On the 13th of Kislev (the Jewish month when Chanukah takes place), I was 9 months pregnant with my third child. I woke up in the middle of the night confused, sweating, and very stressed. I tried to get my husband up to tell him about my dream, but he was more interested in sleeping […]

Their Mission: Prepare 1,500 Kosher Meals, Send to Antarctica It seemed like a dream job for a young Montreal caterer: provide all the meals for what was billed as the first organized kosher Antarctica cruise. When the American tour operator contacted Shua Lurie of L’Orchidée Traiteur, a kosher catering company in Montreal, about eight months […]

Chanukah is a time of revolution.  At the first Chanukah, the Maccabees led a revolution to preserve Judaism against the Hellenists. Then, hundreds of years later, on Shabbat Chanukah of 1915, a poor Hasidic woman started a new revolution to preserve Judaism. This revolution would spark one of the greatest innovations in Jewish life. Her story […]

Would you set out on an important road trip if you only had enough gas for the first 20 miles and no forseeable way of filling your car up for a week? If you were a Maccabee you would. I recently started wondering why the Jews decided to light the menorah with the paltry sum of oil they found. Why bother lighting an eternal light that you […]

What’s it like to be Jewish and work at Google? While the holidays are often celebrated by the “Jewglers,” as they are known, Chanukah is particularly special. Google itself has shared photos from its offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Mountain View and Dublin, showing employees celebrating the holiday. Menorahs are displayed, made of cool […]