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I celebrate Hanukkah — but here’s why I love Christmas
You can be Jewish and appreciate Christmas and all its trappings — such as those on display at Joy, a store that sells Christmas and New Year’s merchandise in Tel Aviv, in 2015. (Ben Sales) (JTA) — All...
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At Hanukkah, finding light in a time of illness and darkness
Elicia Brown, left, and her family in November 2016. (JenniferBowles.com) NEW YORK (JTA) — It is the “the witching hour,” around 4:30 p.m., when darkness descends swiftly on the streets of New York,...
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At Auschwitz, a Jewish journalist confronts his anti-Polish bias
Journalists visiting a renovated barrack at Auschwitz, Dec. 1, 2016. (Cnaan Liphshiz) OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) — I did a shameful thing on my first visit 20 years ago to the former Nazi death camp of...
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Uncovering my family’s hidden Holocaust stories
The Jewish cemetery in Otwock, Poland. (Noah Lederman) (JTA) — Growing up, I had always heard the names Otwock and Karczew. Both are neighboring towns near Warsaw. Before the Holocaust, Otwock was home...
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How Purim is a call to leadership
Queen Esther summoned the courage to appeal to her husband, King Ahaseurus, to foil a massacre of her fellow Jews. (Wikimedia Commons) (JTA) — Purim is a dark story marked by a crazy party. I’m still...
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Lies I told about my dog
The author’s dog, Zevy, who died of cancer this week. I lied a lot about my dog, Zevy, who died the night before last of cancer, squeezed with his final strength under our bed, his favorite resting...
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This year my Passover seder will be at Wrigley Field
The writer, second from right, and her family at Game 4 of the World Series, Oct. 29, 2016. (Courtesy of Molly Tolsky) NEW YORK (JTA) — Since leaving my beloved Chicago for New York nearly seven years...
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I am a rabbi, and my place was in Charlottesville
White supremacists, foreground, face off against counterprotesters, top, at the entrance to Emancipation Park during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (Chip...
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I was disappointed to learn we were having a girl. Is that a sin?
Cnaan Liphshiz with his son and daughter, May 28, 2017. (Courtesy of Liphshiz) AMSTERDAM (JTA) — When the obstetrician told us last fall that we were expecting a girl, I was overcome with a mix of...
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I’m Israeli, and Rosh Hashanah is just not the same in the US
(Lior Zaltzman) NEW YORK (JTA) — Last year, in a fit of desperation and loneliness, I booked tickets for a five-day trip to Israel for Rosh Hashanah. I didn’t tell my friends I was coming — the sole...
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