Jofa Recent Media

By Yehudit Robinson I didn’t expect to say Kaddish with any regularity. When my father, Morris Robinson, died in late January 2020, I intended to recite only the three Kaddishes ...

By Danielle Resh The absence of community left space for imagining. The eastern corner of my bedroom became the Almighty’s throne. Whispered words materialized—God picking up the homeless from the ...

By Daphne Lazar Price “I’m ready to get back to normal.” I hear those words out loud and in my head daily. And even as I write them here, I ...

By Candace Plotsker-Herman It’s trite to say that Purim confusion morphed into Pesaḥ disappointment; my world fell apart and then I became resilient. It would be truer to add: and ...

By Ellen Levitt We know that we can pray on our own nearly anywhere, anytime, but Judaism does emphasize communal prayer. And many of us appreciate the group atmosphere: We ...

By Chaye Kohl Teachers are urged to be lifelong learners. My career, infused with professional development, a few degree programs, and some independent study, has modeled that practice for my ...

By Chaye KohlOn the last day of Passover, the Yizkor prayer helps us memorialize our dead. On Pesaḥ 2020 I recited the prayer in the solitude of my living room, ...

By Nomi KaltmannAustralia, for most people, conjures images of cuddly koalas, beautiful beaches, and picturesque landscapes with laid-back people. I was born in Melbourne, Australia, and can confirm that for ...

Devorah ScholarsIn the spring of 2020, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance awarded Devorah Scholar grants to seven Orthodox synagogues. This innovative program, designed to seed the American landscape with women ...

By Susan Hornstein The Women’s Tefillah Group of Raritan Valley, based in Highland Park and Edison, New Jersey, has been meeting regularly for more than thirty years. Most of our ...

By Thalia Gur-Klein From one step on a ladder to heaven, I dreamed I was seen and seeing her, far beyond my locked down horizon. Yet underway back I tarried on a thoughtful mountain to wrestle a ...

By Talya Gordon After moving to a new city during a pandemic as a single twenty-four-year-old woman, I have grown to see the incredible gifts that Judaism has given me. ...

By Laurie Dinerstein-Kurs I am perplexed. I am amazed. I am also pleasantly moved by the degree to which I read and hear so many people lamenting the difficulties they ...

Educator of Jewish EducatorsJOFA mourns the passing of Dr. Chaya Gorsetman, a master teacher, champion of women’s inclusion in the day school curriculum, and mentor of Jewish educators. In her ...

Edited by Erin Leib SmoklerBen Yehuda Press. 2021, $24.95 Review by Atara Cohen How do we make sense of the suffering of the COVID-19 pandemic within a Jewish framework? Rabbi ...