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A Time to Remember

During four holy days each year, many Jews recite the Yizkor prayer for the deceased. Yom Kippur marks the first holiday during the Jewish year where we honor the deceased with this prayer. Many believe that by reciting Yizkor on Yom Kippur, it helps achieve atonement for those who have passed. This prayer, and its meaning, is known to bring many to temple, providing mourners deep meaning and intention during the high holy days. Read here for some of Tablet’s stories about the memorial prayer.

THE TAB VOLUME 2

The Tab is our curated weekly digest that collects recent articles, recipes, an insert from The Scroll, and more.

Download Vol. 2, Issue 34 here

The Temple of Zoom

Even though in-person services have resumed, synagogues across the country say remote options are here to stay

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Temple Micah held Shabbat and holiday services in its sanctuary, while simultaneously livestreaming for remote attendees. But in March 2020, when the world entered COVID lockdown, the 670-unit Reform synagogue in Washington, D.C.—like non-Orthodox synagogues across America—quickly moved congregational life to Zoom to keep congregants engaged and maintain community. Since reopening its doors after the pandemic, Temple Micah has upgraded its technology: A sophisticated system incorporates livestream and Zoom for Shabbat and holiday services, enabling worshippers to recite an aliyah or lead the congregation in prayer over Zoom. Adult education, lunch and learn, guest lectures, as well as committee meetings—including the annual congregational meeting—are hybrid, both in-person and over Zoom. “Adult education has increased since COVID. Zoom offers possibilities for reaching people because they live at a distance, do not wish to drive, or are simply more comfortable at home,” said Rabbi Daniel Zemel, who envisions using Zoom for many years to come, including in areas not yet imagined. “Zoom is here to stay and I think it is very important.” Nor is Temple Micah alone. The Synagogue Studies Institute reports that 85% of respondents to its 2023 FACT/EPIC survey offer online worship, versus 24% before the pandemic. Meanwhile, 70% of respondents—representing Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist congregations across the U.S.—expect to still offer an online/virtual worship option in five years; more than 59% use Zoom for study sessions and approximately 60% for administrative meetings. ...

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Tablet talks about Judaism a lot, but sometimes we like to change the subject. Maggie Phillips covers religious communities across the U.S.—from Christians to Muslims, Hindus to Baha’i, Jehovah’s Witnesses to pagans—to find out what they’re talking about.

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Hebrew School

Family

Season 3, Ep. 9: Join contestant Betzalel on our kids game show podcast as he plays three games and challenges all about family

March 13, 2023

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Unorthodox

Talking the Talk

Ep. 380: Linguist Deborah Tannen on ‘cooperative overlap,’ Peoplehood founder Julie Rice on creating community through conversation, and Mitchell Silk on communicating across languages and cultures

September 21, 2023

Zionism: The Tablet Guide

The definitive guide to the past, present, and future of modern Judaism’s most fantastical and magnetic idea—and the West’s most explosive political label.

Read more, and click here to order the book.


Roundtables on the state of the American Jewish community, bringing together people from a shared demographic or background—everyday people with personal opinions, not experts who earn their salaries discussing these issues.

On Abortion

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An Unwed Woman of Valor

In My Mother’s Wars, Lillian Faderman recalls her single mother’s frustrated efforts to save her family from the Holocaust

March 11, 2013

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Photographic illustration by Barry Downard/Debut; portait of Black: Nechama Jacobson; original photo of Bob Dylan © Barry Feinstein Photography, Inc. Used with permission from The Estate of Barry Feinstein
Photographic illustration by Barry Downard/Debut; portait of Black: Nechama Jacobson; original photo of Bob Dylan © Barry Feinstein Photography, Inc. Used with permission from The Estate of Barry Feinstein
The New Jews

A montage of iconic moments from the Jewish past points the way to a Jewish future—one driven by a generation of new voices

At least Ruth didn’t have to fret about social media. The only thing this Moabite woman, arguably the world’s first convert to Judaism—and ancestor of one King David—had to do was hold on to her mother-in-law and promise to go whither the older woman went. She wasn’t expected to share photos of her challah rising on Instagram, defend Israel on Twitter, bare her soul on Substack, or cultivate small communities of followers on Facebook. Her journey was decidedly private, intimate, all but forgotten if it weren’t for the Bible’s author peeking in and recording the grandeur of her experience for posterity. Today, we have a new class of Ruths, only this time many of them are trying to negotiate some of the most profound and pressing questions facing Jews—about identity and belonging, about money and politics, about making friends and losing faith—along with public or semipublic profiles. They are new Jews, but—if we are lucky—they will be among the most important Jews in the coming years. To illustrate the role we believe Jews-by-choice are increasingly playing in the American Jewish future, we matched each of our interviewees with an iconic image from the recent American past. Because every religious evolution is a conversion—every day brings with it the possibility of changing in ways until now unexpected—the stories these men and women tell us are particularly meaningful, and their wisdom so keenly appreciated. There are, to be sure, many more who share their trajectory, but here, in their own words, are some thoughts from these visible and inspiring people making their journey back home to Judaism. ...

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An ‘Unorthodox’ Celebration of Conversion

Listen to five years of deeply moving personal stories, audio diaries, and reported segments about Jews by choice around the world

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It’s August, and everyone is on vacation

August is here. Before we know it, school will be back in session, and we’ll be cooking for the Jewish holidays. Read up on Tablet’s stories about summer before you head out on your own.

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