Jun 23, 2016
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” –Martin Buber Where will your journey take you? Oshman Family Jewish Community Center (OFJCC): What brought you to the OFJCC? Shai Atanelov (SA): The Jewish Agency for Israel sends 1,200 Israeli Emissaries all over North America for summer camps....
May 5, 2016
I returned a couple weeks ago from leading Shalhevet, a two-week journey through Poland and Israel to educate Bay Area high school juniors and seniors on “the history, heritage and future of the Jewish people.” A more intimate trip than March of the Living, which gathers thousands of teenagers from...
May 4, 2016
Did you know tomorrow is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day? What will you do differently? Maybe you will wear white. Maybe you will go to a ceremony at your local JCC or synagogue. Maybe you will light a yahrtzeit candle. Or maybe you won’t do anything special at all tomorrow. But...
Apr 25, 2016
I look forward to Passover every year. I love getting together with family and friends. I’m a big fan of charoset, and I even have a special place in my stomach for gefilte fish. But around day three or four, I’ve had enough matzo! There are however a few recipes...
Apr 22, 2016
What was your favorite childhood Jewish experience? For me, it was our family Passover Seders. Every year, my family would schlep across the country to Maryland or New Jersey or Florida—depending on whose turn it was to host—to join my aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents, so we could retell...
Apr 19, 2016
Editor’s Note: This week, many of us will be getting the house ready for Passover and shopping for chametz-free ingredients for the holiday. Take a look at the suggestions below for items to add to your grocery list! There are lots of sederiffic Passover recipes online, but it’s not seder that’s...
Apr 7, 2016
Editors Note: We have several delightful Passover stories coming up. Today, we’ll start with a Passover memory. We hope you’ll share some of your Passover memories, too. Your comments are always welcome! Passover desserts are famously leaden. Without leavening, you are basically eating sweetened bricks. Or pasty (nasty) egg white...
Mar 31, 2016
April 1, 2016—PALO ALTO, Ca—The Oshman Family JCC is pleased to announce a major new installation in the Jessica Lynn Saal Town Square: a gefilte fish pond that is slated to become the new centerpiece of campus life. The pond will be stocked with free-range, cruelty-free organic gefilte fish from the nearby Sacramento River Delta. In...
Mar 22, 2016
The rabbis of Jewish tradition liked a good pun. So when it came to Purim, the great Jewish holiday of jokes and merrymaking, they decided to play around with its name. Oddly enough though they claimed that the holiday is deeply connected to Yom Kippur. “Yom,” in Hebrew, means “Day,”...
Mar 17, 2016
What’s not to love about hamantaschen? The word conjures up images of buttery goodness wrapped around jam or poppy seeds or occasionally something more exotic like chocolate or nuts. But what happens when you really push the envelope? Here are eleven recipes that are too crazy not to try! What’s a...