This Surgery Is Elective
In the late twentieth century there was, according to anecdotal evidence, an epidemic of “deviated septum” among American Jewish girls. The implication, along with many not-so-funny…
The Jew Who Played for Germany
It is impossible to imagine what the thoughts of Rudi Victor Ball were when high ranking Nazi officials asked him to rejoin his German ice hockey teammates and play for Germany in the…
Anger Management
Rabbi Moses Maimonides (Rambam) writes that when a person becomes angry, it is regarded as if he had worshiped idols and that Gehenna (where souls are purified) will have…
Bound to The Torah – the German Wimple Custom
Among the many communities that are categorized as Ashkenazim (Jews originally from central and eastern Europe), the descendants of German Jewry have maintained a distinct culture of…
Saturday Night Hunger
As beautiful as Shabbat is, it was not God’s intention that humankind live in a constant state of Shabbat. Indeed, it has been understood that because the Torah says, “Six days you shall…
Even for a Stranger
Contact your local Jewish burial society and sign up to do shmirah for those who do not have family to attend them.
Kitniyot and Gerbrouchts…Oh You Ashkenazim
Ashkenazi or Sephardi? Hungarian, Yekke (German), Lithuanian? At no other time on the Jewish calendar is it so important to know your ancestry as it is on Passover. What one does or does…
The Jazz Singer
Breaking into show business has never been easy. Like many early twentieth century entertainers, Asa Yoelson (1886-1950), along with his brother Hirsh (Harry), moved from singing on the…
Algerian Purims
Previously, Jewish Treats has presented the history of “Minor Purims,” days on which particular communities commemorate being saved from tragedy. (See Purim of…