Shavous Youth

Shavous Youth

What does the Kotel mean to me?

Andrea Jacobs -

, which belongs to every Jew, focuses on the young. But possessing the requisite energy to pull all-nighters is not the reason. Rather, the young are deemed the guarantors of the Torah. And the revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai long ago is what Shavuot commemorates and celebrates. The Intermountain Jewish News did not limit this piece to youth, yet this year’s edition gives them a primary voice. Respondents’ answers indicate that their level of Jewish awareness shaped their initial reaction to the Wall, and the meaning of that encounter might evolve over time. I first saw the Wall during my inaugural IJN assignment to Israel in 1994. I arrived as an explorer, not a searcher, because I’d cast off my Judaism years ago. […]

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Shavous Youth

Who would you invite to your Shabbat table?

Andrea Jacobs -
When the Israelites assembled at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah, they were warned not to touch the mountain on penalty of death. Today we adhere to a similar ban to stem contagion. Take Shabbat. Three months ago, guests may...
Shavous Youth

Who would you invite to your Shabbat table?

Andrea Jacobs -
Since 2014, we have asked our readers to voice their reflections on what certain prayers mean to them for our Shavuot edition: “To you, G-d, silence is praise”; the Shema; the mourner’s Kaddish; the prayer for healing. This year we...
Shavous Youth

Should we pray for healing?

Andrea Jacobs -
A friend leans over to you at services and whispers that a congregant is terminally ill. Regardless of your connection — close, remote, conflicted — shock levels the relational field. When the Jewish prayer for healing arrives in the service,...
Shavous Youth

What the Kaddish means to me

Andrea Jacobs -
I first heard the mourner’s Kaddish as I stood next to the open ground at my Grandpa Wasserkrug’s graveside service. I was nine — too young to understand so many things yet mature enough to attend his funeral. In my...
Shavous Youth

Rabbi Alter reflects on 16 years in Denver

Andrea Jacobs -
When Rabbi Daniel Alter leaves DAT at the end of June to head the Moriah Day School in Englewood, NJ, he'’ll probably keep his emotions to himself —— or at least make an attempt. Alter, who arrived in Denver in...
Shavous Youth

The Shema: What it means to me

Shana Goldberg -
Six Hebrew words. That’s all it takes to define the essence of Judaism: the unity of G-d and the unity of the Jewish people. “Hear O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is one.” (Deut. 6:4) The Shema — the...
Shavous Youth

Modern sports promotes bullying

Chris Leppek -
Bullying as a social ill to be resisted largely came to the forefront of American consciousness after the Columbine massacre of 1999, when it was alleged and widely believed that its perpetrators may have been motivated by bullying...
Shavous Youth

‘To you, G-d, silence is praise’

Andrea Jacobs -
I had never heard of the biblical verse, “To You, G-d, silence is praise” prior to this assignment — but it immediately appealed to me. I felt like I stumbled upon a poetic line that simultaneously puzzles and clarifies....
Shavous Youth

Finding your place in the Torah

Edmon J. Rodman, JTA -
LOS ANGELES — — On Shavuot, we celebrate the revelation of the Torah by reading from it. But first we need to find the place. How do we find our place in the Torah? Newbies to the ways of a Torah...
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Latest News

IntermountainSteve Mark -

Professionally Speaking: Eliav Bock, Ramah of the Rockies

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.