Hilltown Families 
From our archived column, "Not Your Grandparents' Shtetl: Exploring Jewish Culture in Western MA," Amy Meltzer shares different symbols and rituals of Rosh Hashanah...
The holiday of Purim is unique amongst Jewish holidays in that two strong, independent women are at the heart of its story.
Shavuot: Celebrating the First Harvest The holiday of Shavuot celebrates two seemingly unrelated events – the gathering of the first harvest of the year, and divine revelation – the day the...
Passover: A Celebration of Freedom The central story of the Torah, the Hebrew bible, is the the long and sometimes arduous journey of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom....
Purim in Western MA Jewish heroines in the Bible are few and far between. The upcoming holiday of Purim is unique amongst Jewish holidays in that strong, independent women are at...
Tu B’Shevat: A Birthday Celebration for the Trees Last month, I wrote about the Hebrew calendar and the lunar months that make up the Jewish year. The month of Shevat began...
A Marvelous Night for a Moondance Have you ever wondered why the Jewish holidays seem to wander all over the calendar? By way of example – this year, Hanukkah coincided with...
Hanukkah in Western MA If you aren’t Jewish, Hanukkah may be the only Jewish holiday you’ve ever heard of. But in fact, it’s a relatively minor holiday. It falls into the...
Sukkot: The Backyard Harvest Festival October is the month for harvest festivals in Western Massachusetts. It seems that every weekend there are numerous joyful celebrations of the bounty that our local...
Celebrating the New Year in September The first of the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah, falls this year at the end of September. Rosh Hashanah is also known as the Jewish...
Shabbat: Friday Night Dinner I grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore. At 17, I left for college in New England. I eagerly traded sprawl for small town centers, malls for...