A brief look at the history of Passover

Looking for a quick video to explain the history of the holiday?  Check out History of Passover from the History Channel.






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For other great holiday tips, check out Jvillage Network's Passover Holiday Kit. 

Why I’m Done Throwing My Son Birthday Parties

Avital Norman Nathman for Kveller

My son turned 8 this past January. But this year, unlike the seven that came before, we didn’t have a party.

No worry about finding an indoor place that could hold enough kids–and their energy–in the midst of a harsh New England winter. No worrying about whether or not the party would even happen on account of a snowstorm. No juggling five or six different food allergies for fear of leaving any kid out. No buying a bunch of junk that most likely breaks or gets tossed out soon after for goody bags. No drooling over Pinterest, only to lament over a complete lack of any creative capability.

None of that. Because we didn’t have a party.

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The Next Mark Zuckerberg? Meet the Kid Crowdfunding His Way to Summer Camp

When he learned his entrepreneurship camp was a bit too pricey, one resourceful 11-year-old turned to crowdfunding.

Rabbi Jason Miller for Time.com

It’s a known fact that many Jewish kids head out to overnight camp each summer. In fact, Jeremy J. Fingerman, the CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, believes that in any one summer, as many as 11% of the approximately 700,000 Jewish kids ages 7-17 in North America are enrolled in a Jewish camp. These are no longer simply the traditional overnight summer camps of previous generations in which campers and counselors swim, sail, and sing Jewish songs by the campfire while roasting s’mores.

Today’s listing of Jewish summer camps includes dozens of “specialty camps” that focus on specific interest groups like science and technology, the culinary arts, health and wellness, and sports. These camps, which run anywhere from one to eight-week sessions, require a significant financial investment from parents who want their children to enjoy meaningful experiences over the summer vacation. Financial scholarships and significant subsidy programs like the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s BunkConnect help defray a portion of the tuition costs, but money is still an impediment for many families.

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DWS “Gaffe” Illustrates Everything That’s Wrong About Post-Pew American Jewry

Jonathan S. Tobin for Commentary Magazine

If American Jews want to know what the party that most of them are loyal to wants them to think, they turn to Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for advice. But in a moment of unexpected and refreshing candor, Wasserman Shultz also gave her co-religionists some truth about the future of the Jewish community when she noted during a speech given to a South Florida Jewish Federation event that assimilation and intermarriages were both a “problem.” That this is self-evident is more than obvious given the data produced by the Pew Center’s historic survey of American Jewry that showed that assimilation and intermarriage have reached levels that call into question the future of non-Orthodox Jewry in this country. But the fact that Wasserman Schultz felt she had to almost immediately walk back her remarks with liberal Jews showering her with the opprobrium they usually reserve for Republicans tells us exactly why these problems are so intractable.

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Purim and Serendipity

How to find God.

by Rabbi Benjamin Blech for aish.com

It’s a question I’ve often been asked. Many times people turn to me as a Rabbi and in all sincerity ask “How can I find God?”

I tell them it really isn’t all that difficult. All they have to do is turn serendipity into Purim and they’ll realize the answer.

Permit me to explain.

Serendipity is a fascinating word that a British lexicon company recently voted one of the 10 hardest words in English to translate. Dictionaries define it as “a fortuitous happenstance” or “a pleasant surprise.” Wikipedia tells us “The notion of serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of scientific innovation such as Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, and the invention of the microwave oven by Percy Spencer in 1945, to name but a few.”

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For more information, recipes and great ideas for Purim, check out Jvillage's Purim Holiday Kit. 

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Giving to the Needy: A Purim Mitzvah

The PJ Library Blog

AS YOUR FAMILY gears up for hamantaschen-baking, mask-making, delivering gifts to friends (mishloach manot), feasting, and the costume parade, don’t forget the needy this Purim.

MATANOT L’EVYONIM

Giving to the Needy: A Purim MitzvahIt is said that during 356 BCE in ancient Persia, the Jews were saved from disaster by brave Queen Esther and her uncle, Mordechai. To celebrate and give thanks for being saved, the Jews were directed to fulfill four Purim mitzvot, one of which is the giving of gifts to the poor (matanot l’evyonim).

As explained on the Jewish Federation website’s article, “Purim: Acts of Kindness on Purpose,” fulfilling the mitzvah of matanot l’evyonim can be “as simple as dropping coins into a tzedakah box or making donations of food or clothing to a local pantry or shelter.”

For families looking for a more narrow interpretation of matanot l’evyonim, the AISH.com article, “Gifts to the Poor,” explains the “in-depth laws for how to do matanot l’evyonim correctly.”

Either way, giving gifts to the needy presents a fulfilling, hands-on Purim activity for PJ Library families of any size.

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For more information, recipes and great ideas for Purim, check out Jvillage's Purim Holiday Kit. 

For more Purim news, check out our    page.

The Last Jewish Mother on Television

‘The Big Bang Theory’ marks the end of an era. But Asian-American mothers may pick up where Jewish mothers left off.

By Marjorie Ingall for Tablet Magazine

We have seen the last old-school, Jewishly observant, housecoat-wearing, perpetually bellowing, all-devouring, ultra-controlling, super-insular, Yiddishly inflected, son-emasculating Jewish Mother on network television.

Howard Wolowitz’s unnamed mother on the Emmy-winning sitcom The Big Bang Theory never appeared on camera; she just screamed at her son from other rooms in their house or over the phone. Carol Ann Susi, the actress who played Mrs. Wolowitz, died in November, and her last episode aired the same month. While there has been no official announcement about whether the role will be recast (a CBS publicist answered all my other questions but repeatedly ignored that one, despite my noodging tone that would have made Mrs. Wolowitz proud), the show’s executive producer Bill Prady told TV Guide, “There are no plans for any other actress to play the role.”

Mrs. Wolowitz was a throwback to vintage Jewish Mother jokes and monstrous stereotypes, to Philip Roth’s Mrs. Portnoy, to Herman Wouk’s Rose Morgenstern, and to Philip Wylie’s entire Generation of Vipers. She was smothering yet selfish, a gaping maw of need and hunger. And her still-living-at-home adult son yelled back at her and claimed to want to be free of her—an engineer, he actually became an astronaut to escape—but was also dependent on her.

To understand their folie a deux, check out a sample of their dialogue. (As you read it in your head, be sure to scream it.)

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