Blog

As our WRJ travelers in Israel visited Yad Vashem this week, they shared their family stories of loss and survival.

This week, we conclude the book of Leviticus with the double Parashat B’har-B’chukotai. It begins with a discussion of shmita, a practice of letting the land rest between harvests.

This week, several WRJ women arrived in Israel to tour the country on what we are calling the “Women Off the Beaten Path” journey. They have been sending photos and stories about their adventures all week, and we have been posting them on social media.

On May 9, 2023, I had one of the most moving experiences of my life, thanks to the 2023 WRJ Mission Trip to Israel. After we spent the day touring around Jerusalem, we visited the Machal Memorial at Khan Sha’ar HaGai, where I shared my father’s story. Nathan Krotinger was one of the non-Israeli volunteers who fought in the 1948 Israel War of Independence.

Who knew that this spice doesn’t need refrigeration? Or that Za’atar can help to heal the skin because it has anti-inflammatory properties? And I read online that Za’atar has magnesium properties to help you get a restful sleep. I plan to eat some now, so I will be energized for tomorrow morning and our fifth day in Israel.

It's National Nurses Week, and today, we honor our “WRJ nurse,” friend, and North American Board Member Joanne Fried. Joanne spoke to WRJ's VP of Social Justice, Shoshana Dweck, for this blog post. 

I’m feeling very peaceful today. I went to the mikvah this morning. I was a little nervous, just because official rites of passage can be a little scary. But I knew everyone was going to be super nice and supportive (and they were!).

On the surface, this parashah deals with separating things: life and death, celebration and self-denial, holy and unholy, perfect and blemished. Yet, we know that the real world is much more complicated.   Our existence cannot be arranged into perfectly neat categories. Illness and death are part of the way of things, the cycle of the seasons. Our grasp on life is more fragile than we realize. Our attempts at classification and hierarchy often contradict the multifaceted nature of our world. Chaos and order are both the stuff of our existence.

Today in Israel, most people are only exposed to one kind of Judaism, and in my school, we believe students should be knowledgeable about diverse kinds of Judaism.