A Cartis Bracha from JCCenters.org

With best wishes for a happy and healthy 5768!

A Book Of Quotations For Semites and anti-Semites Authors: Ksenia ILKINA, Vyacheslav KOLESNIKOV, Polina MOLOTKOVA, Vladimir SHESTAKOV, Marina TULSKAYA

Third article about the debate around the book of the russianintellectual Alexander SOLZHENITSIN.

A Cartis Bracha from JCCenters.org - 5769

Our wishes for 5769 are illustrated in this Cartis Bracha for our readers.

A few tips to encourage the emergence of “meaningful conflicts”

Conflict avoidance is most frequently the topic when conflict in organizations is discussed. At first sight, this seams reasonable, but avoiding the conflict does not solve it –it just postpones it.

About traditions and ruptures

JCCenters.org interviewed Dr. Eleonore Lappin, Researcher at the Institute for the History of the Jews in Austria (Institut für Geschichte der Juden in Österreich)

Action, Being and Kehila

Ontological Coaching as a learning tool.

By F. Grosman for JCCenters.org

“ Decisiveness is action. For him whose knowledge is greater than his actions is like a many-branched tree the roots of which are few; the wind comes along and uproots him and overthrows him.” Hillel

Amidst the Darkness, A Celebration of Light?

By Dr. Debbie Weissman for JCCenters.org

Jews throughout the world, of many beliefs and persuasions, celebrate Chanukah by lighting candles. Are they celebrating the same festival? What is the deeper meaning of the Chanukah light.

Among questions and transformations

PESACH

By Lili Furman

An Alternative Midrash on the Origin of the Maccabee Rebellion

By Lili Furman, for JCCenters.org

A midrash on Chanukah sheds a different light on the events that may have triggered the insurrection of the Hasmonean house.

An Article and Four Basic Kushiot (Questions)

By JCCenters.org

The ceremonial Seder feast of Pesach (Passover), governed by the reading of the Haggadah, appears incomprehensible and confused to many readers. The text and its presentation seem incoherent or, rather, disjointed at times. This article is an attempt to bring the ritual of Passover and the Haggadah nearer to people who are inhibited by that kind of joining together of scenes and texts.

Approaching the Jewish New Year

By Dr. Debbie Weissman for JCCenters.org

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur dramatize important changes for us humans: from changes in season, climate, and (in olden times) agricultural activity to the personal and collective changes that we try to bring about through teshuvah and collective prayer. The author suggests that we take this thematic journey to find the valuable and unique meaning of our celebrations.

Ask! – The Significance of Asking Questions on the Seder Evening

By Sandra Anusiewicz-Baer

“Why do you Jews have to answer every question with another question?” “Why not?” This Jewish joke is frequently told. To apply this saying in reference to Pesach, we could slightly change the wording of the joke: “Why do you Jews always have to ask so many questions?” Consequently, this would be the answer: “Why do you want to know?”

Attitudes Ghetto and Non-ghetto

By Pablo Hupert
The term ghetto I understand in a lax way, comparable (in a strictly sociological sense) to endogroup. Thus, “outside the ghetto” can mean outside the religion, outside of the club, outside of any institution, outside the Jewish State, outside the country, etc. I understand ghetto both in a symbolic and physical sense, thus, I think of this being outside the ghetto in both the symbolic and physical sense. When I ask how to be a Jew outside the ghetto, I am asking what it is to be a Jew standing symbolically and physically outside the ghetto, standing culturally and geographically outside the ghetto. Here there are two paths we can follow: one is that of restoration, the other, of creating.

Third speech in the series: “Growing Up in the Ghetto, Growing Up in the World” - The Third International Conference of Intellectuals.

Auto-perception, sexual understanding / awareness and body sensitivity of boys and girls

What the girls and boys would like to be like....

What subjects in school they liked...

How do they get on with each other...

What questions do they have about the body and sex...

Avoiding Avoiders

In pursuit of a commitment to results in community work

By F. Grosman for JCCenters.org