Beth Schwartzapfel
By Beth Schwartzapfel
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Culture A Teacher’s Toolkit for Tackling Tough Issues
On a recent Sunday morning, the third graders at Congregation Brothers of Israel Religious School, in Newtown, Pa., had just settled in for a snack. “There’s this little girl who’s adorable, 8 years old,” recalled Joan Hersch, the school’s principal. “And this boy in her class said: ‘You’re fat. You don’t need that doughnut. I’m…
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Culture Let’s Talk About Sex
Because she’s 17, Laura Alonge hears a lot of sex jokes. She and her friends have all seen “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” and the million other horny-stoner-kids films that have recently captured the hearts and minds of high schoolers across the country. It drives her crazy, though, that her peers don’t know truth from fiction….
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News The House of Rothschild: A Memoir
When Matthew Rothschild was 8 years old, his grandfather told him a story about a little boy from Chelm who lost his name down a hole. “He was walking along the road,” his grandfather told him, “and shouted his name into the hole. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized it was gone…
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Israel News Sound the Bagpipes: Scots Design Jewish Tartan
Rabbi Mendel Jacobs was never much of a kilt man. Although he is the only Scottish-born rabbi living in Scotland, he had always preferred suits to the traditional dress of his home country. Until now. The Scottish Tartans Authority recently registered the only official Jewish tartan, which was designed with Jacobs’s input. He plans to…
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News The Word of God, Rewritten
On the upcoming festival of Shavuot, we commemorate the day when Moses carried the Torah — with its 613 rules, injunctions and guidelines on how to live a Jewish life — down from Mount Sinai. Some of its commandments, like “Do not murder” and “Love the stranger,” ring as true today as they did in…
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Israel News Play on Words: An Alternative Forward
When members of San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav receive their synagogue’s newsletter, they get a copy of the Forward. The Jewish Gaily Forward, that is. Founded in 1977 as a synagogue for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual Jews, together with partners, family and friends,” Sha’ar Zahav has the unique position of being a gay…
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Culture Lawyers Turn to Talmud for Continuing Education
When it comes to making a case before a jury, every bit of supporting information counts — even if it’s 2,000 years old. New York-based attorney Robert Persky has been taking courses for seven years at The Institute of American and Talmudic Law, which offers classes comparing a wide range of issues in American jurisprudence…
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News Notes on Hanukkah: A Holiday Collection
*How to Spell Chanukah… and Other Holiday Dilemmas Edited by Emily Franklin Algonquin Books, 255 pages, $18.95. It looks like one of those throwaway little “gift books,” like “The Girlfriends Keepsake Book” or “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” that an unassuming shopper might pick up from a display rack while waiting on line at the…
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