by Hannah Paley
Most Jewish families celebrate Passover by sitting around a table with family and friends for a seder. Unfortunately, some Jewish families can’t afford the special foods that we eat at the seder. On April 10, Milwaukee’s Teen Day of Social Action, Jewish teens gathered at the Jewish Home and Care Center to help ensure that those who could not afford Passover food would not be left without it. Read More.
by Hannah Paley
On March 31, the women of the Milwaukee Jewish community celebrated Passover with the bi-annual Women’s Seder at the Jewish Community Center. This tradition, which was started in 1997, was a fun and enjoyable experience for women of all ages. Glancing around the room, I saw many mother-and-daughter groups enjoying the unique experience of an all-women’s seder together. Read More.
by Talia Lakritz
Sometimes, I wonder about journalism.
An aspiring journalist myself, I wonder if the truth can survive the twisting and bending of corporations with agendas or political leanings. I wonder if objectivity has limits, whether political correctness hinders or helps news to be communicated and understood. But lately I’ve wondered about the American media’s treatment of a crime that was unbelievably heinous, gruesome, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist.
You didn’t see it on CNN, you may have spotted it in the crawling news bar on Fox, but if you were in Israel, it would have been impossible to miss. March 11 was a normal Friday night in the Israeli community of Ithamar. The Fogel family had finished the traditional Shabbat meal and gone to sleep. But this tranquility was shattered when terrorists breached the security around Ithamar, entered the Fogel home and attacked. Read More.
by Connor Wahrman
For us Jews, education is deep inside our heritage. And nothing is more fundamental to education than teachers. The original purpose of rabbis, our spiritual leaders, was to serve as teachers of Torah. Traditionally, our Jewish community holds teachers in high regard. But some others, apparently, do not.
Under a new bill proposed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to ease the state deficit, the livelihoods of public teachers would be hurt drastically. The bill would force teachers to pay more for insurance and pensions, and remove most of the collective bargaining rights of teachers’ unions, effectively crippling them. Many teachers and other public employees, who are also affected by the bill, have risen in protest, causing some schools to shut down temporarily. Students have also protested, opposing legislators have left the state, and everyone seems to have an opinion on the issue. Read More.
Come on, limo. It’s freezing out here, but I know that it’s worth it. I’m thinking to myself, wow, the new shul! It’s hard to imagine, because it’s bigger and more beautiful and looks different. In the past it was one room with dividers, but now it is completely changed and it is all ours! We don’t have to disturb the Torahs while they are “sleeping” anymore. Read More.
If you know an exceptional student in their junior year of high school, please encourage him or her to apply. Each year, a diverse group of 26 North American students is selected in their junior year of high school for an all expenses paid, 5-week Fellowship to Israel. Learn More!
An short story by Hope Merens
“I was supposed to babysit at my temple tonight, but I have a party to go to. Think you could go for me and take care of the kids?” my friend Sandy asks.
“Um, yeah, that should be fine,” I reply. “Text me the name and time and I’ll be there.”
Two hours later, I’m standing in the hallway of Sandy’s temple. It smells of delicious latkes, since it’s the third night of Hanukah. I follow the smell down the stairs, finding a group of people singing holiday melodies. I quietly walk across the room, entering an adjoining room behind it. It’s a playroom and dining room all in one. In one corner, toddlers are squealing with happiness as they run around on a play set. Tables have been set up with food, and two girls are helping a woman make latkes… Read More.
Mazal Tov, Liora Bushee!
Mazal Tov to Liora Bushee, a fifth grader at The Academy (Hillel), who recently won a national essay contest sponsored by American Friends of Lubavitch. Liora read her essay, Light, in Washington, D.C. at the White House Chanukah Menorah Lighting! Read about Liora in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
by Lytal Lerer
Imagine you are a person who has no money to buy food. Every night you go to bed with any empty stomach. You feel that no one can help you.
There are families like this, and for them there is no pretending. If people had the time to help them, would they?
Last November, Hillel Academy’s student council decided to become involved in a community project. They knew that Thanksgiving was coming up, and that a lot of people in the Milwaukee area didn’t have the money to celebrate with big meals.
New article by YJM filmmaker, Max Ginkel.
As part of a Coalition for Jewish Learning project called Young Jewish Filmmakers’ Project, Max worked on a film called Home, a documentary about Holocaust survivors and how they lost their homes. It took student filmmakers two weeks of filming and several months of editing. But once it was finished, they had no idea where to show it to a larger audience. Read More.
The Coalition for Jewish Learning is the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
