Rosalie Swana
Rosalie (she/her) grew up in Kensington in a family of artists and educators and has been immersed in creativity from an early age. After graduating from the Science Leadership Academy, she taught in music programs across Philadelphia before devoting herself to Jewish education. Her work in Chabad schools led her to study Hasidic music and to teach […]
TJ Zahn
TJ (he/him) grew up in Allentown, PA where he was an active member of Temple Beth El, a Conservative synagogue. He completed his degree at Lafayette College, majoring in both Philosophy and English. After six years living just outside of Boston, he moved back to his home state of PA where he plans to continue working […]
The Systematic Elimination of Daydreaming
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar A phrase I encountered this week that momentarily stopped me in my tracks is that one of the biggest challenges we face as a society is the systematic elimination of daydreaming. I don’t know if all generations experience this, or if it is just those of us who have a close and […]
Believing in Ourselves, at Every Age
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar One of the opportunities we have when celebrating a young person in our community becoming Bar Mitzvah is to reflect on: what are the core lessons one is tasked with learning when making the transition, when traveling through the passageway, from childhood to adulthood? We all, all Jews, automatically become Bar […]
Michael Hafter’s Hatan Torah Speech 5786
I grew up in a little town in New Jersey called Hammonton, which is known for blueberries — and for being the most Italian town in the country. There was a small synagogue — ninety seats. At its peak, the Jewish community in Hammonton was about twenty-four families. When my family moved there, in 1965, […]