roast beef sandwich was actually served on a challah-esque bun.

We have the meats.

Ever wonder who the we is behind that Arbys slogan? The answer is Forrest and Leroy Raffel, Jewish brothers from New Castle, Pennsylvania. While the Raffel brothers were certainly not the only Jewish creative giants in the American fast food industry (hat tip to tip Harry J. Sonneborn and Leonard and Myra Rosenblatt) their story is one that is particularly compelling in regards to its history of innovations.

Forrest and Leroy were born to Jewish immigrants Jacob and Anna Raffel in 1922 and 1927, respectively. Despite the sizable age gap between the two siblings, Forrest (nicknamed Fuzzy) and Leroy were close with similar interests. During WWII, Forrest served in the Air Force and Leroy fought in the Naval Reserve. Forrest then went on to graduate from the School of Hotel Management and Restaurant Administration at Cornell University while Leroy earned his business degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

With their military experience and ivy league educations, the brothers were primed for professional success and immediately set their sights on becoming big names in food service. In the 1950s, Forrest and Leroy purchased a restaurant equipment company from their uncle, which they rebranded as Raffel Brothers, Inc., and eventually grew the business to become one of the largest of its kind in the nation.

Despite their early success, the brothers were not satisfied to rest their laurels on this accomplishment. Having observed how Ray Kroc ofMcDonaldsand others deployed the franchising model to achieve major success and rapid revenue, Forrest and Leroy decided to make a foray into the fast food industry.

On a hot Thursday in Boardman, Ohio in July of 1964, the brothers opened their first quick service restaurant, which they dubbed Arbys, for their respective initials R and B.Ironically, the catchy name was not the brothers first choice; their original preferred moniker, Big Tex, was already taken by another chain.

Connect with your community every morning.

The brothers choice for the chain to focus on roast beef over hamburgers was a calculated one. Forrest and Leroy wanted to position Arbys as a tad more formal than other fast food chains, and thus opted for the more sophisticated roast beef sandwiches. They also made sure the menu included singular offerings like the Jamocha shake, a coffee-chocolate amalgam dessert beverage that remains one of the chains signature specialties to this day.

Another aspect of the composition of the roast beef sandwich suggests a more deliberate nod to the brothers Jewish lineage. The original carbohydrate vehicle for the roast beef was a sesame seed egg bun designed by iconic kosher bakery Schwebels. Opened in 1906 in nearby Youngstown, Ohio, Schwebels was founded by Polish Jewish immigrants Dora and Joseph Schwebel and served a culinary beacon for the Jewish community and area restaurateurs. By appointing Schwebels challah-esque roll as the official bun for their roast beef sandwich, the Raffel brothers posted an indelible shout-out to their minority Jewish roots in the broader national Christian majority landscape.

Despite the fact that the sandwiches were significantly more expensive than the average burger (69 cents versus 15 cents at McDonalds), consumers went crazy. Following the enormous success of their original location, the Raffel brothers embarked on an aggressive expansion plan and by the late 1960s, more than 300 Arbys restaurants were spread out over 40 states across the country. It should be noted that behind the roast beef boon were not just two Jewish men but also a savvy Jewish woman: Gloria Raffel, wife of Forrest, designed what would become the chains iconic cowboy hat logo.

The rise of Arbys presented problems as well as profit, as the company faced difficulties obtaining adequate loans and capital to support their expansion. Additional financial restructuring proved unsuccessful and resulted in the brothers having to file for bankruptcy multiple times. By the mid 1970s the continued growth (500 locations and counting) and increasingly complicated operational needs led Forrest and Leroy to realize their roast beef baby would not survive without outside help. In 1976, the brothers sold Arbys to Royal Crown Cola for $18 million, though they stayed on as managers until 1979, ultimately growing the chain to 800 locations.

During the twilight years of the Raffel brothers leadership, Arbys continued to be a pioneer with regards to developing uniquely craveable dishes like the Beef n Cheddar sandwich and seasoned curly fries. Such innovations enabled the unassuming brothers of humble Ohio origins to retire as multi-millionaires and established them as fast food royalty.

Today Arbys famous slogan requires a well-deserved addendum: We have the meatsat more than 3000 locations! Favoring roast beef rather than burgers continues to pay off as the chain reported more than $4 billion in revenue at the turn of the 21st century. Although Forrest Raffel sadly passed away in 2008, Leroy is still alive and kicking at 96. Their mutual fraternal legacy as innovators in the fast food space is reflected in Arbys continued commitment to bringing consumers out-of-the-box menu items. Most recently, the restaurant debuted the fiery Diablo Dare sandwich made with ghost pepper cheese, spicy sauce, andwait for itsmoked brisket, perhaps proving once and for all that Arbys is more than just a little bit Jewish.

See original here:

The Jewish history of Arby's - St. Louis Jewish Light

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on The Jewish history of Arby’s – St. Louis Jewish Light
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

Chocolate played a pivotal role in Jewish survival amidst the throes of the Inquisition.

We have a dizzying array of chocolate at our fingertips. From rich and velvety dark chocolate, to smooth and silky chocolate ganache, to creamy and sweet milk chocolate, and even cool and fruity ruby chocolate.

Hard to believe that chocolate used to be reserved only for the elite, out of reach to the common folk.

In 16th century Spain, chocolate was a secret, drinkable delicacy for royalty and the elite. This is reflected in a statement from the Benedictines of the time: Do not drink the cocoa, anyone but friar, sir, or brave soldier.

Despite only being available to the elites of society, the cocoa bean quickly amassed an incredible amount of wealth for Spains economy. This was due to the increasingly high demand from those who had access to it, leading to heightened trade in Latin America where the cocoa bean was grown, and the settlement in the Caribbean, where sugar for the chocolate was planted.

The development and trade of chocolate became a major industry which was largely comprised of Jews. Being a trader was originally seen as lowly profession by the upper class, so Jews were the ones who took on this work. And Jews introduced chocolate to the rest of Europe, after being forced out of Spain and bringing with them their vast trading connections and knowledge of chocolate-making.

Being a Jew in 16th century Spain was no walk in the park. The Inquisition was well under way; thousands of Jews had either been burned at the stake, forced to convert (while many secretly adhered to their Jewish identity and practice) or fled the country. Since much of Spains Jewish population had been involved in the lowly work of trade, one of the only fields eligible for Jews, many conversos, secret Jews, remained in that industry.

With a booming chocolate trade, many of these conversos or New Christians began to do very well for themselves. As Christians, their newfound access to higher social classes who desired chocolate elevated their own standing and catapulted them higher up the economic ladder.

With their knowledge of the chocolate trade, the influx of Jews proved highly beneficial to the economies of the new countries in which they settled.

However, being considered Christian in name didnt protect them from the resentment and jealousies of the Old Christians who claimed the New Christians were untrustworthy, unfaithful, and a stain on the society. They still, after all, had Jewish blood.

So, after forcing thousands of Jews to convert to Christianity in order to be accepted into society, 350 years after the beginning of the Inquisition in the 15th century these secret Jews were still being hunted down or forced into exile.

Many of these Spanish Jews fled to nearby France, England, Belgium, and the Netherlands. With their knowledge of the chocolate trade, the influx of Jews proved highly beneficial to the economies of the new countries in which they settled. As these European countries were looking to get a foot in the door with trade in the New World, the incoming Jews had the trade connections they desired to compete with the Spanish.

With all their know-how, Spanish Jews developed a sweeter, edible chocolate that catered to the surrounding populations.

Bayonne, a small town in southwestern France, serves as a microcosm of what was happening across Europe. Located near the border with Spain, Bayonne became home to many Jews fleeing the country. These New Christians were granted residency but not citizenship (Jews were only granted citizenship after the French Revolution).

The Jews in Bayonne helped establish trade connections with the French West Indies, and established chocolate houses where it was marketed to the local community - from delicious chocolate cakes, delectable chocolate fillings, to creamy, thick hot chocolate. Chocolate was no longer to be enjoyed only by royals and the elite; it was now accessible to the masses (although still expensive), in many more consumable options. Its no wonder that Bayonne is known as the chocolate capital of France.

But life was difficult for the Jews of Bayonne. Their success posed an issue to other French chocolatiers who were new to the scene and resented the successful Jewish tradesmen. In the 1720s, a series of laws were passed banning Jews from making and selling chocolate in shops and warehouses, and by 1820, there were only two Jewish chocolatiers left.

In Belgium and England, the first people to be issued a license to manufacture and sell chocolate were Spanish Jews. In Belgium, Emmanuel Soares de Rinero settled in Brabant in the late 1600s. At that time, chocolate was worth about 15 loaves of bread. Only the upper classes could enjoy this exotic treat.

But it was such a hit, and soon enough, Belgian chocolatiers began to spring up across the country. Today, Belgium has one of the highest reputations of chocolate in the world.

According to author Michael Leventhal, a man named Jacob the Jew introduced chocolate to England in 1650, a few years before de Rinero came to Belgium. He opened Englands first coffeehouse where he sold coffee and hot chocolate. England then became home to a number of chocolatiers and established themselves in the global trade of sugar and the cocoa bean.

Ironically, the chocolate trade, initially considered to be low-class work delegated for the Jews, became the vehicle for their economic success. Shunned from inclusion in government and other vocations, this phenomenon repeated itself in Jewish communities across Europe. Ubiquitous Jewish traders became the basis of many Jewish stereotypes and antisemitic tropes which remain prevalent today.

Jews were deemed as globalists, a term used to represent the greed and power used to pull the strings on the global economy. The canard that Jews were scheming to control the world led governments and political parties to scapegoat Jews for their economic downfalls and social issues and view them as disloyal to citizens.

Chocolate may not be a Jewish cuisine, but its embedded in the Jewish diet from rugelach to chocolate babka, to blintzes and kosher-for-Passover chocolate cakes. For the Jews in Curacao, it is even customary to drink hot chocolate at a circumcision.

And it played a pivotal role in Jewish survival and success amidst the throes of the Inquisition.

See original here:

Jews and the Chocolate Trade - aish.com Middle Ages, History, Featured - Aish.com

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Jews and the Chocolate Trade – aish.com Middle Ages, History, Featured – Aish.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

At the conclusion of the quarterly board meeting of the Texas Jewish Historical Society, held in Bonham, July 15-17, members of the organization and several Bonham residents gathered at Willow Wild Cemetery. There, they consecrated the section designated as the Jewish Cemetery of Bonham. Newly placed cornerstones mark the area.

The service involved prayers, reading Scripture and walking around the perimeter of the Jewish section seven times. The number 7 represents completion, just as the world was created in seven days.

Avi Mitzner, of Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, conducted the service. At the board meeting, TJHS voted in a $5,000 grant to begin restoration of the burial sites.

This gathering was the first in-person meeting of TJHS in two-and-a-half years because of COVID. Members also participated in the meeting via Zoom, marking the first hybrid meeting of the society.

Attendees in Bonham toured the Sam Rayburn Home and heard a lecture by Emma Trent, coordinator of the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum. Malinda Allison of the Fannin County Museum spoke about Jewish business owners and their families who lived in Bonham. And, Lou Ashmore talked about the history of the Jewish cemetery and plans for its long-term restoration.

During the board meeting, members learned that the James and Rosalie Alexander Trust has bequeathed a $100,000 gift to TJHS. President Sheldon Lippman is asking the executive council to make recommendations for how best to use the money, such as establishing a scholarship program.

Membership chairman Marc Wormser reported 25 new members have joined TJHS this year, bringing total membership to 502.

Archivist Sally Drayer said several documents were sent to the Briscoe Center on the UT Camps in Austin, along with two scrapbooks containing photos and comments about Texas Jewish War Veterans.

Past president Davie Lou Solka reported the Briscoe Center is open, with social distancing remaining in effect. Efforts are being made to digitize several TJHS documents. Kimberly Dietz, longtime volunteer at the center and who has performed administrative tasks for TJHS, is retiring and a replacement is needed.

Solka, who edits the TJHS News Magazine, is looking for stories about Jews who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s and 80s. She is encouraging members and magazine readers to seek out Jewish residents in their communities and get their stories.

John Campbell noted that the TJHS website is being updated to include online membership registration and dues payments.

Vickie Vogel, travel committee chair, said a trip to Poland is being planned for May 2023. Registration is available at txjhs.org.

The TJHS fall quarterly meeting is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 16, on Zoom.

Original post:

TJHS board meeting includes Jewish gravesites' consecration in Willow Wild Cemetery - Jewish Herald-Voice

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on TJHS board meeting includes Jewish gravesites’ consecration in Willow Wild Cemetery – Jewish Herald-Voice
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

Trailblazing restaurateur Tracy Borkum, long known for her portfolio of California Italian dining venues, is pivoting to a new concept inspired by her family roots: the Jewish deli.

Late this month, she and chef partner Tim Kolanko will debut Gold Finch, a 1,400-square-foot restaurant that will be housed on the ground floor of a recently renovated life sciences office campus in Torrey Pines. Designed as a breakfast-and-lunch spot, the restaurant represents Borkums modern take on the classic Jewish delicatessen.

Ardent fans of the traditional deli neednt lament. Versions of the beloved noodle kugel, potato latkes, knish and corned beef on rye will be well-represented on Borkums very diverse and fulsome menu.

A lot of American Jewish delis have been focused on Ashkenazi and heavier northern European cooking, but theres the other side of Jewish cooking thats very much based on the California palate, which is middle Eastern, Southern European more of the Sephardic cooking that comes from warm-weather countries, said Borkum, whose Urban Kitchen Group opened the now well-known Cucina Urbana in Bankers Hill 13 years ago.

Were calling it the modern delicatessen. Its certainly not kosher we have bacon on the menu. So its not like your traditional deli, which Im not sure exists today in most places.

Shes right. Cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, long the epicenter of the Jewish deli, have seen a gradual decline in the iconic homage to Jewish immigrant culture. In an article this month about a museum exhibit documenting the Jewish delicatessen, the New York Times reported that at one time there were an estimated 3,000 such delis in New York City in the 1930s. Today, there are just a few dozen, according to the New York Historical Society.

Gold Finch marks a key turning point in the evolution of Borkums Urban Kitchen Group, which has eight restaurants, including two newer venues at the Mingei museum in Balboa Park, plus culinary offerings at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Since opening the original Cucina Urbana, Borkum has been in expansion mode, developing more of her signature California Italian eateries in San Diego and Orange counties. She currently has five Cucina locations.

Our intention and commitment is still to Cucina, and we are currently looking at a lease for another Cucina in the county, so were certainly not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, she said. Its just an interesting time to have other experiences.

Exterior of Gold Finch, which will open in late August. The outside area has yet to be completed.

(The RMR Group)

Gold Finch is located in the Muse at Torrey Pines, the former longtime home of Scripps Research. Redeveloped last year at a cost of $100 million, the updated three-building campus on Science Park Road has 186,000 square feet of office and lab space, plus sweeping, eastern-facing views from its all-glass buildings.

The deli will be housed on the lower level of one of the buildings and will be a convenient dining amenity for office workers in the area. The new restaurant, though, cannot rely alone on traffic from the office park, especially given the still prevalent practice of working remotely, Borkum said. For that reason, she is also marketing it as a dining destination.

Right now in the office market, theres more a hybrid scenario occurring where a lot of people are going back to the office but not five days a week, and Im not sure thats going to change, so I think theres a commitment now to incentivize people to come back to the workplace with things like food and beverage. And a lot of people in the science industry have to come back to work, so that is a positive outlook for us.

The Gold Finch space, which will be designed to be light and airy with stone and wood accents, will feature a glass facade, a floor-to-ceiling glass door, and outdoor patio.

Borkum says she is excited about a concept and menu that evokes her own memories of growing up in Londons Jewish neighborhoods. Shes especially enthused about the banana fritters and halvah ice cream dessert that was inspired by her recollection of her grandmother making banana fritters.

A menu item that is more in keeping with Sephardic cuisine, Borkum said, is a shakshuka, prepared with a poached egg in a green tomatillo sauce with spinach and zaatar. Among the offerings sure to whet the appetite of deli devotees are challah French toast, matzo ball soup, berbere spice fried artichoke with sumac aioli, and a chocolate babka bun with orange cream and streusel.

If the new venue proves successful, Borkum said she would like to open more locations.

Even as Borkum and her team prepare to launch a new concept and also build on the Cucina brand, she acknowledges the lingering challenges rebounding from a pandemic that shut down indoor dining during the height of COVID-19. Now she is grappling, as everyone is, with rising costs.

We were fortunate with the support we got financially from not only the federal government, but also our landlords, said Borkum. But the cost of doing business now is above and beyond anything weve ever seen. Labor, food, construction its all through the roof. And equipment, you either cant get it or youre paying two or three times what you paid a few years ago

We havent made up for the loss financially during the pandemic, but our financial picture Is very hopeful. Maybe were gluttons for punishment doing another project. At least once a day someone tells me Im crazy.

See the original post here:

San Diego's Cucina Urbana founder makes a culinary pivot: She will open a Jewish deli this month - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on San Diego’s Cucina Urbana founder makes a culinary pivot: She will open a Jewish deli this month – The San Diego Union-Tribune
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

(JTA) The rain lasted all night, forcing the dance party into a nearby barn. But the bride saw the unexpected downpour as a blessing.

In earth-based Judaism, theres so much emphasis on praying for rain, said Adi Aboody, who married Ophir Haberer on June 4 at the Green Valley Farm and Mill in Sebastopol, in northern California. If you took out the logistical craziness of it, it felt magical.

Aboody, 32, and Haberer, 31, are deep proponents of earth-based Judaism, a grassroots movement that seeks to center Jewish religious practice on the earth. They met in 2015 through Wilderness Torah, a San Francisco Bay Area organization that hosts festivals, campouts and education programs for this growing community of earth-focused Jews.

They are at least the ninth couple to meet through Wilderness Torah, which was founded in 2007.

Our immersive programs have the most unique community and village-building technology, ritual and celebration, said Simcha Schwartz, Wilderness Torahs director of development, who met his wife at the organizations Passover in the Desert festival. That recipe feeds authentic connection and vulnerability, and therefore love.

The night before their wedding, Haberer and Aboody, both of whom have Sephardic ancestry, held a Moroccan-themed party. (Luna Munn Photography)

Aboody and Haberer infused their wedding with both Jewish and earthy values.

Next to the chuppah were two altars, one displaying photos of their ancestors and the other laden with local fruit and flowers, challah and stalks of wheat in honor of the harvest festival Shavuot, which started the same day. As the groom processed to meet the bride before the ceremony, several men blew shofars, a frequent Wilderness Torah ritual. In homage to Haberers early childhood on Kibbutz Tzora in Israel, the couple both wore flower crowns and dressed in all white. During the ceremony, led by a rabbinical student and mindfulness coach named Rebecca Schisler, the couple was wrapped in a tallit while a friend sang the priestly blessing and guests lifted their hands to bless them. The night before, a lamb from a farm nearby had been cooked over a fire.

For many guests, this was their first experience with earth-based Judaism, and the attention to detail from the ketubah, or marriage contract, made from specially procured animal skin (illustrated by one artist friend and scribed by another, both of them women), to knowing the farm on which the lamb had been raised stood out.

It wasnt just us observing their love, said Maytal Orevi, a family friend of the bride. Though different worlds were colliding, they brought everyone in and invited us to slow down. We all got to be a part of their world.

As the wedding was held on Shavuot, there was an altar with a Shavuot theme, with stalks of wheat and fruits and vegetables and flowers grown nearby. (Luna Munn Photography)

In 2016, after their first meeting, Aboody and Haberer both began working for Wilderness Torah, and quickly became close friends. In addition to their love of the earth, the two shared mixed Mizrachi and Ashkenazi heritages: Haberers mother is Moroccan-Israeli while his father is South African, and his family moved from Kibbutz Tzora to St. Louis when he was 5. Aboodys father is Iraqi-Israeli, and her mother, Cindy Paley, is a Yiddish folksinger; she grew up in the Los Angeles area.

They remained close even as they moved on to other work. Aboody now works as a doula, herbalist and outdoor educator, and Haberer is a permaculture consultant, in addition to running groups for men interested in unpacking masculinity, such as an initiative for Shalom Bayit, a domestic violence prevention organization, called MenschUp.

In 2021, they both found themselves at a Wilderness Torah festival for Rosh Hashanah, sharing hopes for the new year in the same prayer circle.

I was really clear that I want love, partnership, and family, Aboody said.

As part of the mens tisch, or gathering before the ceremony, men blew shofars, a tradition at Wilderness Torah weddings. (Luna Munn Photography)

Haberer, sitting in the same circle and watching various young families wandering the grounds, realized he did, too.

There was already this palpable tension there, Aboody said, as we realized if we wanted the same things at the same time

Three months later, Aboody was pregnant. Love, partnership and now family: what each had been praying for.

They decided to get married on Shavuot, the Jewish harvest holiday that celebrates the first fruits of the season, a particularly apt occasion as they planned for their first child.

This year, Shavuot began immediately after Shabbat. They signed the wedding contract Friday afternoon, to avoid signing it on the holiday, and held a Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service Friday night.

The couple were wrapped in a tallit held by their families during the priestly blessing. (Luna Munn Photography)

After the service was a henna party with singing and dancing, where some guests wore Moroccan caftans and the bride and groom had thick dashes of henna applied to their palms, to protect them from the evil eye. A Moroccan feast, largely cooked by Haberers mother and aunts, was served.

Susan North Gilboa, a family friend of the bride, said that as a more traditional Jew, she wondered about attending a wedding on Shavuot, when, as with other holidays including Shabbat, weddings are prohibited under Jewish law. But the Shavuot themes were woven in with such spirituality, and real attention to tradition while also bringing in the new, that it made it feel so right.

Though their romantic relationship progressed quickly, the couple sees it as building on their six years of friendship. Haberer likened it to shmita, the biblical edict to let the land rest, or lie fallow, every seven years. This year happens to be a shmita year, which the couple saw as particularly fitting.

Weve had six years of getting to know each other as friends and supporting each other in our different relationships, Haberer said. On the first day of the seventh year, the shmita year, we see ourselves resting into a romantic partnership. We love that we started the shmita year that way.

This story is part ofJTAs Mazels series, which profiles unique and noteworthy Jewish life events from births to bnai mitzvah to weddings and everything in between.

More here:

Their wilderness-inspired Jewish wedding featured an animal-skin ketubah and first fruits altar - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Their wilderness-inspired Jewish wedding featured an animal-skin ketubah and first fruits altar – JTA News – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

There arent many Jews in Kansas, but from his seat on the states Supreme Court, one Jewish justice helped enshrine abortion rights in the state. Kansas voters affirmed those rights Tuesday,defeating a ballot measurethat would have made it possible for state lawmakers to severely restrict or even ban abortion.

Judge Eric Rosen has long been part of the small Jewish community in the capital of Topeka.

Richard Levy, who grew up across the street from Rosen, said there was only one other Jewish student in his grade. He recalled being forced to choose between staying alone in an empty classroom or joining his classmates rehearsing Christmas carols in the gymnasium.

It was that kind of experience, said Levy, who is now a constitutional law professor at the University of Kansas.

Rosen, who did not respond to an interview request, does not appear to have spoken publicly about his Judaism but lists membership at Topekas Reform Temple Beth Shalom in his officialcourt biography.

Much of the Sunflower States small Jewish community estimated at 15,000 to 30,000 out of 3 million Kansans was vocally opposed to the proposed Value Them Both amendment to the state constitution. It aimed to overturn the state Supreme Courts 6-1 ruling from three years ago that found the Kansas state constitution protected abortion rights. It was the first opportunity for voters anywhere in the country to directly weigh in on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

Though Gov. Laura Kelly is a Democrat, Republicans have controlled both houses of the state legislaturefor nearly 30 yearsand former President Donald Trumpwon the stateby 15 points. Abortion opponents hoped that Kansans, many of whom are evangelical Christians, would eagerly vote to remove abortion rights from the constitution.

Prominent Jewish voices who sought to prove otherwise included Rabbi Mark Levin, the founder of Congregation Beth Torah in suburban Kansas City, whowent on televisionlast week to oppose the amendment, joining three other pulpit rabbis from the region who had alsospoken againstit.

Sharon Brett, legal director at the ACLU of Kansas, invoked her Jewish faith in anop-ed about abortion rightsfor the Kansas Reflector in July and said she was heartened to see the amendment resoundingly defeated last night.

As a Jewish woman living in a state that at times appears to be controlled by a very conservative Christian approach, Brett said in an interview, it was a beautiful day for Kansans.

By rejecting the amendment, Kansas voters left in place the 2019 decision by Rosen and five of his fellow justices inHodes & Nauser v. Schmidt. That landmark ruling validated a new legal theory advanced by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of two Kansas physicians that held the states constitution protected the right to abortion.

While Rosen did not author the decision, he was anactive participantin oral arguments before the court in 2017. Rosen did not telegraph his eventual position, but asked the attorney representing the two doctors a question that would take on new significance after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Do you suggest that the founders of our state constitution intended to follow whatever guidelines the United States Supreme Court established and apply it to Kansas? Rosen asked. Is that what the founders intended?

By identifying a right to abortion in the state constitution, Rosen and his colleagues effectively aligned themselves with the longstanding position of the U.S. Supreme Court. But because of the decision, even after the Supreme Courts June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization that the federal constitution does not protect the right to an abortion, the Kansas constitution continued to protect abortion access for Kansans.

Levy, the law professor, said that the Kansas court has a reputation for being nonpartisan and that legal observers were unsure where the justices would land on the case. The state relies on a civilian panel to select court nominees on merit and the governor then selects from one of the three approved candidates.

Rosen, 69, was joined by another Jewish judge on the Supreme Court two years ago when Melissa Taylor Standridge was elevated from the Kansas Court of Appeals where she had also ruled in favor of a constitutional protection for abortion rights before the Hodes case reached the Supreme Court.

Standridge, who became the first Jewish woman to be named to the court, previously served as vice chair of the local Jewish Community Relations Bureau and told theKansas City Jewish Chroniclethat the Jewish religion is an ethical religion and pursuing justice is a core principle that runs through Jewish history and Jewish tradition.

Marcia Rittmaster belongs to Beth Torah in Overland Park and volunteered with the campaign opposed to the constitutional amendment. Shes related to Standridge and said she appreciated having multiple Jewish members of the Supreme Court.

Jews feel underrepresented in Kansas, Rittmaster said. Were a small part of the population so we just kind of accepted it but its really thrilling to know we have it.

Rosen was appointed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, in 2005 after serving as a trial judge since 1993.

I have always been very deliberate, clear and concise in my decisions and never tried to have my own opinions expressed in my decisions, Rosen said when asked toexplain his judicial approachat the time.

He was welcomed by both the legal community and political leaders, including Republicans. Im very impressed not only with his intelligence, but his sense of fairness, John Vratil, the state senate judiciary committee chairman, told the Lawrence Journal-World after Rosens appointment.

Rosen never strayed far from Topeka, beginning his career as a social worker in the city before attending the law school at Washburn University and working as a public defender and prosecutor before becoming a district court judge hearing criminal cases. I am always amazed at the resiliency of the human spirit that I see in my courtroom, he told aWashburn publicationafter being named to the Supreme Court.

Levy said that Rosen did not fit into a neat philosophical box but described him as relatively pragmatic.

Hes trying to come up with answers that will provide good outcomes for the legacy system and for society in general, said Levy, who has remained friendly with the judge. He is attentive to the real world consequences of his decisions.

See original here:

Meet the Jewish judge who helped protect abortion in Kansas J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Meet the Jewish judge who helped protect abortion in Kansas J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

A Mt. Lebanon synagogue is hoping to give children extra reason to celebrate their birthday.

Specifically, their Jewish birthday.

Chabad of the South Hills recently started a new program through its CKids Jewish Discovery Club, called the Birthday Club, that will provide free gift packages for kids on their Jewish birthday.

Mussie Rosenblum, director of the Discovery Club, said that date is based on the Jewish calendar, which has shorter years.

"Every 19 years it goes to the exact same date. It's always around the same time. Within a few days or few weeks," Rosenblum said. "It's a very significant day for Jewish people."

Rosenblum described a Jewish birthday as a time for prayer, reflection and finding ways to effect positive change in the world.

"We do birthday celebrations, but also with a spiritual twist," Rosenblum said.

Children who receive the packages are asked to make a resolution, and are given a coin to donate to charity. The package also includes crafts, but Rosenblum did not want to give away the exact contents.

"I want it to be a surprise," she said. "It's a fun package. It's completely free, but donations are always welcome to keep these things going."

Parents can get their children involved with the program by filling out a form with the date of the birthday and their address. Children aged 13 and younger are eligible to participate. The form is available at chabadsh.com.

Since they launched the program, Rosenblum said many families have already signed up.

"This is brand new. This has just launched. Hopefully this week we're sending out our first packages. We've already got a nice response and we're excited about it," Rosenblum said.

When kids get their packages, Rosenblum hopes it gives them a way to connect with their faith while they celebrate.

"It's really empowering to kids," Rosenblum said. "You have that renewed energy and power to do good things. It's that little boost to do something good in the world."

See more here:

Chabad of the South Hills helping kids celebrate their Jewish birthdays - The Almanac

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Chabad of the South Hills helping kids celebrate their Jewish birthdays – The Almanac
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

A Jewish political dynastys four-decade run in Congress has come to an end after Rep. Andy Levin conceded to Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigans 11th congressional district Tuesday.

Stevens decisive win concluded a bank-busting primary that attracted more than $4 million in pro-Israel outside spending to a face-off between two incumbents in the Detroit suburbs.

She ran a strong campaign, Levin told his supporters. My hats off to her. He pledged to support Stevens in the general election.

In his concession speech, Levin did not mention the role that spending by the political action committee founded this year by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, played in his loss. But he did mention that Stevens supporters outspent his own by a factor of five to one, thanks to outside money.

Stevens drew significant support from a PAC founded to support women candidates and was seen as favored from the beginning because of the new districts map. But with nearly half of the outside spending coming from AIPACs PAC, United Democracy Project, the race also emerged as a battleground over U.S.-Israel politics made more poignant as AIPAC backed the non-Jewish candidate over the Jewish one.

In addition to ending aMichigan Jewish political dynastythat has lasted since Levins uncle Carl was elected to the Senate in 1979, Levins loss means the wing of the Democratic party that is most critical of Israel is losing its most outspoken Jewish ally in the House of Representatives.

Especially for young Jews, Andy was our candidate, Levi Teitel, a local organizer with the Jewish pro-Palestinian group IfNotNow, told JTA. He championed the issues we care about: climate justice, the need to forge peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

For AIPAC, that result is something to celebrate. Despite drawing criticism for its spending in this years primaries, the first time the pro-Israel lobby has supported candidates directly, AIPAC has unapologetically stood behind the candidates it believes to be most beneficial to the U.S.-Israel relationship even, as in Michigans 11th District, when it means opposing a Jewish incumbent.

Levin, who was backed by J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby, is vocally critical of Israel and authored aTwo-State Solution Actthis session that would restrict how Israel could use U.S. aid, has been in AIPACs crosshairs. AIPACs former director David Victor, a Detroit resident,called Levinarguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship. He also said in a letter to prospective donors in January that less engaged Democratic colleagues may take [Levin] at his word on Israel because of his Jewish credentials.

In the waning days of his campaign, rather than try to win over the voters that AIPAC had sought to mobilize, Levin instead drew attention to his Israel politics. He held a rally with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Rashida Tlaib and did a virtual event with Peter Beinart of Jewish Currents, three figures who are critical of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians and largely despised by the hardline pro-Israel crowd.

Im really Jewish, Levin said on MSNBC last week. But AIPAC cant stand the idea that I am the clearest strongest Jewish voice in Congress standing for a simple proposition: that theres no way to have a secure Democratic homeland for the Jewish people unless we achieve the political and human rights for the Palestinian people.

On Tuesday night at the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac, volunteers and young campaign staffers wearing Jews For Levin shirts commiserated with Levin supporters of a variety of races and ages.Outside, the rock band Coheed and Cambria was playing a loud gig to a parking lot full of headbangers.

Though Levin was fighting a variety of uphill factors in the race, including a redrawn district that covered much of Stevens territory, his Jewish supporters laid the blame for his loss squarely on AIPACs spending.

Andy is actually very close to the center of gravity of the American Jewish community, Eva Borgwardt, a Levin volunteer who drove from her parents home in Missouri to knock doors for the campaign and who had written invective against AIPAC in red ink on her arm, told JTA. This is an attempt from AIPAC to send a very clear message that if you are an American Jew for Palestinian rights, we will destroy you.

Matt Nosanchuk, the president and executive director of the progressive Jewish group New York Jewish Agenda, is Levins brother-in-law and flew into Michigan to campaign for him. Nosanchuk said he was there as an individual, not on behalf of his group.

Ultimately AIPAC may enjoy a victory in the short term, but I think they need to think hard about the political space theyre shutting down through their efforts and their money, Nosanchuk said.

For its part, AIPAC was eager to claim victory Tuesday night,tweeting that Stevens was the 10th AIPAC-backed Democrat to defeat a challenger who sought to undermine Americas partnership with our ally Israel. (So far this year, one AIPAC-backed candidate has lost.)

The group added, Being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics!

J Street, whose own PAC spent around $229,000 on Levins campaign, harshly criticized AIPACs role in the race in a statement. While Rep. Levin is a proudly pro-Israel Jewish-American, AIPAC smeared him as anti-Israel, fringe and hostile, the group said.Instead of building sustainable bipartisan support for Israel, AIPAC has harmfully turned Israel into one of the sharpest wedge issues in American politics.

AIPAC also poured more than $4 million into a different Michigan race, in the 13th District, to support Adam Hollier against a billionaire state senator, Shri Thanedar, who funded his own campaign and whom AIPAC considered a threat because he once introduced anti-Israel legislation. That race had not been called Tuesday night.

More:

Jewish political dynasty ends as Rep. Andy Levin is ousted in Michigan J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Jewish political dynasty ends as Rep. Andy Levin is ousted in Michigan J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

Last September, David McCarty-Caplan and his family drove up from Southern California to Camp Tawonga in the Stanislaus National Forest near Yosemite for a weekend of activities organized for Jewish families of color like his.

McCarty-Caplan was born in Colombia and identifies as a Latino, adopted Jew. He said he, his wife, Shannon, and their two young sons experienced so much joy during the course of the weekend, as they met others with complex identities and enjoyed the natural beauty surrounding them.

It was a space where we could be ourselves without some of the concerns or worries or discomforts that can come from being a Jew of color in traditionally white Jewish spaces, McCarty-Caplan, 41, told J. He described the program as a breath of fresh air and signed his family up to return this summer as soon as registration opened.

The second Jewish Families of Color Weekend will take place Aug. 25-28, and so far, 29 families have registered. Thats double the number of families who attended last year, according to event co-director Kiyomi Gelber. To participate, families must include at least one person of color. (White people who belong to such families are also welcome.) Spots are still open, and financial aid is available. Visit Tawongas website for more details and to register.

It feels so inspiring to see young kids getting to be in Jewish spaces where they look around and people are speaking Spanish and people are brown and Black.

For Gelber, who has both Japanese and Jewish heritage, organizing the weekend has been a labor of love. I feel so passionate about creating this space that I didnt have for a long time, she said, noting that she began working at Tawonga as a 19-year-old counselor. (Now, at 37, she is Tawongas associate director.) It feels so inspiring to see young kids from the age of 2 onward getting to be in Jewish spaces where they look around and people are speaking Spanish and people are brown and Black.

Staffed by Tawonga counselors who have undergone sensitivity training, the Jewish Families of Color Weekend grew out of the camps Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, which was launched in 2019. As part of the initiative, Gelber had conversations about how to create antiracist Jewish spaces with McCarty-Caplan and Jordan Daniels, a Black, Jewish and queer writer. The three met in 2020 in the Selah Leadership Program, which is offered by the progressive Jewish nonprofit Bend the Arc.

Tawonga has been on a journey around racial justice, Gelber explained. We have been focusing on organizational change and really working to center and empower people of color in our community. This weekend is in line with our work to make sure people of color feel seen.

The Jewish Families of Color Weekend is the second affinity space for specific identity groups that Tawonga holds each summer. Since 1998, the camp has hosted a weekend for LGBTQ Jewish families in conjunction with Keshet. (This summer, the Keshet LGBTQ Family Camp is taking place Aug. 18-21.)

In addition to the standard Jewish summer camp activities kayaking, stargazing, archery, a Shabbat service and dinner the Jewish Families of Color Weekend will include a talent show and a silent disco, where people dance to music that they listen to through headphones. Guest educators will offer workshops for adults on a variety of topics. McCarty-Caplan, an associate professor of social work at Cal State Northridge, will lead one session on how to talk about race with children and another on the power of the vulnerable dad, a forum to discuss issues surrounding fatherhood and masculinity.

Other scheduled guest educators include Ilana Kaufman, executive director of the Berkeley-based Jews of Color Initiative; wellness guide Kimmy Dueas, who will lead yoga and mindfulness sessions and a cacao ceremony; and Daniels, who will teach about intersectionality and self-liberation.

An East Bay native now living in San Diego, Daniels, 27, attended and taught at last years weekend. He described it as a spiritual experience. I got to access parts of myself through all the lenses of who I am rather than having to check some part of me at the door, he said. I felt my most godly there.

Tawongas is one of a small number of weekend-long gatherings in the U.S. for ethnically and racially diverse Jews. Bechol Lashon, the San Francisco-based Jewish diversity nonprofit, held a family camp at Walker Creek Ranch in Marin County every summer from 2004 to 2019. And in May, the JOC Mishpacha Projectheld a JOCSM Shabbaton the acronym stands for Jews of color, Sephardic, Mizrahi at a retreat center in Maryland.

Read more here:

Camp Tawonga weekend for Jewish families of color coming up J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Camp Tawonga weekend for Jewish families of color coming up J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2022

By Jordan GreeneAugust 05, 2022

Every year when it comes time to review applications for the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, all the adults involved ask themselves, in awe, the same question: What was I doing when I was their age?

Thats according to Jen Smith, executive director of the Helen Diller Family Foundation. The awards program annually grants 15 Jewish teen leaders across the country $36,000 each in recognition of their work to repair the world.

The program was started in 2007 by philanthropist Helen Diller, who passed away in 2015. She believed in the power of young people to change the world a belief upheld by previous grantees. Among them are Jordan Grabelle, who creates literacy packets for underserved communities throughLove Letters for Literacy,and Abe Baker-Butler, who raises awareness about teenage smoking and vaping throughStudents Against Nicotine.

This years grantees are pursuing projects that touch on the most important and most challenging needs in our society, including refugee empowerment, equity in technology and resources for those experiencing homelessness.

These are teens who see an issue, find ways to make a difference, see it through, and inspire others to participate, Smith said.

Here are profiles of six of this years awardees, exemplifying a range of interests and experiences. Learn more about the full cohort here.

Sienna Nazarian, 17

Sienna Nazarian was 12 when she started collecting instruments for Syrian refugees as her bat mitzvah project. An avid piano player, Nazarian, a Persian Jew, was interested in combining her passions for music and the concept of tikkun olam.

Nazarian, who is from Beverly Hills, has an innate sense of connection to the experiences of refugees: Her family fled Iran during the revolution in the 1970s, when being Jewish meant they were unsafe. Today, she said, they still speak about how powerless fleeing a country can make someone feel.

In ninth grade, having had several refugee organizations reject her efforts to get involved because she was too young, Nazarian co-founded the Refugee Empowerment Project a small club at her school through which students participated in service projects that connected them to refugees across their communities.

Youre never too young or too isolated to be able to have the impact you want to have, she said. Starting small and involving other young people in this work is the most empowering part.

In March 2020, at 15, Nazarian decided to expand the project beyond her school, registering it as a 501(c)(3). She created an English mentorship program for refugees, from kids to college students, to learn English. From there, she grew the program to tutoring in all subjects.

But for Nazarian, her nonprofits community orientation programs are the most meaningful. Through these daylong orientations, volunteers walk refugees around the communities they are settling into, giving them a customized list of important landmarks and need-to-know information in their native languages.

At one community orientation, Nazarian showed Gracia, a girl her age from El Salvador, around Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles.

She told us that this was the best day shed ever had in America, Nazarian said. Making a connection with someone whos my age and has had such a different life experience than me felt full circle.

Cameron Samuels, 18

When Cameron Samuels attended a November school board meeting to speak out against a policy banning school access to LGBTQ+ websites, they were the only student in the room.

No one in the room clapped when Samuels finished speaking. Instead, they said, everyone stared at them.

I felt so alone because community members continued to go up to the lectern and speak statements against the LGBTQ community, said Samuels, who lives in Katy, Texas, said, especially in the desire to ban books that featured queer characters and authors.

Samuels first noticed their school districts policy against accessing LGBTQ websites during their freshman year. While researching a project for their art and digital animation class, they attempted to visit The Advocate,an LGBTQ news source. But when they tried to access the site, they received an error message.

It was under the category of alternative sexual lifestyles and, in parentheses, GLBT, Samuels said. As a freshman, who had just started high school, who was still on the journey of discovering who I was, and who I needed to be, I saw that my high school labeled my identity as alternative and not normal.

Samuels began working to organize community members and students to advocate for LGBTQ rights. And while Samuels experience at that meeting last November was lonely, at subsequent meetings they and their peers have packed board meetings with support.

Their presence has had a meaningful effect. After meeting with district officials, Samuels got the school to unblock eight websites, including the Human Rights Campaign and Peace Lag; they hope to succeed in unblocking more. And with the help of other students from the 90,000-student district, Samuel also initiated book distributions. They created a so-called FReadom Week during which they collected over 700 LBGTQ and BIPOC-related books and distributed them through the districts nine high schools.

Their efforts have also extended beyond the district: Theyre now organizing rallies and book distributions all over Texas, from Houston to the capitol in Austin.

I have noticed those stares they gave me at the meeting were stairs to climb on, Samuels said.

Hailey Richman, 15

Hailey Richman has collected and donated over 100,000 puzzles as part of the work of Kid Caregivers, a nonprofit organization that she founded. The coolest puzzle shes ever received was cat-shaped, she said, with each individual piece designed with a picture of a cat.

Richman began Kid Caregivers when she was 9. Feeling alone and isolated after her grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimers, Richman, who lives in Plainview, New York, wanted to create an online support group that gives tips to kids with loved ones dealing with Alzheimers disease.

Around the same time, she and her grandma were working on a puzzle of the Eiffel Tower during a visit the landmark was one of her grandmas favorite places when Richman noticed that her grandma was agitated.

She just wasnt in a great mood, Richman said. But solving the puzzle really helped her, putting her in a better mood and giving her something to talk about.

Richman began researching and learned that jigsaw puzzles benefit cognitive stimulation, which can help people with Alzheimers. Inspired, she started a Kid Caregivers initiative, called Puzzle Time. Through the project, student volunteers are paired with an Alzheimers patient to solve puzzles together. Puzzle Time has since grown to involve 2,000 student volunteers and operates in all 50 states and nine countries.

I hope people can take away that takeaway, that solving one puzzle can help make a difference in someones life, and no one is too young to give back, she said.

Gideon Buddenhaugen, 18

While tutoring a low-income third-grade student learning English as a second language in 2021, Gideon Buddenhaugen asked his student if he had ever heard of computer science.

He hadnt, which got Buddenhaugen thinking.

Buddenhaugen is a Jew of color his mom is a white Ashkenazi Jew, and his dad is Ethiopian. Growing up in Oakland, California, he said, he had observed a consistent lack of equitable access to technology in his community.

The result of those observations, and interactions like those he had with his third-grade student was Buddenhaugens nonprofit organization, Leadership in Motion. Through it, he pairs high school students of color with middle school students of color to provide them with custom computer science lessons.

We strive to have this dynamic of students of color learning from mentors who can serve as role models that reflect a similar identity to them, Buddenhaugen said a dynamic that develops a sense of community in this new technology space.

This summer, Leadership in Motion is hosting a four-week summer intensive, based in Google Code Next programs lab space. (Buddenhaugen is a graduate of the program.) For two hours, twice a week, 10 students and two high school-aged mentors meet to learn about computer science. Using Google Code Nexts resources, he aims to spread his mission and grow his organization to the broader Bay Area and New York City.

I hope that students can see themselves as diversifying the field of computer science and that they can see technology as a field that they can enter, and theyre not intimidated by the current lack of diversity in that space, he said.

For other folks, I hope that Leadership in Motion inspires them to follow a similar path of creating equitable systems to uplift their own communities in whatever way, shape, or form that manifests for them.

Amelia Fortgang, 18

Amelia Fortgang stood on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, looking out at a sea of faces of people her age.

It was Sept. 24, 2021, and Fortgang was speaking at the Global Youth Climate Strike, which she had helped organize through the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit, an activism network that mobilizes high schoolers to learn about and take action on climate change.

Fortgang founded the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit in September 2020. Since then, she has hosted 55 workshops for high school students, focused on the lighthearted discussing climate activism TikToks on Zoom and the heavy organizing climate strikes.

For the climate strike, she and 1,000 other local high school students marched from the Embarcadero, past U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinsteins office, to City Hall, where speeches were made on the buildings steps.

In hers, titled 10 lessons I never learned about climate change in school, Fortgang focused on reasons to hope.

The biggest lesson I have to teach people is that you can make a difference, she said. You might not be able to vote, but you can still mobilize for systemic policy change.

For example, before I voted in my first election last month, I talked with officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spoke on the steps of City Hall, and even wrote my representatives. It goes to show that youth are powerful. Even if we dont have a vote, we still have a voice.

Fortgang said that her favorite event hosted by the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit so far has been a virtual career expo at which people from a range of environment-related fields spoke, including an environmental lawyer, a climate change photographer and someone who worked at the California Energy Commission.

The event was supposed to last 45 minutes, she said, but ran for over two hours.

People stayed in their breakout rooms and just had conversations with these incredible people in environmental careers, she said. It was awesome to see how excited they were by us wanting to be interested in what they are doing, and how youth want to be a part of that.

Lindsay Sobel, 18

Growing up in Los Angeles, Lindsay Sobel often saw people experiencing homelessness walking around the streets without shoes, many of them kids.

So when she was brainstorming ideas for her bat mitzvah project in 2016, she knew she wanted to do something to help. Shoes for Souls, a project through which Sobel collected new and gently used shoes to donate to those experiencing homelessness, was born.

A lot of us take shoes for granted, Sobel said, but for the homeless, they dont have these simple necessities like shoes which a lot of people and I have an abundance of.

To date, the project has collected and distributed 52,000 pairs of shoes through drives at local schools, camps and synagogues.

In 2020, when COVID-19 struck, Sobel shifted her approach. She filed to have Shoes for Souls become a 501(c)(3), allowing it to accept monetary donations, which are then used to purchase shoes. She also initiated partnerships with Footlocker and Nike through which the companies donate their products to Shoes for Souls, which are then distributed directly to the community.

I could see myself running Shoes for Souls for my job when Im older, Sobel said. Just working with it and helping others in my community, theres nothing like it in life.

A couple of years ago, she was, handing out shoes to a youth group in Compton when she noticed a kid sitting alone.

Hey, do you want to come to pick out a pair of shoes? she asked him.

The boy, who was tall, told her that he didnt think they would have a pair of shoes that would fit his feet. Of course we do, Sobel told him.

She went over to the bin and, after digging through it, came across a pair in his size 16.

When she brought the shoes over, the boy smiled.

The smiles stuck with me, she said. Its the smile of getting a new pair of shoes, theres just theres nothing like it.

Read more here:

What was I doing when I was their age? Six Jewish teens, out to change the world - Forward

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on What was I doing when I was their age? Six Jewish teens, out to change the world – Forward
Tags: