Week in Review: November 19th, 2010

Shabbat Shalom! The Festival of Books and Culture gives way. . .to the Festival of Lights, with a brief break in the action for the Festival of Thanksgiving.

One of our teachers is Joel Lurie Grishaver, of Torah Aura Productions. We thought of him this week, as materials from Torah Aura are included in the Taste of Chidush book (released this week by 18 Pomegranates Foundation at the Chidush event). In his book 40 Things You Can Do to Save the Jewish People, we always loved this one:

10. Make Kiddush and ha-Motzi on Thanksgiving.

It is important to treat Thanksgiving as a Jewish Ritual Meal and thereby blend Jewish and American values into a single expression.

When the Pilgrims were gathering that first fall harvest in their new land, they went back to the Bible and found their own way of bringing the Sukkot ritual alive. Thanksgiving is nothing more than a Pilgrim version of a creative Sukkot celebration – add the popcorn and cranberries, take out the lulav and etrog, and you get the picture.”

In our home we have a traditional braided pumpkin challah. We’ve outgrown the tortilla teepees and other crafts, but this one sits (along side herbed pullapart bread, a recipe from the old days – you know, the 70’s) as a central part of our Thanksgiving table. What are your Jewish-Thanksgiving traditions?

Back to Chanukah. This week we launched a series of articles about gift-giving. Though focused on “8 Gifts for 8 Nites,” each includes a “Shamash Candle” gift idea – ways we can be of help in the world.  We expect to be inundated with “Black Friday” noise over the next week, which seems all the more pressing with Chanukah only a few days later. Yet at the same time, there are many opportunities for alternative gifts and ways to support those in need in our community. Please keep those less fortunate- and the agencies and programs that serve them – in your gameplan.

If you are traveling, have a safe journey, and keep up with the news here by visiting the Boulder Jewish News website and by subscribing to the Daily Email. The daily email brings headlines each day – no more than once a day and not on Shabbat.  And that email is just the headlines with a brief excerpt about the story – that’s not the whole story! Clicking the link to the website brings the full story. Click on the “Home” link (upper left) to see the full “front page.” Have you seen it lately? You can scroll down to see the main stories of the week.  Explore a little – you’ll find the Community Calendar, a special Chanukah page, a year’s worth of articles at your fingertips, and even links to other resources on the web. The list below links to the articles of the last week, but articles from past weeks are still available online.

Finally, we are thankful for our supporters and contributing authors, and excited to share this with you: Boulder Jewish News was recently accepted by Google as a News site.  One of the more direct impacts of this is that overall site traffic has about doubled in the last month – over 4,000 unique visitors. We’ve seen nearly a 50% increase in unique visits from the greater Boulder area (Louisville, Lafayette, Longmont, Broomfield and Westminster). Don’t be shy – tell a friend about BoulderJewishNews.org!

Thanks for reading!