Jewish Exponent Life & Lore Feed http://www.jewishexponent.com It's been a cool spring so far in New England. Of course, that hasn't stopped the azaleas and dogwoods from bursting forth in all their splendor. What a surprise, yet again, that the barren brown of winter can give forth to this riotous co... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18907/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18907/ Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT MID/YID For a dying language, Yiddish manages to have quite a pulse on the latest technological terms. If Moteleh and Giteleh -- the Dick and Jane of my childhood Yiddish primers -- were alive today, you could find them at their kompyute... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18817/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18817/ Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT Come July, my husband and I may be wandering the streets in search of a home. But it's not because of the economic downturn. It is the result of deciding, two years ago, to downsize when our youngest went off to college. We promptly sold o... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18725/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18725/ Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT My niece calls from college in tears: love trouble. She's been friends with Ben, a fellow student, since last year. He's always wanted more from the relationship, but she's held back. Last week, both of them were tipsy and kissed for the f... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18649/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18649/ Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT In every generation, the Haggadah tells us, each of us should regard ourselves as though we had personally been freed from Egypt. It's part of the timeless wisdom of Passover. A crucial event that brought our people out of bondage thousand... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18565/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18565/ Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT As I round the corner to our kitchen, I come face to face with a large photo showing me and Sam clowning around near Lincoln Center. The two of us are beaming right off the page. You'd think that we'd just been picked to play violin solos w... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18468/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18468/ Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT Purim is approaching; let the merriment begin! One of the things that makes Purim so appealing is that it's a story built around intrigue within the royal court. What other Jewish holiday centers around kings, queens and palaces? The chara... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18376/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18376/ Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT Jews in Yiddish-speaking lands didn't cross borders; they stole them. Slipping across a country's boundaries was known as ganvenen dem grenetz/stealing the border. Ganvenen has the same root as ganif, or "thief." It's an interesting linguis... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18249/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18249/ Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT I got married in 1984, so our upcoming anniversary is that notable 25-year mark. On the one hand, it's just a number. If you hang out with someone long enough, you'll eventually rack up lots of years by the sheer passage of time. On the ot... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18164/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18164/ Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT The week between Christmas and New Year's Day found my husband and me nursing aching calves and sore backs. The effects of rambunctious sledding? Daredevil skiing in the mountains of New Hampshire? Not this time. We spent that week de-clut... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18047/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18047/ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT I'm old enough to remember trudging through the snow to get to school with my ski pants bunched uncomfortably under my dress. Once there, off came the boots and the pants; before going home again, they were yanked back on. My daughters are... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17957/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17957/ Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT When I was a little girl in Yiddish school, we read a touching Chanukah story by Aaron Maggid. It concerned the plight of European refugees who were trying to make their way to the Jewish homeland right after the Shoah. The story is set in... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17851/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17851/ Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT I've just finished unpacking my simcha suitcase. Due to the prodigious size of my husband's family, we're often en route to cities like New York, Minneapolis or San Francisco to attend yet another wedding or Bar/Bat Mitzvah. We have it down... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17746/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17746/ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT All Hallow's Eve has come and gone. Jewish children, just like others, donned costumes and gorged themselves on sweets. Yet, since Halloween's goblins come from an old Celtic tradition, I can see why some frum families look askance at somet... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17649/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17649/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT Every August, we rendezvous with another couple at a former summer haunt for Boston Jews called Nantasket Beach. Once we've lowered ourselves onto our blankets and beach chairs, we start by catching up on our kids. This couple's two sons an... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17533/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17533/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT This past erev Rosh Hashanah found my husband and I scurrying through the streets of Paris's Jewish quarter. Hours earlier, those streets pulsed with the sounds of schmoozing and shopping. We, along with local Parisians and a gaggle of tour... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17414/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17414/ Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT A good friend told me about going to a psychology conference and running into a college acquaintance she hadn't seen in more than 30 years. "We looked at each other's name tags, and the memories came flooding back," she told me. Then she pa... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17305/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17305/ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT September and Elul are upon us. The bright, dusty light of summer trails off. The wind picks up, and gathers along with it our readiness -- or reluctance -- to face another year and another reckoning. Like the leaves tossed about by the wi... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17175/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17175/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT My friend Nina went to Israel for her junior year -- and stayed for 11 years. Each summer, she'd come home to see her family in New York. Her parents' friends would pester her: "How can you live in such a dangerous place like Israel?" She'd... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17044/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17044/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT The lights go down. The stage is bare. Suddenly, the theater is shaken by a pounding Middle Eastern drumbeat, and before we can catch our breath, a dozen dancers in swirling blue-and-white dresses come bounding across the floor. They leap a... http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/16388/ http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/16388/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT