Even More ideas for Tu B’shevat. Three, to be precise.

Tu biShvat begins January 25

By Homeshuling,  A Jewish Parenting Blog

Recognizing that it can be hard to find meaningful ways to celebrate trees in the middle (or, depending on the Groundhog’s prediction, almost-the-end of) winter. Last year I posted 15 Other Things to Do for Tu B’shevat. I don’t have 15 more, but I do have a few, just in time for the holiday, which starts on Tuesday night.

Do you remember learning “Ha-shkeydiah Poracahat” in Hebrew school? It’s sort of the Tu B’shevat anthem. The song celebrates the almond trees, which are the first trees to bloom in Israel are typically covered in pink blossoms this time of year. (By the way, did you learn to sing it with the terribly unfortunate English translation – “Tu B’shevat is here, the Jewish Arbor Day”?)

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Bubbe vs. Bubbe

My boyfriend’s proper English grandmother was nothing like the fast-walking, loud-talking grandmother I’d grown up with—or was she?

By Judy Batalion for Tablet Magazine   
“Would you like to meet my grandmother?” Jon asked above the loud chatter of the North London gastro-pub.

I put down my forkful of fish and chips tartare and stared at him with excitement. “Your grandmother?”

I’d been seeing Jon for two months, but I hadn’t even met his parents yet.

“My grandmother’s 93,” Jon said.

“Wow,” I exclaimed, breathless, as if he’d just revealed a secret fortune or robust abs. He had a living grandmother. This turned me on.

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Jewish Adoption in America

By Barbara T. Blank  for MyJewishLearning.com   

Ancient laws and modernity are brought together with the embrace of adoption in the Jewish community.

Since ancient times, Judaism has valued and encouraged adoption. But most biblical and rabbinic references to the practice relate specifically to orphans, a paradigmatically vulnerable class of individuals for which the Bible mandates we protect and care.

The most famous example in the Bible, of course, is that of the orphaned Queen Esther, who was raised by her cousin Mordecai. The Talmud, however, illuminates–and approves of–more obscure cases as well.

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Jews With Asian Heritage Pose Growing Identity Challenge to Jewish Establishment

Taly Krupkin, The Jewish Daily Forward   

Since their wedding in May 2012, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have become the unofficial representatives of Jewish- and Asian-American couples in the United States.

Earlier this month they were prominently featured around the world hugging their firstborn daughter Max. Previous stories revolved around Hannukah celebrations at the couple’s home and around the fact that Zuckerberg was studying Chinese.

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What A Self-Described 'Imperfect Son' Learned From His Parents' Deaths

Author Bob Morris shares how devastating events shaped his views on religion.

By Carol Kuruvilla, HuffPost

One of the most unsettling things about struggling with a parent's death is that life outside the hospital or hospice is still moving rapidly forward. There are deadlines at work, children to take to soccer practice, bills to pay. And for some people, especially those who don't consider themselves connected to a specific religion, grappling with the death of a loved one can come with the added challenge of trying to make peace with what it all means on a cosmic level.  

Author Bob Morris faced these questions while preparing for the deaths of his mother and father, Joe and Ethel. His mother died in 2002, after more than a decade of being ill. His dad passed away a few years later. Morris writes about the what it was like to say goodbye to these two dearly loved ones in his latest memoir, Bobby Wonderful: An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents.

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My Husband’s Big Shabbat Idea Turned Out to Be Brilliant

By Merri Ukraincik for Kveller

A long time ago, my husband and I came to a mutual agreement that I’d handle the weekly Shabbat preparations and he’d wash the cholent pot on Saturday nights. It works for us—I enjoy the former and he has the stomach for the latter—and we never tell one another how to do our jobs.

But there was that one time my husband had a big idea.

He returned home late from work on a Thursday evening and pulled up a chair in the kitchen. I was sporting a schmutz-covered apron to conduct an orchestra of pots on the stove, a wooden spoon in each hand. Not quite a French maid holding a martini. Yet my less than sultry look wasn’t the problem. It was the dining room table.

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Who's Got Hanukkah Envy?

By Lisa Keys for Tablet Magazine

Last December, Jiming Liang’s son Aidan came home from kindergarten really jazzed about Hanukkah. He was excited to play dreidel and he wanted to buy a menorah.

Thing is, Aidan’s not Jewish; he learned about Hanukkah from a parent volunteer at his public school in South Orange, N.J. But no matter: Aidan’s enthusiasm for Hanukkah endured for those eight days and beyond. He played dreidel nonstop (the way a 5-year-old boy can home in on a particular toy), he taught his family what the letters meant, and he was thrilled about the menorahs he spotted around town. Liang even had to buy another dreidel so Aidan’s younger brother, Finn, wouldn’t miss out on the fun.

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For more great Hanukkah ideas, check out our    page.

For even more great ideas, visit our Hanukkah Holiday Spotlight Kit