By Michael Schatz
“Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your G-d my G-d.” (Ruth, 1:16). Megillat Ruth, traditionally read on Shavuot, can be understood on so many levels. Jews by choice look upon her as a role model. Adoptive children of any nation may also look upon her as a model of an adopted child of Naomi, her mother in law, but the mother with whom she sojourned even after the death of her husband.

By Marcus J Freed

What is spirituality? In a world where teenagers are bombarded with different messages over what is meaningful, where they are being told to join various social networking websites, when there are parental pressures to have a barmitzvah or a batmitzvah, and when puberty is beckoning, the idea of spiritual choice can be confusing!

See also:
- Spirituality for Adults
- Spirituality for Kids

By Julian Voloj

Cuba is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its revolution. Along the streets of Havana, there are banners with inscriptions such as La Libertad No Se Puede Bloquear (“Freedom can’t be blockaded”), and many buildings are decorated with brand-new portraits of the revolution’s heroes, including, most notably, Fidel Castro, who has now stepped down as Lider Máximo, and Ernesto Guevara, the legendary Argentine doctor commonly known by his nickname, “Che.” How is life for Jews in Cuba today? Un milagro, “a miracle,” is how Jaime Gans Grin sees it as well, “all this is a miracle.” You probably can’t find a more accurate description for the rebirth of Jewish life in Cuba.

“Jews must gather, not because they are friends or even because they agree but simply because they need each other to go on being Jews…” - Lawrence Kushner
This project indulges in the fantasy of creating a ‘perfect’ community and what it might look like! It explores how positive Jewish experiences can happen when existing community life can be perceived as stifling and uncreative.

By Marcus Freed

“I am the Lord thy G-d, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6)

Our G-d intervenes in history and does so in order to free us, so that we can shape our own history, which is, Jaime Barylko maintains, “the story of what we do with our freedom in private life, in society, in national affairs.”

By Judith Berinstein