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 even more great ideas, visit our Hanukkah Holiday Spotlight Kit

Everything you need to know about Hanukkah 2015.

for MyJewishLearning.com

Hanukkah 2015 begins at sunset on Sunday, December 6, and ends on Monday, December 14.

What is Hanukkah?

Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights.

It commemorates the victory of the ancient Israelites over the Syrian Greek army, and the subsequent miracle of restoring the menorah in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The miracle of Hanukkah is that only one vial of oil was found with just enough oil for one day, and yet it lasted for eight full days.

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For more great Hanukkah ideas, check out our    page.

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

Every Parent Needs to See This IKEA Christmas Commercial (Yes, Even if You’re Jewish)

By Joanna Valente (Editorial Assistant) for Kveller

With the winter holidays already bombarding stores and advertisements everywhere, it’s hard not to find yourself preoccupied with what to get your kid for Hanukkah (or Christmas, if your family celebrates that, too). But there’s always one thing that gets overlooked, regardless: family time.

In a video by IKEA Spain, 10 families were asked to participate in an experiment where their kids revealed what they really wanted for Christmas. Children ages 4 to 9 were asked to write two letters: In the first, they wrote to The Three Kings (Spain’s version of Santa) stating what they wanted for Christmas. In the second letter, the children wrote what they would ask their parents for Christmas. What they said isn’t what you’d expect.

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

G‑dcast: Something to watch as a family

G‑dcast is a media production company whose goal is to give every Jewish child and adult the chance to learn the basics with zero barriers to entry. No matter where you live or what you know, we have meaningful, intelligent and fun Jewish learning for you.

G-dcast provides videos about each weekly Torah portion, all the Jewish holidays, lifecycle events, parenting, Talmud and so much more.

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