A grassroots effort of local volunteers is cutting and crocheting plastic bags into mats for the homeless. It’s a triple mitzvah – serving the homeless, reusing plastic bags to benefit the environment, and bringing together different groups in the Jewish community. The mats are called “Mercy Mats” and are made of crocheted plastic grocery bags. They  offer warmth and are less apt to get muddled with water and mold for people who are unhoused and need a portable mattress. In recent […]

As Rabbi David Cohen steps away, Jacobsen embraces a new beginning that she didn’t see coming  “It all started with meeting a nice Jewish boy,” said Rabbi Ora Jacobsen. “My husband!”  Jacobsen started as Congregation Sinai’s new Rabbi this month, but becoming a Jewish professional was not her original plan. She was not born into a Jewish […]

Singing “Hatikva” at the  Yom HaZikaron commemoration at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, from left to right: Eitan Ben Zeev (shin shin), Mia Ostrovsky (shin shin), Or Kashi (Jewish Agency for Israel Fellow), then seven Israeli women from the Yad Mordechai delegation – Shuli Orit- Schneider, Ziv Eldan Harrari, Sivan Chen Sardam, Shani Rieger, Ofer Hemo, Maya Derfner- Shifman and Gili Degani. Written in […]

Lauren Blumenthal teaches at Bader Hillel Academy Upon finishing her teaching certificate, Lauren Blumenthal began searching for a teaching position, with her sights set on early education in the Milwaukee area. She came across a paraprofessional position in a K-5 classroom at Bader Hillel Academy (BHA) and applied. Brad Grayvold, the assistant principal at BHA, noticed her […]

Grief and hardship, as told by a family man   Children scrambled to and fro as the sound of community filled the air at a Congregation Shalom family Shabbat, but the Seigels were in their own bubble, sitting expectantly.   “Sammy, my older one, who will turn 7 in a couple of months … [was] like, […]

One moment in the ten-year-old Repairing Together program, aimed at a better Milwaukee and a more tolerant world   MILWAUKEE – Kellen Abston, the hip-hop performer who goes by “Klassik,” told the kids that he was here today on his birthday.  He added that there was nowhere he’d rather be.  The Milwaukee showman – who infuses his work with soul, jazz, storytelling and a healthy dose of impressive falsetto – does youth engagement workshops at schools, museums, and elsewhere. This one was […]