Life & Religion

Family

Welcome Home?

My children are becoming German citizens, and I’m going nuts
By Marjorie Ingall

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Video 

Family

Are You There, God? It’s Us.

Little people, big questions
By Marjorie Ingall | 7:00 AM Mar 1, 2010

We asked Lila, 7, Josie, 8, and Noemi, almost 5, a few questions: how do you picture God? Why does God allow evil in the world? Is God all-powerful?
You know, the little questions.
These imponderables may stump rabbis and philosophers, but children have their own ideas.

Sex & Body

Sisters in Arms

Playing the defiant Vashti in a day school Purim play awakened my inner feminist
By Elisa Albert | 7:00 AM Feb 26, 2010

A couple of thousand years after Haman was sent to his death for trying to persuade King Ahasuerus to execute all the Jews in his kingdom, a motley group of fifth- and sixth-graders at Temple Emanuel Community Day School of Beverly Hills (motto: “Living Judaism!”) pulled out all the stops on a Purim musical revue ...

Ritual & Observance

Unmasked

Has Purim replaced Passover as the best holiday vehicle for expressing individual Jewish identity?
By Liel Leibovitz | 7:00 AM Feb 26, 2010

In the cosmology of Jewish holidays, Passover has traditionally been the celebration whose readings and rituals inspire worshippers to question the nature of their own Jewish values and beliefs. For decades, Jews of all persuasions have fashioned their own seders, some adding a cup for the prophetess Miriam in celebration of Jewish women, others supplementing ...

Ritual & Observance

Out to Get You

A haftorah of enemies, real and imagined
By Liel Leibovitz | 7:00 AM Feb 26, 2010

My former commander in the Israel Defense Forces, a gruff but funny paratrooper with an overdeveloped sense of the macabre, was fond of quoting the saying, “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
I thought about him last weekend as I watched the most recent offerings from two of cinema’s contemporary ...

Food

Top Hamantashen

After a painstaking survey, Tablet Magazine awards title for nation's tastiest triangular treat
By Jenny Merkin | 7:00 AM Feb 26, 2010

As Purim approaches, it’s time to pass judgment on one of the most pressing issues of the day: where to find good hamantashen.
Tablet Magazine investigated. A meticulous and hungry bunch, we ordered hamantashen from bakeries in six cities across five states, driven by recommendations of what different people claimed were the best hamantasheries in the ...

Ritual & Observance

Purim FAQ

Everything you ever wanted to know about the story of Esther
By The Editors | 7:00 AM Feb 25, 2010

WHAT’S It ALL ABOUT?
Purim is the Hebrew word for “lots,” and the lots in question were drawn by Haman, an evil advisor to the Persian king Ahasuerus in the 4th century BCE, in order to decide on which day the kingdom’s Jews would be put to death. The plan was foiled thanks to Esther, the ...

Food

Friday Night Wonderland

Making Palestinian chicken and Moroccan challah for a Shabbat dinner with Alice Waters
By Joan Nathan | 7:00 AM Feb 25, 2010

A few weeks ago, I invited Alice Waters for Shabbat.
The legendary chef-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, a longtime friend, was in town to work with me on a fundraiser for Martha’s Table and DC Central Kitchen, two organizations that feed the less fortunate in Washington, D.C., where I live. It seemed only natural to ...