For me, any opportunity to be in Israel is a cause of great personal simcha. My desire to spend more time in Eretz Yisroel is strong; unfortunately it isn’t always matched by the financial means to realize those dreams.

A more universal simcha, of course, is the wedding of

(The Jerusalem Post) Invited for a meal in the sukkah? You can’t come empty-handed!

Here are some creative and original gift ideas to keep everyone in the holiday spirit.

Seal It With a Kiss

These special days are filled with potential. It’s basically a time of expression, and what better way to do so than with musical accompaniment? The first night of Selichot in the “Thank You Hashem” shul, Five Towns, was ablaze with song. Spiritual music stirs the soul, contagious to all those nearby or even afar.

In “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem,” a popular novel and video adaptation, decades of drama and trauma begin in pre-state Israel, when the matriarch of the Sephardic Armoza family refuses to let her son marry “that Ashkenazi.” Times have changed. Marriages between Jews of divergent cultural backgrounds are common today.

Summer nights are winding down as we head into my fave season of all: autumn—back to school and back to Yom Tov. My, how things have changed. My, how we have grown. We’ve lost some classic music stars while new ones have come on the scene. Ah, the cycle of life. Thank you Hashem!

I never

When Ezra Nussbaum was 8 years old, his parents surprised him with a birthday party featuring magician Seth Dale. Ever since watching the act and bombarding Dale with questions after, Nussbaum dreamed of being a magician and over the past few years, it has become a reality. Now a rising 12th grader at Marsha Stern

Music. Energy. Dancing. Moving your feet to the beat is at the heart of many bar/bat mitzvah and wedding celebrations. But the style and the steps vary depending on the simcha, crowd and community.

Bar and bat mitzvah parties today are all about nonstop action that combines performance

In case you missed the buzz, our oldest son got married a few weeks ago, and we now have a new daughter (cue the happy simcha music)!

The wedding day was everything we could have hoped for, and I’m pretty sure our new machetonim and the bride and groom agree. The weather, which had

A few months ago, a publisher reached out asking me to review an advanced copy of a marriage book. “I’m happy to,” I answered, “but you should know—I’m really in the opposite business!”

As an advocate for agunot and a writer and speaker on Jewish divorce, I am

We were still in the throes of absorbing the news of our daughter’s engagement and her plans to get married in Jerusalem.

We decided to approach a friend, Miriam Miller (not her real name), who had made weddings for two of her children already and was in the midst of

The beautiful wedding you spent months planning will go by in a flash, but the photos will last forever. To get the pictures you really want, choose your photographer carefully and make sure you are both on the same page about what will happen on the big day. There are many talented wedding photographers. but they have different

A photographer for over 13 years, Keren Stefnasky of Cuddles and Kisses Photography has been snapping dazzling portraits of families while effortlessly getting children to pose, smile and even enjoy what can sometimes be an arduous and dull process.

These