Jewish Voices, Jewish Lives

It’s what we do every day. Whether it’s the food we favor…a bagel with shmear… or the drive to repair the world…tikkun olam, we Jews are there, especially in Rockland County. We plan to bring Doing Jewish to you every Friday. Sometimes it’ll be fun, sometimes it’ll be serious.

Community Security Briefing 4/2/25

Wednesday evening, 4/2/25 Rockland Federation’s Community Security Initiative hosted the second annual Pre-Passover Security Briefing in Spring Valley. This is a proactive effort to bolster community safety ahead of major Jewish holidays and keep everyone up to date regarding overall threa…

Gratitude

The Jewish people have a complicated relationship with the concept of gratitude. After the exodus from Egypt, we are told that the grumbling and complaining began immediately, and the idea of ‘God took us out of Egypt to have us die in the desert’ was repeatedly heard. And yet, some of o…

Unique Pesach Traditions

Every spring, Jews from around the world gather with their family and friends to celebrate Pesach. For seven days, we eat unleavened bread and tell the story of the exodus of Israelites from slavery in Egypt. While it is customary to hold a seder, did you know that not all celebrations are t…

Sorrow and Song

Last Friday, the Olympia neighborhood in Monsey and people across the nation were stunned and grief stricken by the sudden and tragic death of Rabbi Eliyahu (Eli) Fink z’l in an accident. R’ Fink was 43 years old, a father, husband, lawyer, journalist, educator and Rabbi. He founded the …

A Little Bit of Conversation

I had three conversations over the past two weeks that I have spent some time thinking about. The first was via Facebook messenger, the second was on the phone, and the third was via Zoom. The first one left me a bit discouraged, the second one tested my self-control, but the third one left …