For Jews by Choice, what is your Hebrew name and what was the thought process behind why you chose it? Just curious!

We run a small non-profit in Toronto taking donations of unwanted Judaica to pass onto folks who want to rehome it. This small ceramic object came in our most recent batch of donations, and we have no idea what it could be.

It's about three inches square, clearly handpainted, with a metal frame surrounding an opening on one corner. The bracha (עַל נְטִילַת יָדַיִם) implies a connection to handwashing, but we can't figure out what purpose it's supposed to serve. Cup stand? Just a pretty thing? Please help - we've stumped multiple rabbis.

Hi everyone,

I am 28yr old, raised in a Reconstructionist synagogue and I am looking at colleges in Cleveland and I have heard there is a large Jewish population. I have also heard that Cleveland is great for late 20's single adults. All of this has made Cleveland one of the top places on my list to move. My extended family has also become interested in Cleveland and I have 2 young nieces that my family would like to raise around other Jewish children. I heard recently that Cleveland is now mostly older orthodox Jews and that there are very few children and that any children there are, are orthodox. I am wondering if that is true and what the Jewish community is like in Cleveland, both for a 20 something adult woman and for raising a family.

Thank you!

At least one Rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim ben Shimshon, seemed to have a rather literal interpretation of this line from Jacob's Blessing and believed that Benjamin, and presumably his descendants, would or could turn themselves into wolves.

Another explanation: Benjamin was a “predatory wolf,” sometimes preying upon people. When it was time for him to change into a wolf, as it says, “Benjamin is a predatory wolf,” as long as he was with his father, he could rely upon a physician, and in that merit he did not change into a wolf. For thus it says, “And he shall leave his father and die” (Gen. 44:22)—namely, that when he separates from his father, and turns into a wolf with travelers, whoever finds him will kill him.

Since we are approaching Halloween, this seems to be an appropriate time to talk about the weirder and wilder parts of Judaism, since we were no more immune to a belief in magic and superstition than other people, that existed and for the most part seemingly disappeared in the sense that most Jews today really don't know much about them and if they do don't follow them at all, and I think this true across the Halacha observant spectrum from Ultra-Orthodox to Secular Jews, while the supernatural traditions in other religions, especially other ethnoreligions like Shinto, remain more prominent. So what led to the wilder and weirder parts of Judaism falling into the background and becoming irrelevant in your opinion?

Is this too whorish for my son’s frum wedding?

I decided that it's time. We need a place to rate our inflight kosher meals, and provide heads up when airlines are especially good (or otherwise) with Jewish passengers.

Hopefully, rating the best meals well will entice the majority of caterers (who we all love complaining about) to up their game and give us edible, sensitivity-friendly plane food, especially on long haul flights.

I'm very glad that my first posts on the site are largely positive, including, IMO, the very top tier of kosher food available in the sky!

Please join and contribute at koshertravel.app - it's 100% free and I have no intention of pay-walling it, ever. It's a service that will rely on contribution, and I hope that people will both contribute and benefit!

On the map it's really way far out there in the far east

So I was thinking over Shabbat that I should really start my own sect where the dress code is jeans and a t-shirt because I feel like I’d get a lot of pull especially in warmer climates. I know those guys splinter off all the time but do they usually come back after a generation or are they all toldot-aharoning it to this day? Just trying to figure out the odds before I dive in.

Any other tips like what my gang should be extra machmir on lmk. Obviously we’ll run our own kashrut racket.

Thanks in advanve

Shalom everyone. Obviously, New York and Florida have huge Jewish communities, but I'm wondering if there are any "out of the way" communities that don't necessarily have access to synagogues in a 20 mile radius. How do Jews in these areas practice? Are they mostly secular? Where are these locations?
TIA

I am a Jewish convert through the Conservative movement. Though I was raised fully secular, I have Sephardic ancestry through both of my parents. My maternal grandfather traces his lineage all the way back to some of the most prominent Sephardic families of medieval Spain, the Benvenistes, the de la Cavallerías, the ha-Levis/aben Labis. I know that that’s irrelevant to Halachic/convert status, I just mention it because it is one of the reasons I feel so deeply connected to Judaism and Sephardic minhag in particular. Over the past few years I have become increasingly observant and learned. I keep kosher, daven daily, observe Shabbat, go to weekly services, study Torah and am just now getting into Talmudic study. Just like most Conservative synagogues, mine uses Ashkenazi liturgy (our rabbi is Chabad trained). However, most of the congregation has Sephardic ancestry, either born Jewish or B’nei Anusim returning to their Jewish roots. As such I’ve been introducing Sephardic nusach with the blessing of my rabbi. I’ve taught myself Torah cantillation in the Moroccan and Yerushalmi rites (currently working on adding the Western Sephardic rite, as noted by Moses Gaster, to my repertoire) and am a regular baal koreh Shabbat morning service. I have the goal of being ordained as a rabbi someday.

That being said, I’m well aware that my level of observance is irrelevant when it comes to Orthodox acceptance since I had a Conservative conversion. I’m under the impression that Sephardic synagogues do not fall into the more well-know sects of Reform/Conservative and are generally Orthodox. As such I am also aware that I have a very low chance of accepted as a Jew in these spaces.

I have considered undergoing an Orthodox conversion in large part for this reason, not just for myself but also for my future children (if I someday have any BZ”H) to be considered fully Jewish in any congregation. Right now though, and possibly forever, it is not feasible. Just to become fully shomer Shabbat is virtually impossible for me—I am disabled, with very very limited income, and rely immensely on my family as caregivers, so I can’t just move to an Orthodox synagogue within walking distance. Even if I did, I’m largely wheelchair-bound with an electric wheelchair, and need to carry medications with me, so that’s already two Shabbat violations. The other thing is that I’m intersex, though I present outwardly as male and identify as such, I still look fairly androgynous and have both male and female sex characteristics, which complicates where I fit in the Orthodox Jewish binary. There’s also some Torah mitzvot that I very much struggle to accept literally and uncritically, and I know that an Orthodox convert is required to accept every mitzvah for a sincere and valid conversion.

I don’t feel the need to be accepted as Jewish by every Orthodox institution, but I want to daven alongside a highly observant community that uses the minhagim and nusach of my ancestors that I am so deeply in love with. I have mourned and cried a lot over this. I’m not 100% sure what I’m asking for in this post, but I would appreciate pretty much any thoughts, or advice, that anyone has to give me. Thank you for reading, and Shavua Tov to all here :)

Are there any Jews, religious or otherwise, in Southern Colorado? Just seeing how many of us there are down here! 😊

So, a friend of mine has inherited an old tefillin set whose straps are a bit dried out and hard. Other than just…using it… is there any way that one can gently revive the leather so it’s less likely to crack or tear?

I maintain leather boots or belts by rubbing them with a beeswax-based conditioner, but neither of us grew up religious and so have no idea what might affect the halachic status of the tefillin.

For what it’s worth, they seem intact and all black outside. Just a bit brittle. He’s been teaching me to wrap them :)

I was born into and grew up in a Hasidic home and community. Chabad, specifically.

For reasons, I left the community. It hasn't been a year yet.

And it's been really, really hard for me. I knew it would be. But it's more than I expected. A lot of it is the isolating nature of it, you're without everyone that you know, and even if you can meet new people, they don't understand you because they can't understand you.

I love Judaism, I want to be Jewish, but not in that way I was and now that I have to find a new community, I've been neglecting it because I don't want to have to go through that process.

I was hoping that although I know there aren't many, there may be some people who were formally Hasidic who I would be able to speak to because I'm finding it really challenging when it feels like there is no one who understands you right now, and I want to improve how I feel, and understanding how others may have healed from this would be very beneficial for me.

Thank you.

I work in a hotel restaurant that's owned by a large, public university. I want to start being a more observant Jew by observing shabbat but I'm afraid they'll find some reason to consider it "undue hardship" but they accommodate people with multiple jobs so that should be enough to protect against that, right? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

From what I understand they reject the Oral Tradition including Talmud and such and only follow and acknolwedge the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures) as the sole divine authority from God?

Hi everyone. Do any of you deal with a decently priced memorial place in Brooklyn, NY? Thanks!

My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor who spent decades making metal sculptures. A lot of his work focused on the Holocaust, Jewish faith, biblical stories, and other subjects that were important to him.

My family has been trying to figure out how to get more of his work exhibited rather than have it sit in storage. Three of his sculptures are already in a Holocaust museum's permanent collection, but there are quite a few more that we'd love for people to be able to see.

We've put together a pretty extensive catalog with photos, dimensions, and background information on the pieces. I've also reached out to a few museums, but haven't had much luck finding the right fit yet.

Some of the sculptures are pretty large and heavy, which I imagine makes things a little more complicated.

Has anyone here dealt with something like this before? Or know of any Jewish museums, Holocaust centers, universities, or other places that might be worth reaching out to?

I'm keeping the specifics private for now, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask here. Any advice would be appreciated!

Thank you!!

Hi all,
Two parents and two young kids searching for our dream city. A big part of our ideal place is how it feels to be Jewish there. I grew up in a reconstructionist synagogue with a big Hebrew school class. I never experienced antisemitism (until adulthood). I want my kids to be around Jews growing up, be able to go to kids events at synagogue etc etc.

Times have changed and the synagogue I grew up attending now has an anti Zionist rabbi and congregation :( (no I’m not kidding!) so I’m searching for new places to check out.

I don’t care if the synagogue is big or small, but there would ideally be enough kids for it to be a social experience. It can be reform, reconstructionist, or conservative - as long as women can read from the Torah and men&women aren’t separated I’m good with it. Also important is that support of Israel/zionism is encouraged.

Curious if anyone has a place/jcc/synagogue they want to give a shoutout to :)

I worked in a Jewish heavy community a few years ago and I noticed that a lot of the women wore wigs and others wore head wraps and similar things.

I understood the head wraps and coverings as I know many religious women wear them, but the wigs were a bit confusing mainly because it seemed so prevalent.

So one day I asked a coworker and they basically told me (and I’m unsure how true this is) that in the culture, women are not allowed to show their hair once they are married or something and some women wear coverings and the other women wear wigs.

And I didn’t understand it because….

I assume that the hair thing is similar in Muslim culture where it’s probably like an avoiding making men lustful or something but what point does the wig serve…?

Like if I was a blond woman, and I couldn’t show my hair, then why wear a blond wig….? That’s the same thing is it not?

I ask this not because I’m trying to poke holes in the culture or logic or anything, I’m just curious to the actual mindset behind this…?

I’ve always wanted to ask but felt it might be misunderstood as disrespectful

Since its aveira to harm yourself, cook, and purchase. Starving yourself is technically harming yourself, so if you forgot or don't have the ability to have food preped before shabbat, then would it be worse to cook a meal or go purchase one? Also, what do people normally do to prepare for food on Shabbat? Is Ramen which can be made like instant coffee breaking the rules of shabbat? What if you are out of town during shabbat?

Bristol Community College's Holocaust and Genocide center has started the finishing steps to their permanent outdoor memorial called "The Button Project". They have collected 1.5 million buttons and each button represents a jewish child that died in the holocaust.

They held a small dedication ceremony with Cantor Nathaniel Schudrich (from Tifereth Israel Congregation in New Bedford, Mass.) reciting kaddish as the first buttons was poured. Over the next 2 weeks they will be filling up the other 9 panels (10 total). They plan to hold a bigger dedication in the spring when it starts to warm up again.

I had the opportunity to help sort the buttons before they got put into the display and my least favorite part of the sorting has become my favorite part of the display. While sorting we were asked to remove any buttons made out of organic materials to prevent them from decaying in the display. We were also asked to remove ones with thread still on the button for the same reason, which all seem reasonable to me. The thing that was my least favorite part and made me uncomfortable was we were asked to remove broken buttons too. The artist vision was for complete buttons to represent a complete soul or something, I am not gonna lie I forgot what he said verbatim. However, I felt that we should have kept those broken buttons to show that no matter the condition or how "imperfect" those kids were, they still matter and are remembered. Now for the part that made it beautiful for me, some made it through. I sat there staring at the panel for over 30 mins and smiled everytime I found a broken button or one with thread still on it. Those broken buttons represented to me that no matter how people try to exclude us for what they see as our imperfections, they will never succeed. I saw the jewish people in those broken buttons, we will survive no matter what and will always be here and that's beautiful. So, if you ever get to see the monument and see a broken button, know it survived despite the odds.

I also want to heavily stress that this is my own interpretation of the display and the artist could have his own vision and more personal meaning. Just because I believe it should be this way, doesn't invalidate his vision. He planned this display while thinking about his grandfather who survived the holocaust. That's the beauty of art, there is multiple meanings for each viewer.

If you want more history about the project, please see the link below (it hasn't been updated yet for the most recent progress)

https://www.bristolcc.edu/artgallery/thebuttonproject/index.html

P.S. If there's typos, I'll fix them after shabbat, I've been awake for the last 24 hours

Edit: I forgot to add that the artist said all the buttons that were rejected or won't fit will have a ceremonial burial, so please don't think they were just thrown away.