Holidays: Jewish

Shabbat Discovery Kit

This interactive guide is designed especially for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 3–8) to use together — either in person or at a distance. The kit offers ideas and activities to bring Shabbat to life through play, imagination, and hands-on discovery. The 14 downloadable pages include:…

Shavuot Discovery Kit

This interactive guide is designed especially for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 3–8) to use together — either in person or at a distance. The kit offers ideas and activities to bring Shavuot to life through play, imagination, and hands-on discovery. The 13 downloadable pages include:…

Passover Discovery Kit

This interactive guide is designed especially for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 3–8) to use together — either in person or at a distance. The kit offers ideas and activities to bring Passover to life through play, imagination, and hands-on discovery. The 17 downloadable pages include:…

Purim Discovery Kit

This interactive guide is designed especially for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 3–8) to use together — either in person or at a distance. The kit offers ideas and activities to bring Purim to life through play, imagination, and hands-on discovery. The 15 downloadable pages include:…

Hanukkah Discovery Kit

This interactive guide is designed especially for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 3–8) to use together — either in person or at a distance. The kit offers ideas and activities to bring Hanukkah to life through play, imagination, and hands-on discovery. The 16 downloadable pages include:…

Rosh Hashanah Family Reflections

Prompts for family members to reflect on their family relationships

High Holidays Discovery Kit

This interactive guide is designed especially for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 3–8) to use together — either in person or at a distance. The kit offers ideas and activities to bring the Jewish High Holidays to life through play, imagination, and hands-on discovery. The 15…

A Seat at the Table: Making Memories with Your Teenage Grandchild This Passover

Across time and geography, memory is how we Jews come to understand our past. The Torah elevates memory to mitzvah (commandment) status, for example, Remember the Sabbath day and Do not oppress strangers (remember we were once strangers in Egypt). Our tradition reminds us of our collective responsibility to memory.

Ten-Minute Dayenu Seder

Passover begins on the evening of April 22, 2024.
Once again, this night will truly be different from all other nights. Our updated “Ten-Minute Dayenu Seder” is designed for multi-generational family seders whether held in person, virtually or a combination of both.

Grandparent Ambassadors Draw in Peers with Personal Touch at JCC Detroit

This Passover, the Jewish Grandparents Network spotlights the Grandparent Ambassadors of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit. Terry Kaye, JGN’s Director of Creative Partnerships, spoke with the JCC’s Mikki Frank, Senior Director of Jfamily, and Judy Loebl, Chief Program Officer.

Interview with Dr. Erica Brown about Megillat Esther

Dr. Erica Brown’s most recent book was on Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther that tells the Purim story). JGN Co-founder and CEO David Raphael interviewed Dr. Brown shortly before Purim 2022. Dr Brown is Savti to four grandchildren. Megillat Esther is one of two…

Purim Activities to Do With Your Grandchildren Ages 3–8

Editor’s note: JGN Facebook member Andrea Gardner regularly shares practical and fun activities she does with her grandchildren. In this piece for our Purim newsletter Andrea writes about her planned activities for her grandchildren. My grandchildren are four and six years old and these are…

An Insider’s Guide to Observing Purim

“And Mordechai wrote down these things and sent missives to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Achashverosh — near and far — to inform them that every year henceforth, they should make the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month…

Grogger Reflections from a Big Ol’ Blow Hard

Editor’s Note: Purim is a holiday of wonderful joy and mirth. We wear costumes, make noise, and eat yummy hamantaschen. Among the traditions for the holiday are Purim Spiels, comical performances held in synagogues, community centers, and education programs. Please consider the musings below a…

Tu BiShvat and Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This year, Tu BiSh’vat and Martin Luther King Jr. Day fall on the same day — January 17, 2022. The convergence of these two seemingly unrelated holidays gives us an opportunity to explore two important issues of our time: climate justice and social justice. 

JGN Facebook Group Recommends Best Hanukkah Books for Kids

A member of the Jewish Grandparents Network Facebook Group asked this question in the group and got the MOST helpful responses. My 7-year-old grandson wants to share a Hanukkah book with his public-school class. The group is very diverse (think Palestinian, Hindi, Muslim, Christian) and…

Together, Let’s Save Precious Resources

As grandparents, we think about the world we are leaving our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We face the challenges of climate change and the dwindling of precious natural resources. How can we impart to our grandchildren a commitment to repairing the world even as we spin the dreidel, light the menorah, and perhaps exchange modest gifts?

Counting Latkes

“There are fifty latkes on this tray,” my 95-year-old mother says. I nod and continue peeling potatoes. My sister is frying. My niece is chopping onions. My mother spreads another paper towel on a cookie sheet and continues counting. It’s that time of year. Where…

Our Favorite Rosh Hashanah Recipes

With rich flavors from pomegranate to saffron, these Tori Avey recipes with videos offer tasty turns on traditional favorites. A memorable tzimmes has never been easier, a Persian Jewish side dish is a fragrant and savory complement, and the challah is a sweet surprise.  Every…

Tzedek Box: Repairing the World, One Righteous Act at a Time

Learn how to keep a family journal of righteous acts with the Tzedek Box. As Andrew Mandel explains, it’s a way of passing along Jewish values and commitments with a ritual that sparks introspection and bonding.  The dog days of summer mean that our Hebrew month…

How the High Holy Days Sounded 100 Years Ago

Curated by Hankus Netsky Ever wonder whether your high holiday experience sounds like the one your grandparents had? Courtesy of the internet, we can revisit some of the great High Holiday moments of the twentieth century, experiencing the passion and urgency of the classic Eastern European Jewish prayer tradition.   …

Tashlich for Children: A Ritual that Welcomes Creativity

Just Add Water: Invite your grandchildren and family members to embrace and add their own creative touches to the Rosh Hashanah ritual of Tashlich   Because the Rosh Hashanah ritual of Tashlich came late to Judaism (it dates to the 13th century), it is among…

Wonders of Taiglach: Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Dough

The sticky, nearly impenetrable mound of dough, nuts, and sweets that was once a fixture of our Rosh Hashanah holiday tables became a shorthand for the joys of the “High Holy Days.” What are today’s taiglach? How do we bring sweetness to our family tables…

Chai Mitzvah Tikkun Leil Shavuot 

Shavuot is a major Jewish holiday celebrated forty-nine days after the second day of Passover. It was originally a harvest festival, but now also commemorates the giving of the Torah. Among Shavuot traditions is to gather with friends and family for a “Tikkun Leil Shavuot”,…

Recipes for Memories

Food and fun, kitchens, and dining room tables. When we grandparents cook with our children and grandchildren, we not only share our favorite foods. We share our values, our traditions, our stories, and most importantly, our love.

Frog Tashlikh OR if a frog jumps into a pond…

Intro to Frog Tashlikh: We are taking a frog that grew from a tiny tadpole as part of an egg sac accidently dropped (we assume) by a bird into a container near my garden earlier this summer.  This event became part of our ongoing lesson…

Rosh Hashanah Books for Children and their Parents and Grandparents

The High Holy Days are upon us, and this year most of us will not be gathering with family or attending services in person. Luckily, we can still connect with loved ones by video chat to share special holiday moments on Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts,...

Interfaith Soulfulness

I sat in the Yom Kippur service listening to a baritone voice singing, “Ashamnu, Bagadnu, Gazalnu, . . .” The voice belonged to my son, Jim. Jim was leading us in confessing that we have trespassed, we have betrayed, we have stolen, we have slandered….

How Different Will This Night Be: 10 Tips for Your Virtual Seder

The greatest gathering of the Jewish year is nearly upon us and this year, the Passover Seder will be celebrated like no other. Mah Nishtanah Ha-Leila Ha-Zeh, indeed! Most translations of this famous line from the Seder portray it as a question: “Why is this night different…

The Plague and Promise of Darkness

A d’var Torah (Torah Discussion) Presented by David Raphael at Congregation Or Hadash, Sandy Springs, GA January 22, 2021 Then God said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can…

The Gift of Trees

The well-being of the world depends on our generation. How will we respond? Once upon a time, about this time every year, our Hebrew school teachers would tell us the story of Honi Ha’ma’agal – Honi the circle-maker. The story was part of our annual…

Becoming Jew-ish Grandparents

My wife, Jacquie, and I are not Jewish. We are Christians. In fact, I was a Christian pastor for forty-five years and Jacquie and I continue to be active church members. But, like you, we have Jewish grandchildren. Jacquie and I can identify with Lee…

Blessings of Grandparenting

When I was ten years old, our family saw Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway.  This was a big deal.  My grandparents, who NEVER went to the theater, came.  As immigrants from Eastern Europe, Fiddler felt like their story. The first act climaxes with a…

Grandparenting Today: Talkin’ About Our Generation

As a bonafide Baby Boomer, I like to think of myself as someone who, along with my contemporaries, is reinventing the art of grandparenting. Oh sure, my cohorts and I will bake the Cookie Monster Oreos, read Dr. Seuss and celebrate the birthdays with trips…