Brandeis
08 Apr
Beshert, Latest

Beshert | Finding My Tribe

I was raised in Downers Grove, Illinois—the kind of place with so few Jews that when someone found out I was Jewish, they’d always ask, “But you still celebrate Christmas, right?” No, we didn’t celebrate Christmas, but we weren’t super-observant either. We belonged to the only Reform temple in Chicago’s western suburbs in the early 70s. We celebrated the “big” holidays and loved Jewish food, but things like observing the Sabbath, keeping kosher, and studying Torah… not so much. I had green eyes. I was fair. I looked Irish. And yet, as my mother said, Jewish is Jewish, and if Hitler showed up in DuPage County, bacon in the fridge and almost blond hair wouldn’t fool him. When it was time for college, I applied, as did five hundred other kids in my high school class,...

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18 Jun
Arts & Culture, Jewish World

Discovering Science in the Zohar

Throughout The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown extols the importance of the Zohar, the classic book of Kabbalah, as an incredible source of knowledge from which modern science can draw. As one scientist explains to another in the beginning of novel, “Human beings are poised on the threshold of a new age when they will begin turning their eyes back to nature and to the old ways......back to the ideas in books like the Zohar and other ancient texts from around the world.” Shafir Lobb, rabbi of Congregation Ner Tamid in Tucson, Arizona, a teacher of Kabbalah and member of the Order of the Eastern Star, the auxiliary women’s group of Freemasons, discusses the use of the Zohar in The Lost Symbol. In The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown suggests that all knowledge can be found in books...

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11 Jul
Culture

There's a New Hillel in Town

by Gabi P. Remz For a newly arrived freshman seeking a Jewish community on campus, the choice used to be obvious. There was just one place to go, and while it might not have been perfect, it was Jewish. When the first Shabbos at college came around, you would mosey on over to Hillel for dinner and maybe even some services. But times have changed, and while Hillel is still an extremely popular and vital source of Jewish life on campus, alternatives are popping up all over the country—and thriving. Most notably, Chabad has developed an extremely strong presence on many campuses, sometimes eclipsing attendance figures of Hillel and being considered the primary source of Jewish life on campus. But lately, smaller communities and movements have created names for themselves. Perhaps the strongest of these is a group called...

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11 Jul
Culture

There’s a New Hillel in Town

by Gabi P. Remz For a newly arrived freshman seeking a Jewish community on campus, the choice used to be obvious. There was just one place to go, and while it might not have been perfect, it was Jewish. When the first Shabbos at college came around, you would mosey on over to Hillel for dinner and maybe even some services. But times have changed, and while Hillel is still an extremely popular and vital source of Jewish life on campus, alternatives are popping up all over the country—and thriving. Most notably, Chabad has developed an extremely strong presence on many campuses, sometimes eclipsing attendance figures of Hillel and being considered the primary source of Jewish life on campus. But lately, smaller communities and movements have created names for themselves. Perhaps the strongest of these is a group called...

Continue reading