Trio of favourite potato soups
Everyone has their favourite soup when the fall weather turns into winter. Mine is potato soup. I don’t remember who made this for me, whether it was my grandmother or my mother, or when or how it became my favourite.…
Life
I know who I am … or do I?
Moving into a condominium forced the writer to modify how she approached the holiday season, including the purchase of an electric chanukiyah. (photo by Libby Simon) For Jews, the celebrations of Chanukah arrive on Sunday evening, Dec.2, and close on…
The last candle for the rabbi
(photo by Jon Sullivan) In the village of Chelm, just before every Chanukah, the ancient debate begun by the two great rabbis Hillel and Shammai resumed. Do you start the festival by lighting one candle and counting up, or with…
Jewish identity and Chanukah
“The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus” by Peter Paul Rubens, between 1634 and 1636. (photo from Wikimedia Commons) One of the richest statements found in the Talmud about the meaning of Jewish identity is the following: “He who does not feel…
What does Chanukah mean?
The light of our chanukiyot must shine as a commitment to discovering a Judaism of ideas and values as an integral part of our journey. (photo by David Williss) Chanukah is a holiday with an identity crisis. From the beginning,…
Israel-Diaspora divide
Mattathias and the Apostate (1 Maccabees 2:1-25) in Gustave Doré’s English Bible 1866. The time has not yet come when we no longer need the warrior Maccabee. (photo from Wikimedia Commons) Before the rebirth of the modern state of Israel…
Connect gifts to holiday
Gifts can range from superhero socks to a journal to time with family and friends. “When you consider the meaning of Chanukah, it’s about the Jewish struggle to maintain observance within a non-Jewish world,” writes Deena Yellin in the article…
A gift of holiday reads
Many authors of children’s Chanukah books still perpetuate two mistakes. One is that a chanukiyah is the same as a menorah, whereas the latter is actually the seven-branched Temple lamp looted by the Romans when the Temple was destroyed. The…
Mystery photo … Oct. 26/18
B’nai B’rith event, 1969. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.09488) If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C.…
Attempting to keep Shabbos
(photo by Olaf Herfurth) In anticipation of the annual Shabbos Project – this year on Oct. 26-27 – where Jews from around the world, and from every level of observance, celebrate and experience Shabbos together, I decided I needed to…
