Our son was called to the Torah for his bar mitzvah ceremony just weeks after the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburg. In the wake of that horror, we had to step back and decide what we did and didn’t want to do for his ceremony. We opted to continue as planned, although with a guard at the door. That event weighed heavily on my mind as I wrote this speech for his ceremony.

This is a line from the Ashrei prayer. Ashrei is a prayer typically recited three times a day by observant Jews.

During Yom Kippur we recite prayers where we hit our chest as we recite each transgression.

Have you ever wanted to wish your Jewish friends a happy holiday, but maybe you weren’t sure if the upcoming Jewish holiday even was a happy one? You are not alone.

On Jewish graves, you’ll find stones left on grave markers. We don’t typically use flowers at graveyards. Some argue it’s not right to mark one death by sacrificing the life of flowers.

For some of us, the Internet reveals those we believed were strangers are actually family.