It was the 5th day of Passover. It was also a mitzvah (good deed) day. My stress level was maxed out. Little did I know, however, it was also a mitzvah day. Everyone needs one of these once in awhile to make up for our “naughty” days. Yesterday was a bummer. I’d eaten […]
Jewish Holidays
13 posts
Photos: Courtesy of the U.S. Army 1959 – 1963 My husband, Captain Howard Graber, was a Jewish Chaplain in the US Army, stationed in Frankfurt, Germany from 1959 to 1963. His duties were primarily to minister to the Jewish soldiers – enlisted men, officers and their families. However, the congregation […]
Image: Robert Couse-Baker (Wherefore different from all other holidays?) Passover is celebrated in Nissan, the first month of the Jewish calendar. It was the first holiday of the Israelites or Hebrews. They could not become a nation until they left Egypt and were free. Mordecai, Queen Esther’s uncle, conceived the […]
We were so lucky as children to have three living grandparents. Every Pesach (Passover), my maternal grandparents hosted our Passover Seder, one of my favorite holidays because I was with my extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins. My grandparents lived in a smallish row house on Shirley Avenue in […]
Painting by my great uncle Paul Hausdorff. The Passover Seder was a big event in Dad’s paternal family. Some of my earliest memories are from these get-togethers. After all these years, now that so many relatives have passed, these Seder remembrances are precious. My earliest Seder memories begin at Mrs. […]
Photo: Marlene Wolff Solomon. My little sister, Ellie, sends me a text asking me to make a kugel for her Hanukkah party. Really? She wants me to make something that I must follow a recipe? Does she realize she’s texting Sister #2, not sister #1? “It’s really easy,” the text […]
I call the woodcarving that hangs in my dining room “The Old Woman.” She is ugly. Nobody wants her. Nobody likes her but me. My husband dislikes her; I offered her to my children, but they refused to take her. “She is hideous and depressing,” they both said, their feelings […]
The triangular-shaped pastries eaten on the Jewish festival of Purim are called hamantaschen. According to the Book of Esther, which tells the Purim story, the villain, Haman, wore a triangular-shaped hat. We symbolically eat his hat to celebrate his defeat and demise. For readers unfamiliar with Purim, here’s what we […]
Chanukah is supposed to be the festival of lights, the festival of joy. The Chanukah memories of my early childhood are dim, though, except for one year. I was in third grade and probably seven years old. It was December. My sisters and I were home all day while my […]