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Holiday Features

Members of the Jewish community of Mallorca, Spain, attend a Tu b'Shvat picnic, Feb. 10, 2019. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

For Purim, Mallorcan Jews didn’t need to hide

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain — On this island south of Barcelona, Jews celebrate Purim these days pretty much as they do most anywhere else in Europe — finally. There is...

Canadian Jewish soldiers in Palestine with workers and children from Ben Shemen on Tu B'Shevat in 1919.(Israeldailypicture.com)

Tu b’Shevat — as we know it — got started in Nebraska

By Hizky Shoham It’s a little-known quirk of timing and history that the transformation of Tu b’Shevat from an obscure kabbalistic holiday can trace its origins to a...

Muppet drummer Animal in the Jerusalem Chanukah parade. (Esty Dziubov/TPS)

Chanukah parade takes to Jerusalem’s streets

By Ilanit Chernick It was like a Macy’s wonderland with an Israeli flavor as Jerusalem was alight with the Chanukah spirit. Large balloons, marching bands,...

Solomon Alexander Hart depicts Simchat Torah in Leghorn, Italy. (Wikimedia)

Steinsaltz offers new type of commentary on the Torah

On Simchat Torah this Tuesday, the last piece in the Torah is finished and the first piece — Genesis — is begun. The just published, new type of commentary on...

Selichot at the Kotel, 2018

Awe & inspiration at midnight selichot at the Kotel

By Ilanit Chernick The sound of the shofar was loud and strong. Every few moments a man dressed in white, wearing a Breslov kippah, blew into the ram’s horn as...

Decorating the sukkah is the perfect kids holiday activity.

Why Sukkot is the best holiday for kids

NEW YORK — Here’s the short version: If you leave your kids home on the High Holidays so you can have grownup praying time, don’t do othat on Sukkot. Bring...

Orthodox Jewish girls perform Kapparot in Jerusalem, 2016. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty)

Eight lesser-known facts about Judaism’s holiest day

By Stacey Ilyse, Kveller Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, starts at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Traditionally  the most somber days on the Jewish calendar,...

Roast Duck, left, and Baked Apple Pudding with Pears, from German-Jewish Cookbook

German-Jewish Cookbook: A food anthropology

From IJN High Holiday Foods in the 1990s, my brother brought a cassette of Jewish humor home from school. One of the routines featured a heimish Jewish woman who was...

(Liron Almog/Flash90)

A vegan take on apples & honey

NEW YORK — The truth is, there is no commandment in Judaism to dip an apple in honey on Rosh Hashanah. But what would the Jewish New Year be without […]

Ethiopian women in Gondar sift wheat in preparation for making matzah.

Ethiopians waiting to emigrate hold seder

JERUSALEM — Many of the at least 8,000 Ethiopians awaiting Israeli government approval to move to the Jewish state attended a Passover seder in Gondar or Addis Ababa...