The Colorado Secretary of State announced today that Dr. Shimon Blau, the Jewish community member who decided to stand for Colorado Congressional District 1 as an independent candidate, has qualified for the November ballot. He will face Democrat Melat Kiros and Republican Christy Peterson.

Behind the imposing stone walls of Eastern State Penitentiary — the Philadelphia prison that once held Al Capone — sits a small, unlikely  synagogue built by inmates, for inmates, nearly a century ago. Now, a new exhibition is telling its story. Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood, was active from its founding in 1829 until its closing in 1971.

Sometimes, not often, bad behavior is rewarded with sweet forgiveness. This is my story of a lost ring, a lie — and one such sweet reward. After his mother died, Handsome Hubby gifted me with her beautiful engagement ring. This was an embarrassment of riches. I already had a stunner of an engagement ring. In fact, I was blessed with two!

During the decades before the cemetery entrance was moved, visitors to Mt. Nebo entered through a park-like promenade called the George Washington Bicentennial Memorial Grove. At the center of the grove of 200 trees was an obelisk monument erected in 1932 by the Ladies Shroud Society of BMH Congregation in commemoration of George Washington’s 200th birthday.

It is lunchtime at Ramah in the Rockies, which is considered a sacred time for its camp director. Only a phone call from the supplier of a commercial vacuum cleaner can tear Rabbi Eliav Bock away from his campers. “We just got it, and it’s not the right thing,” says Bock.

Israeli-American baseball player Zev Moore signed a professional contract this week with the Trenton Thunder of Major League Baseball’s Draft League. According to Moore’s publicist, he became the second Orthodox Jew to play professional baseball, while also becoming the second player raised in Israel to sign a contract allowing him to compete at that level.