News and Thoughts from Judaism Online
While antisemitism has grown leaps and bounds since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1200 civilians in Israel and kidnapping some 250 - both alive and dead, there has been a marked interest in returning to Jewish life among Jews who had left it. And there has also been a marke...
If you missed my free live webinar, Israel Beyond the Headlines, you can watch the recording here. It's 93 minutes of personal reflections on what's happening in Israel today, in four parts:
- Culture and Jewish Life
- Arab-Jewish Relations
- Dealing with The Situation (Part 1)
- Dealing with The Situ ...
I've prepared a webinar for this coming Sunday, June 29, at 7 pm Israel time, called
Israel Beyond the Headlines
on what's happening and what life is like in Israel right now. It's free, but you need to register in advance.
To register, please visit www.judaism.online/israel-
A few generations ago, converts to Judaism were usually people engaged to marry Jews. That still happens, but most people contemplating conversion to Judaism are looking to join the Jewish people and practice Judaism, without necessarily being engaged to someone born Jewish.
If you're thinking abou...
The holiday of Shavuot begins Sunday evening, June 1 (we're talking 2025 in this post). You know the drill: in Israel, it's a one-day holiday, so it continues during the day on Monday, June 2. In the Diaspora, that one day becomes two.
In the Bible, it's agriculturally-focused, and it comes seven w...
Yom Hazikaron
Yom Hazikaron, Israel's day of remembrance both for fallen soldiers and for victims of terror, begins this evening, April 29. It is a somber day.
Americans of a certain age will no doubt remember when Memorial Day in the US was like this, unlike today, when for many it's simply a day...
Israel's observance of Yom Hashoah veHaGevurah (that is, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) begins this evening, April 23.
Heroism, you ask? Yes, absolutely.
Israel's Knesset chose this date, in the week after the Passover holiday, to commemorate the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Th...
Over the last I-don't-know-quite-how-many-years, "coaching" has sprung up in a plethora of surprising places. I suppose there may have always been business coaches, maybe career coaches, and birthing coaches. To these have been added all kinds of coaches, including "life coaches" - though the ones I...
Here in Israel, the Passover holiday ended this evening. As the Torah says, it is a 7-day holiday.
But outside of Israel, in the Diaspora, Passover lasts for 8 days, following an ancient practice.
In antiquity, the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem would determine the start of a new month based on testimony...
Passover, the Festival of Freedom
The Passover holiday, which begins this year on Saturday night, April 12, is the holiday of freedom. It begins with the ancient Hebrew slaves being redeemed from Egyptian servitude.
That redemption was, as the Hebrew Bible says, done directly by God: plagues, mir...
Can you learn Judaism online?
The short answer: yes.
The longer answer: yes, and....
Yes, you can learn Judaism online.
Online learning has been around for a good while now, both in formal learning programs, like here at Judaism Online, and in those quick, bite-sized YouTubes that show you how t...
I know of three kinds of people who need to learn about Judaism.
Jews who didn't learn Judaism as kids
It may surprise you, but I was in this group. My Hebrew school experience was pretty typical, and disappointing. For the first several years, classes were really a waste of time. Someone's dad, w...
