On the holiday of Shavuot, the Scroll of Ruth is read, in which the two main characters are a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law. Their bond, which runs counter to the well-known stereotypes, invites us to analyze issues related to our family life: how do we construct our own relationships with our “new family,” with the in-laws, the mekhutonim? What kinds of crises arise? What unites us, and what separates us?
The three suggested lessons invite us to discuss these and other questions, while at the same time engaging in a deep and personal reading of the text of Ruth and the commentaries on it.

by Dana Pulver

A fictitious tale based on the symbols of the Festival of the First Fruits (Shavuot)

Like a bride with her groom on their wedding day, There were lights and shofars and celebrations gay, With His voice upon the wind, the mighty Lord then Gave us his commandments, of which there were ten. Just to inform you on what the Laws contain, They tell us all the things from which we must refrain.
(excerpt)

by Razia Mizrahi

Jewish Veterans of the Soviet Army in Present-Day Germany

This paper seeks to investigate the tensions between identities, history, and memories in one group of Jewish veterans of the Soviet Army and above all the conflicts these tensions generate in Jewish communities, as well as in the veterans’ confrontation with German society and in some of their ways of remembering the World War Two. This is only a preliminary, qualitative approach based both on interviews and on the observations the authors made in years of daily work in Germany’s Jewish communities.

by Liliana Ruth Feierstein and Liliana Furman

From the Torah’s 70 faces, we choose five to highlight for this Shavuot...

By JCCenters.org