History | Culture

Light Over Darkness | Jlife

Light is the overarching, central, definitive metaphor for Jewish understanding of all of reality…

Hanukkah begins four days before the new moon – the darkest night in the month of Kislev and the closest to the winter solstice, the longest and darkest day of the month. Like many other faiths, the Jewish holiday of Chanukah brings light into the darkest time of the year.

History | Culture

It’s Not All Latkes & Dreidels | Jlife

Hanukkah is more than eating a bounty of latkes and donuts, spinning dreidels, and watching cartoon Adam Sandler sing 8 Crazy Nights. Each year friends whip out the “Ugly Hanukkah Sweaters,” double-fisting gelt and gefilte into their mouths while lighting candles, unsure if the menorah should ignite from the left or the right

So how do we find meaning in a tradition that as children means presents, and as adults, mirrors the theme of elongated holiday parties?

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Mensching Around | Jlife

Menorah trees, gingerbread houses and sweaters are the latest additions to the ancient tradition. These new customs not only prove to be another way to include non-Jewish friends and family in the Festival of Lights but are also a way to reinforce Jewish identity during this time of year.

Unlike its Christmas counterpart, children are meant to play with Mensch on a Bench.

History | Culture

Hanukkiah | Jlife

Hanukkah comes early this year. Well, actually it doesn’t. It is always on the 25th of Kislev—it just seems early on the solar calendar.

Remember Thanksgivukkah? Whatever the date, it is when Jews all over the world light a Hanukkah menorah (a hanukkiah) to commemorate the Maccabean revolt and the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BCE.

News | News

Lev Echad | Jlife

No matter what uniform they wear, all first responders are heroes. From the soot-covered firefighter “yellows” to the EMT “blues,” these uniforms make a statement.

Lev Echad is an Israeli organization that was established in 2005. The organization is dedicated to putting volunteers in the right places when it matters most. In fact, it is the only Israeli organization that is entirely devoted to empowering and mobilizing volunteer efforts in times of emergency.

Miscellaneous | Interviews

Woman in Gold | Jlife

Jlife had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Schoenberg about his historic case.

Randol E. Schoenberg and Marie Altmann successfully sued the Austrian government for restitution of Gustav Klimt's classic painting "The Woman in Gold".

Miscellaneous | Interviews

Dennis Ross | Jlife

Ambassador Ross talks about Israel, the Middle East, and more.

Jlife sits down with Ambassador Dennis Ross.

History | Culture

DENOMINATIONS! | Jlife

This month’s issue addresses cultural diversity—a term we have all become very familiar with in this era of social awareness.

But what about Jewish diversity, and how tolerant are we of that?

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Kosher Dog | Jlife

Teddy Bassman was “knighted and crowned” the summer of 2013 when his family hosted three teenagers from Great Britain for the JCC Maccabi Games and Artsfest.

Teddy is a Coton De Tulear and in the 17th century his ancestors, from Madagascar, were called upon to be companions for royalty. We are so happy that “Sir Tedward” has finally gotten back to his roots and calling.

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Teaching Gratefulness | Jlife

“Who is rich? Those who rejoice in their own portion” – Pirke Avot 4:1.

Teaching gratefulness is not a new concept. References to gratefulness abound in Pirke Avot.

News | Local News

Not Your Typical High School Club | Jlife

Many teens have been a part of the Bureau of Jewish Education’s (BJE) community since childhood… for some it may be their first experience with the organization. Either way, BJE wants everyone to know just how welcome they are.

It is with great enthusiasm and anticipation that BJE announces some upcoming changes to its program structure.

History | Culture

The Science of Happiness | Jlife

Happiness is firmly ingrained in Jewish tradition. In fact, when we evaluate the newest scientific research on happiness, we can correlate much of its findings with the Jewish way of life. Judaism encourages community participation filled with food and tradition while research shows us that those involved in community are happier people. Judaism prescribes family values, relationships, celebrations and working through loss according to accepted rituals.

The science of happiness shows us that strong family relationships and supporting one another through loss, helps us to adopt a happier outlook toward life. Our Jewish traditions and way of life have been passed down through the generations, while the science of happiness is a fairly new endeavor. How wonderful that they correlate, that living a life steeped in Jewish culture and tradition helps us find happiness!

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Building Family Connection | Jlife

Creating a peaceful, supportive and loving home can be a challenge. We routinely come home after long days only to tackle endless “to do’s” that includes homework, laundry, cooking and schlepping to activities.

It’s no wonder that families find it hard to connect. As difficult as it sounds to add one more item to the list, what if you were told that coming together for a “family meeting” (sans electronics) could create deep, emotional connections, build confidence in your teen, allow your child’s voice to be heard and solve pressing problems? What if it would boost your child’s grades or spare them from depression?

History | Culture

The December Dilemma | Jlife

Here it is, coming around the bend. That magical—yet somewhat frustrating—time of year we affectionately call Christma-kkah. It can be tough. The American holiday season has evolved—for better or worse—into a highly-commercialized, sugary-sweet present-fest. Kids run around barely able to contain their excitement.

Public schools are rehearsing their holiday talent shows. And while they strive to call them “Holiday Celebrations” and not “Christmas Extravaganzas” there is no real way to separate Christmas from church and state. It melts into our collective subconscious as soon as the “After Thanksgiving Sales” commence.

History | Culture

Jews of Many Colors | Jlife

When most American Jews think of their traditional Jewish culture, they think of Passover Seders and matzah ball soup, hamentashen and black-hatted, pale-skinned Hasidic men, and Yiddish-speaking bubbes (grandmothers) and zeydes (grandfathers). But, that is only one Jewish ethnic group of many.

From our very beginnings, we Jews were a blend of different groups. Ephraim Isaac, Ph.D., the Ethiopian-born director of the Institute of Semitic Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, explains.

News | Local News

In Our Own Back Yard | Jlife

Twenty years after the gavel heard around the world acquitting O.J. Simpson of murdering his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, Jewish Federation & Family Services and Nicole’s youngest sister Tanya Brown are giving a voice to women who are victims of domestic violence.

The Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse reminds us there are cultural implications to consider.

Miscellaneous | Interviews

A Conversation with Rabbi Artson | Jlife

A conversation with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson about the Jewish Conservative Movement's shift to embrace LGBT participation and rabbinic ordination.

History | Culture

Building the Multicultural Jewish Future | Jlife

The experience encapsulated the kaleidoscope of cultures and experiences available in Jerusalem. Here I was, an Israeli-born, California-raised twenty-something, discussing performance art with an Italian Catholic, a French Jew, and a Christian Israeli, on our way to meet a Jewish Slovenian Ladino scholar and a Polish Muslim to have a food brought by Iraqi Jews fleeing persecution in their home country in the early 1950s.

Israel: a reflection of the diverse, multicultural Diaspora

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Kosher Dog | Jlife

This is Stanley Silverman, he is our 3-year-old rescue lab.

This is a picture of him having his Bark Mitzvah at a park in Orange County.

News | Local News

The Maccabi Games | Jlife

Team OC sent a team of 81 teens (ages 13-17) and 14 coaches to the 2015 JCC Maccabi Games and ArtsFest in Fort Lauderdale. Team OC was successful in both competition and in spirit. Winning accolades for being the most animated (and loud!) team at the Games.

They joined over 1,500 participants from across the globe in a weeklong event of games, arts, service and fun. “The opportunity to connect so many teens to the Jewish community and Israel is epic!

News | Local News

Orange County’s Jewish History: The House of Hippolyte | Jlife

Hippolyte (pronounced “Hippo-leet”) Cahen was born in Oran, Algeria in 1847 and emigrated to the U.S. as a young man. He lived for a short time in San Francisco before moving to Anaheim, and ten years later, in 1878, he became a naturalized citizen.

Cahen had a beautiful Victorian house built for their growing family.

News | Local News

A Shooting Schmiracle! | Jlife

Most people don’t know the history of bagels. Beginning as a simple piece of bread, it wasn’t until Moses shot a 9mm bullet through the center of the doughy-delicacy, piercing an aesthetically pleasing hole, that the first “holy” breakfast food for the Hebrew people was created. Now a staple in every Jewish kitchen, we often forget to appreciate the history of what has become synonymous with Jewish soul food.

Okay, maybe Moses didn’t own a handgun, and tracing the origins of bagels can be discussed later. However, Jews with guns is a topic which interests many people in Orange County. Recently, roughly 125 individuals, mainly but not exclusively Jewish, came together for the “Bullets & Bagels” event on August 23 at Raahauges Outdoor Range in Corona to share their passion for firearms.

History | Culture

Fall’s Bounty | Jlife

It was such a natural transition. Food writer and cooking teacher Amelia Saltsman has long been an ardent champion of local family farms and farmers’ markets—her best-selling cookbook “The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook” (Blenheim Press, $22.95) is as much an homage to the farmers, their histories, and their commitment to excellence as it is a collection of fuss-less, artful recipes—and now she brings her expertise and abiding respect for the food they grow to her newest cookbook, “The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen” (Sterling Epicure, $29.95).

“When I’m cooking, I really want to intensify the flavors that these farmers have worked so hard to produce,” she told me. “It’s a very mindful approach. I respect what the farmers have done and let the ingredients talk to me. There’s a very spiritual side to it that I didn’t consciously think about until doing this book.

News | Local News

Thriller Writers Come to the OC | Jlife

Just about anyone who is a mystery buff, knows the name Kellerman. Faye and Jonathan Kellerman have been best-selling mystery writers for nearly three decades, and their son Jesse joined the “family business” in 2006 when he published his first novel. All three Kellermans will be guests at University Synagogue, Sunday November 8.

The Kellermans make mystery their business.

History | Culture

Opening the Doors to Jewish Spirituality | Jlife

The Jewish history of Italy and Rome.

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

My Birthday | Jlife

Being with people we love will trump fanfare everytime.

News | Local News

Tikvah Hospice | Jlife

“We couldn’t have taken care of my dad at home without hospice.”

“You made it possible for our family to stop being our mom’s medical team and just go back to being her kids.”

Choosing hospice care can be a tough decision, but once the decision is made, families quickly learn that hospice care allows them to focus on quality of life along with their loved ones in end-of-life situations.

History | Culture

A Second Bar/Bat Mitzvah | Jlife

Have you seen the promo for the new movie, “The Intern” starring Robert Deniro as a 70-year-old man who takes a positon as an intern at an online fashion site? “When you turn 70 you can say, `Oh, my G-d, the warranty is over and I’m on borrowed time,’ or it can (be seen as) a whole new lease on life,” said Rabbi Mark Gross of Temple Beth Orr in Coral Springs.

The significance of having a second bar or bat mitzvah.

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Praise-worthy Praise | Jlife

“You are so smart!” my friend said to her 11-year old the other day. I didn’t blink an eye. We’ve all said it. It was the boy’s response that surprised me. With a look that screamed “duh!” he told her, “That’s like me saying ‘wow, congratulations, you’re tall.’”

An evaluation of praise and feedback and its effect on a child.

News | Local News

Return & Renewal | Jlife

Close to 900 people gathered on the hot Sunday afternoon to fill Temple Beth Sholom’s (TBS) new sanctuary and celebrate Retrun and Renewal. Attendees were met with a festive atmosphere a year and a half after a kitchen fire decimated the synagogue.

It was a spectrum of religious diversity: the Catholic Archdiocese of Orange, Latter Day Saints, clergy from Bat Yam, Beth Tikvah, Beth El, Beth Emet, TBS Rabbi Emeritus Shelton Donnel, and former TBS Rabbi Frank Stern were present at TBS to bring the Torahs home. In addition community, civic, and state leaders expressed their commendation.

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Rachel Goes Rogue: My Relationship with my Grandmother | Jlife

I was raised very close to both sets of grandparents, but I was closest, easily, to my mother’s mother, Beatrice Dankner.

It became a safe haven to complain about how my parents don’t get me (they became so much smarter when I graduated college). Grandma even started lending me her car for my random guitar, bass, and violin lessons. She also taught me how to drive. She was the only one in the family that did not scream when I made a mistake. She joked “I have lived a full life, if it’s my time, it’s my time” as she referred to my driving skills.

History | Culture

How to Grow A Mensch | Jlife

How do we grow a mensch? Inspire a generation of mensches? The Torah responds unequivocally: through education. We pass Jewish teachings from generation to generation to perpetuate a legacy of derech eretz, the value system that is imbued with Torah and secular education along with personal growth, self-discovery and insight into human relationships; values that our parents, grandparents and great grandparents modeled for generations.

Education begins within the home, and then extends beyond to our Jewish institutions including our schools, synagogues and community centers

Miscellaneous | Interviews

Lainie Kazan | Jlife

When you are a young Jewish girl growing up it is basically essential that you watch Funny Girl. I’m not ashamed to admit that my VHS tape was on repeat for most of my childhood, and then once again in college, on a DVD this time. So for me, to be speaking with someone who actually got to perform in the title role of Fanny Brice on Broadway, feels like I had just died and gone to heaven. Then to find out that she was the understudy to the one and only Barbara Streisand?

Lainie Kazan sits down with the OC Jlife staff.

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Keeping Promises | Jlife

When we promise to behave in a certain way, to keep a confidence, to support or assist someone with a project, or to care for them as part of a family or community, the expectation is that the promise will be kept. We learn to trust one another by keeping promises, by holding true to our relationships and by standing alongside one another in good and bad times.

The importance of keeping promises.

News | Local News

Tracking Our Ancestors | Jlife

Dodging sprinkler systems and cleaning dirt, leaves and mud from grave markers, is all a part of what the intrepid members of the Jewish Cemetery Project of Orange County face as they attempt to take pictures of Jewish graves.

Jewish Gen of Orange County became involved with this project after several members explored the JewishGen.org database on their own.

News | Local News

Comrades & Conversation on the Court | Jlife

Recently, i had the honor and privilege of speaking with a few great guys who have kept up with a wonderful tradition all their own. For the past five or six years, a dozen community seniors meet every week on Friday at 10:30 a.m., most attend University Synagogue. These friends and comrades converge on local tennis courts for an hour and a half. Following the games they gather at a local restaurant for lunch and discuss the news of the day. This has been a very special tradition that these men look forward to every week.

Orange County Jewish community leaders stay in touch over tennis and lunch.

Politics | Op-Ed

Reeling in the Millennials | Jlife

As a member of the millennial generation, limited participation of women in Torah study, life in the Old Country or even growing up in a predominately Jewish neighborhood—are a few of many aspects to the Jewish experience that are foreign to me.

The identity issues that face Jewish millennials.

Miscellaneous | Interviews

The Secret of Chabad | Jlife

The white truck was parked on 49th Street just west of Fifth Avenue. As I peered into it I saw a young bearded man putting phylacteries on another young man. Just then, I heard a voice asking me if I was Jewish. I turned to see yet another young man.

Rabbi Eliezri let the JLife staff in on the "secret of Chabad's success".

News | Local News

Orange County’s Jewish History: Hellman Ranch | Jlife

Isaias Hellman’s Seal Beach Ranch

The Orange County property of a major Jewish entrepreneur and philanthropist.

News | News

Yom Kippur in Israel | Jlife

Getting a jump on this day of observance

Yom Kippur in Israel

History | Culture

A Work of Ark | Jlife

A look at the arks that have held the Torah through the ages.

Reflections of Past and Present

History | Culture

High Holiday Activities | Jlife

Fun for the whole family!

Fun activities and ideas to celebrate the High Holidays!

News | Local News

Jewish National Fund | Jlife

Language and conflict aside, California and Israel have a lot in common. Both were pioneer destinations; desert land intent on becoming an agricultural mecca; areas of vast expanse rife for adequate and comfortable living conditions, yet so many insist on cramming into the better-known cities.

Building a Future for Israel

History | Culture

Book Club Recommendation | Jlife

So this year when I greet people with, “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life,” I think I might add an addendum: “And may you have a hand in writing your own incredible stories.”

The Book of Life

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

When Good Enough Is Perfect | Jlife

I know a woman who shows her 30-year-old wedding album to every visitor who crosses the threshold. She loves to describe finding that perfect gown and Jackie-Kennedy veiled pillbox hat...

Finding Joy in Imperfection

History | Culture

Caring For Our World | Jlife

Shemittah, Jubilee and Drought

"Several years ago at a High Holiday Seminar, keynote speaker Rabbi Arthur Green, suggested that since Rosh Hashanah is considered the “birthday of the world” perhaps reading Bereshit was a more appropriate Torah portion–since Bereshit 1.1 commands us to “guard” the land implying our responsibility over it."

Politics | Op-Ed

Kvetch & Kvell: The Iran Nuclear Deal | Jlife

"Huckabee is absolutely right."

Former Laguna Niguel City Councilman Eddie Rose gives his take on the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Family & Parenting | Family & Relationships

Teshuva | Jlife

As we grow through life, we continue to learn from our experiences, our interactions with others, our teachers and our families.

Learning from our mistakes

Politics | Op-Ed

An Old Cure for a New Problem | Jlife

The answer is simple, and Jews have been doing it for thousands of years; Shabbat. There’s no better way to eradicate dependency issues than alleviating oneself from the burden for an entire day.

An old cure for a new problem

History | Culture

New Traditions | Jlife

Honey Cake & Rosh Hashana Challah recipes