Today's Life
When Richard Kaplan thinks back to his childhood, he remembers wonderful musical gatherings where his family sang Yiddish and Hebrew songs, musical theater tunes, jazz standards, and musical comedy numbers.
Kaplan, the son of an Orthodox-reared father who loved to daven (chant prayers) and a mother who sang Yiddish songs and passionately aspired to become a jazz singer, said he was influenced both by his parents’ “deep emotion and intentionality” when singing and praying, as well as by the “marvelous” Yiddish vocalizing of his Warsaw-born grandfather, who lost many relatives during the Holocaust.
“(My grandfather) had that Eastern European, bittersweet, yet lilting, positive and twinkle-in-your-eye Yiddish tam (flavor),” says Kaplan, 62.
LONGMONT — When the time came, and she could wait no longer, Rachel Greig asked close friends and family for help. Now the Longmont resident has broadened her appeal to the Jewish community and the community at large.
Greig, 51, needs a kidney and eventually a pancreas.
She has been listed on the organ donor transplant list for nearly a year, but a suitable donor has not been identified. A kidney from a live donor has a higher chance of transplantation success, she says....
FOURTEEN-year-old Akewak Behailu Wondimu came to the US from Ethiopia in May without any family, a life-threatening heart condition and barely speaking English.
He left nearly six months later with a healthy heart, an American “family,” school friends and speaking nearly fluent English.
Dr. Rick Hodes, medical director of Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, arranged for Akewak to come to Denver and receive surgery at The Children’s Hospital for his heart and sp...
Fifth grade students at Denver Jewish Day School received a one-of-a-kind lesson on Columbus Day this year, thanks to their Judaic studies teacher, Rabbi Refoel Levitt.
Rabbi Levitt invited Jami Grove and her mother, Anna Martinez, to speak to the class on Columbus Day because they are descendents of Jews who lived in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition.
Grove and Martinez are descendents of “crypto-Jews,” who secretly adhered to Judaism while publicly professing another faith, commonly C...