Mollie Meadow, a member of the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation, recently had her artwork selected in a juried art contest through Embracing Our Differences Michigan, a non-profit organization that celebrates diversity. Mollie’s drawing and art and other selected 2023 entries are currently displayed on billboard-sized banners at installations at Gallup Park in Ann Arbor and Riverside Park in Ypsilanti.
Daryl Hafter and Ellen Schwartz became close friends while team-teaching a humanities course at Eastern Michigan University. In the late 1980s, Ellen proposed having a joint adult bat mitzvah. “Oh, no,” Daryl said, “I’m really busy with an article, two conference papers, and a review.” Ellen was relieved! But then, this fall, Daryl called her up. “Remember your proposal about a bat mitzvah?” she asked. “Let’s do it!” Lily Ladin had been helping Daryl learn to read Hebrew since she never learned it as a child, and a good goal seemed to be an adult bat mitzvah. So, we began to plan.
On September 10, at 12:30 p.m., Beth Israel Reads social action book group will host a facilitated virtual discussion of this spirited read.
In mid-July I read a Facebook post by Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America written after he participated in a massive pro-democracy protest in Tel Aviv. He wrote “I felt honored, and perhaps even relieved, to be a speck in this crowd tonight.”
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From our distance here in Washtenaw County, Michigan, it may be difficult to get a sense of what continues to motivate these massive protests, to understand the Israeli government’s determination to
by Lonnie Sussman I love summer in Michigan. Summer means no school, summer camps, shorts and t-shirts, outdoor swimming, blue skies, and memories of summers past. It does not mean long hours in the kitchen or planning meals, but fun trips to the farmers’ markets to see what fruit or vegetable is in season. Summer…
By Shifra Epstein In memory of my grandparents, Shifra Epstein (1879–1925) and Israel Epstein (1872–1932), who moved in 1919 with their four children from Bialystock (Russia) to Jaffa. My grandparents are buried in the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv, not far from Zina and Meir Dizengoff. A Jewish city An Odessan was asked one day,…
Two years ago, my company offered my family and me an opportunity to move from Ann Arbor to the French-speaking part of Switzerland for a four-year assignment. It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when travel still felt like a distant dream. Our family had moved around a lot, but we’d been in Ann Arbor for seven years and had finally settled down. We had recently bought and started fixing up a charming old home, and our two children were very happy at school. We also had never felt more connected Jewishly, having found an extended family with the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation (AARC) and also being able to connect virtually with a wonderful Jewish Renewal synagogue near our old home in California. The idea of blowing up our lives was completely unnerving, but it felt like an opportunity of a lifetime that we couldn’t pass up.
By Deborah Meyers Greene West Bloomfield has one, Chicago has at least one, New York City has several, along with countless other cities and towns in the United States. Now Washtenaw will, too. A Jews of Color network of greater Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County is getting together and, if you self-identify as a Jew of Color…
By Shifra Epstein (originally published August 2022) Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, I have been visiting festivals, shops, and events in Ann Arbor speaking with individuals about the war. This June, my interest in how the war in Ukraine impacts Ann Arborites led me to the Top of the Park, the popular…