What's With the Yellow Candles? Originally Published March 13-14, 2020.
The Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC) created the Yellow Candle program in 1981. The purpose is to keep alive the memory of the Six Million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. (Your correspondent also remembers the additional six or seven million Romani, gays, Catholics, and other targets of prejudice who were slaughtered.) Twenty-four-hour memorial […]
03/25/2020: Derekh Speaker Series 2020: Marra B. Gad
This series of talks by four authors from across the country is made available through the Jewish Book Council and funded by Seth Glick and Carolyn Slayton. Marra B. Gad, The Color of Love - March 25 at 7:30 p.m. An unforgettable memoir about a mixed-race Jewish woman who, after fifteen years of estrangement from […]
What Are Those Thingy-Dos in that Abbreviation? Originally Published March 6-7, 2020.
On gravestones one often sees פ״נ which stands for (essentially) “here lies.” One also may see the abbreviation (with a series of single gereshim) for “may her/his soul be bound up in the bond of life”: ת׳נ׳צ׳ב׳ה׳. Sometimes a single geresh is used in פ׳נ, too. Gershayim are also used for acronyms - as a way of letting one […]