Year to year there isn’t much change when it comes to my Passover Seder. Wine, matzo, and politics are always the dominant features. But this year I want to be conscious of the message the Haggadah provides and what it means to me. Searching for that meaning forces me to look back on the vastly…
My boyfriend and I are standing on the downtown B express, hand in hand, laughing over the idle chatter of passengers and metal shrieks of the train car as it scrapes over the tracks beneath it. We are two young Russian-speaking Americans — that much I can say with certainty. To say that we are…
They make up about 10% of the American Jewish community, but no one is entirely sure how many Russian-speaking Jews there are in the United States. At a recent conference at Harvard University, the answer fluctuated from as high as 750,000 people to fewer than 500,000, depending on which expert took the podium. Sam Kliger…
In Egyptian times, Sophia Grojsman says, priests made a tincture of natural oils which they dabbed behind the ears of men and women to soothe their troubled souls. Thus, perfumery was born. “This is medicine for your mind and body,” Grojsman says. “That’s what perfume is.” During more than 30 years in the fragrance business,…
For most couples, renewing their vows is a way to express their unwavering love and dedication. But for 11 couples in New Jersey, their second marriage ceremony was an opportunity to commit to something else: Judaism. On Sunday, October 31, these couples, who range in age from 30 to 60 and come from the Russian…
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