For Jewish Students, Field Trip Is Window on Death and Dying

By Samuel G. Freedman for the New York Times

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Two yellow buses pulled away from Yeshiva High School here with a couple of class periods still left and the 77 seniors aboard giddy with the words “field trip.” They texted. They posed for selfies. They sent up clouds of chatter about weekend plans.

Then, less than a half-hour later, they walked into a cool, tiled room at the Gutterman Warheit Memorial Chapel and stared at the pine coffins and the inclined metal table used for cleaning a corpse.

“I thought I was cool about death,” one girl whispered to a classmate. “But this ——”

“This” meant more than the contents of the room, which is used at the Jewish funeral home for the body-washing ritual called tahara. It connoted the entire mini-course that she, along with the rest of Yeshiva High School’s graduating class, is taking about the Judaic practices and traditions surrounding death, dying and grief.

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Alternative Winter Break 2015

A Service Program from Young Judaea

GENERAL INFO, REGISTRATION, COSTS & SUBSIDIES

What is AWB?

AWB is a dynamic service-learning program that promotes social responsibility, volunteerism and the Jewish value of Tikun Olam (repairing the world). AWB takes participants to a community in need to engage in intensive volunteering. Participants can expect to spend 20-25 volunteer hours, which can vary from working at an elderly center to helping do light construction. AWB participants will also take part in an evening program each night to give a proper Jewish context to their experience or to better understand the community in which they are working, as well as have fun!

Where is AWB going this year?

*  New Orleans, where participants will take part in the continued rebuilding effort since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and;

* Los Angeles, where participants will tackle issues of poverty and homelessness

What is the cost of AWB and what am I paying for?

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Nominations sought for Diller Teen Awards

By Randall P. Lieberman for The Sun Sentinal

National call for nominations for Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, which deadlines Dec. 1

The California-based Helen Diller Family Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2016 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards — a program that recognizes and empowers up to 15 Jewish teens annually with $36,000 each to be used in support of a social justice project or to further their education.

This national call for nominations presents an opportunity for educators, civic leaders and teen mentors in communities across the United States to acknowledge Jewish teens whose thoughtful approach to making a difference is creating meaningful change in their communities and the world around them.

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Her Judaism Makes A Big Bang

by: Naomi Gluck for Fresh Ink for Teens

Mayim Bialik inspired me to question my religion while retaining my faith.

Editor’s Note: Naomi Gluck was a finalist in The Norman E. Alexander Award for Excellence in Jewish Student Writing. The national contest sought essays on a Jewish American who has made a significant impact in the field of television, film, music or theater. Writers were asked to identify the person’s lasting legacy on them or on American culture. The contest was sponsored by the Jewish-American Hall of Fame and The Jewish Week Media Group.

In May my rabbi announced that our shul was hiring a female clergy member. As a femi-nist, I was excited about this announcement. Then came the catch: instead of being called rabbi, she would be called “morateinu,” our teacher. It is a lovely title, but it leaves me with a knot in my stomach — it is unfair that she cannot be called “rabbi.”

I love parts of Modern Orthodoxy; I love walking into the main sanctuary and hearing everybody singing the same prayers that our ancestors sang. I love the close community that supports its members through good and bad times. I love working in the childcare program and fostering a love for Judaism in the children in my group.

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Orthodox boy is breakout star of Oprah’s new TV show ‘Belief’

By Gabe Friedman for JTA.org

Orthodox Jewish boys from Hungary are not typically a hot topic on Twitter.

But after the Sunday night premiere of Oprah Winfrey’s “Belief,” a seven-part documentary series exploring various faiths around the world, the Internet is enamored with Mendel Hurwitz, one of the show’s first subjects.

Hurwitz, now 15, hails from Budapest, where the show followed him as he prepared for his bar mitzvah. Over the course of the episode, Hurwitz displays precocious wisdom and a lovable sense of humor that endeared him to many fans.

In fact, Hurwitz was the only subject whose story Oprah herself tweeted about after the premiere.

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