Seder foods (Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Jonathunder)
Passover is the one Holiday besides the New Year which is celebrated by a majority of all Jews from around the globe. The preparations for this Holiday very often drive people nuts. The commandment is not to have any leavened product in your home during this 8 day period; this means that the house must be cleared of bread and all other such foodstuffs. And that’s on top of cleaning and cooking in preparation for the family gathering. Especially with small children in the household, it’s not hard to see why people get a little crazy at this time of year! Continue reading →
On the evening of Friday, March 30th, 2018 Jews of all ages, shapes, sizes, and denominations will gather together to celebrate the first night of the holiday of Pesach (Passover).
Navigate through the waves of predatory publishers with Cabells Scholarly Analytics!
We recently subscribed to a database called Cabells Scholarly Analytics. The library acquired it because there is a need for a resource that provides listings of legitimate academic journals and fraudulent journals all in one place. Now, let’s take a closer look at this database. Continue reading →
When temperatures hit the 30s °C (that’s 80s-90s °F), it’s time to leave my air-conditioned, windowless library located two floors underground in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem, and go touring.
This is how I found myself on an air-conditioned tour bus this past summer with former New Yorker and veteran tour guide Shalom Pollack, traveling through the southern Hevron hills, where the heat was in the low 40s °C (104-106 °F) in the shade!
Every four years, I am tickled with glee that the Winter Olympics have arrived. I have come to discover that people prefer either the Summer or the Winter Olympics. They can like both, of course, but they are usually more partial to one. I am definitely more partial to the Winter Olympics, which is surprising, since I hate the cold. But there is something about how winter sports make the dark, cold season cozy and celebratory that helps me make it to spring.
About 3 years ago, I took up speed skating as a way to lose weight. I learned that the activity burns 500 calories an hour. I figured if I am going to suffer through a workout, I might as well get the biggest bang for my buck. The first time I tried it, my legs felt like someone was taking a blowtorch to them. My feet were sore with blisters. And my nose was running like a faucet (ice skating makes your nose run – bring tissues). I realized this was going to be a slow buildup of my body adjusting to this new activity. I read over some books on athletic training to get an idea on how to proceed. The key was to take it slow and steady. I skated in 10 minute segments with 10 minutes of rest. Gradually, I worked up to 15 minute segments with 5 minutes of rest. Eventually I got to the point where I am at today which is a solid 90 minutes of skating with a 5 minute rest in the middle. It is amazing how the human body adapts and alters.
The following eBooks are available on sports training at Touro College Library:
But getting back to the Olympics. The Olympics has always been about more than just athletic stamina and grace. It is also an extravaganza of politics and national agendas mixing. The underlying current is about the nations of the world interacting, competing, and making statements about other nations. In a way, the Olympics is a political summit. And as the 2018 Winter Olympics wrapped up in Pyeongchang this week, we saw a thawing of tensions between North and South Korea as both nations decided to have their athletes march into the opening ceremonies under a united Korean flag. They also had a united hockey team. However, North and South Korea marched out of the games separately at the closing ceremonies leaving many to ponder the message. In addition to the drama surrounding Korea, Russian athletes had to compete under the Olympic flag due to doping scandals in their homeland. This opened a lot of discussion and controversy regarding the IOC (International Olympic Committee) engaging in favoritism and corruption. The political football of the Olympics is not new. It has been a tradition since the Olympics started.
The following eBooks are available on the politics of the Olympics:
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