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It turns out this is what a mature esrog looks like, and the lemon-size fruits we're all used to are baby esrogim, picked at...

First baseman Nate Freiman hit two home runs as Israel beat Spain 4-2 in the qualifying round of World Baseball Classic, putting the Israeli...

The spectrum of special-needs children ranges from mental to physical to psychological and sometimes all three. A 2008 study by the United States Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 14 percent of children in this country fit into this category, and about 20 percent of families have at least one special-needs child. The definition of a special-needs child can range from one who is diagnosed with a mild learning disability to one who has a life-threatening condition, such as cystic fibrosis. This article will focus on the more severe categories.

Dear Dr. Yael: My husband and I are, Baruch Hashem, happily married for five years. But there is a stumbling block constantly facing us.

Rosh Hashanah memories take us to our shuls, homes and families. They remind us of promises made about how we would change our lives and rearrange our priorities. There may also be memories of the delicacies we ate when we were children – the chicken soup, gefilte fish and great desserts. And one sound, the sound of the shofar blasting away with its shrill notes of tekiah, shevarim... and finally the long, very last sound – the tekiah gedolah.

Warren Weinstein, 71, is an American aid worker who was kidnapped more than a year ago in Pakistan. Now he is asking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help in his release by acquiescing to al-Qaeda's demands.

One inevitable fact I have learned after almost 20 years here is that tomorrow will come, as planned, as designed, no matter what I do.

When you are sick, do you go to the doctor, or the student of the doctor? So why go to Uman where Rebbe Nachman is buried, when you could go to the cities in Israel where his teachers are buried?

The Gaon, Reb Nachum devoted all his time, day and night, to collecting money for charity and helping the poor. The vast majority of the people thought so highly of Reb Nachum that they would deduct a fixed amount of their income every week and give it to him to distribute it to the poor. But there was always the exception, some people just tried to avoid contributing.

Kids are going back to school, and that means getting them up earlier and trying to get them to eat breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Research has shown that children who regularly eat breakfast have better test scores, better behavior and are less hyperactive than children who skip breakfast.

For some of us trying to cut corners is not just something we do to save a few cents, it is practically an obsession. While we may have our little tricks designed to shave a few dollars off our grocery bill and squeeze a penny so tight that it screams for mercy, we each have our own little indulgences, the things we absolutely refuse to do just to save a few pennies. Let’s hope that none of my immediate family members read this column because I am about to share some of my personal secrets and they just might disown me.

You brightened my life when you entered my world My child, my treasure, my glittering pearl. I held you and rocked you, safe in my arms Dreaming I’d keep you safe from all harm.

A double Hachnasas Sefer Torah celebration, recently held at Shaarei Torah of Los Angeles, began with the kesivas osios at the home of Regina Rechnitz, the Rechnitz family matriarch. The writing of the final letters was followed by a large procession through the streets of Los Angeles to the Shaarei Torah shul, home of the new Sifrei Torah.

Guma Aguiar, a Florida businessman and philanthropist who went missing in June, left his tefillin on his abandoned boat.

When I said I wish someone had been there to tell me all the things I know about Judaism now, I was wrong. There were people who would have told me, had I been brave enough to ask. I have had many amazing influences in my life - my siblings, friends, families in my community. Now, looking back, I can see the effect that they had on me. But when I was fourteen and feeling like I didn't fit in, I didn't think anyone would understand.

From far away, it may seem surprising that Israelis still continue to seek normal relations with the Arabs with whom we share so many aspects of life. Anyone in doubt about this needs simply to walk into any Israeli hospital.

"The blood of the Oslo murdered is a thousand times more dear to me than the tears dropped for the one who killed them, with help from the Arabs."

Israel Army Radio reports that the army has completed distributing eviction notices to the residents of Migron. One resident announced that he will not...

Dear Readers The grass is always greener on the other side. Or is it? Below is a fictional illustration of this human foible – focusing on the perceived benefits in another person’s life while failing to appreciate your own.

Levi Aron, who killed and dismembered 8 year old Leiby Kletzky in July 2011  pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing Kletzky, in return he...

I felt ill at ease in a strange way when our daughter drove off in our old Dodge Caravan to pick up my son from yeshiva. She was new at the wheel, and there was plenty of traffic to maneuver around in Lakewood on Friday afternoons. An innocent, precious neshamah in my eyes who didn’t belong on the busy roads, she wanted to help out. So when I was called later to the scene of the accident, the One Above seemed to confirm that my assessment had been totally accurate.

Delegates to the Republican Convention have been pouring into Tampa for the last several days. The delegates have been pouring in, but thus far, despite predictions that Hurricane Isaac might bring with it heavy rain and driving winds, there has been 'nary a cloud in the sky. Lynne Kessler Lechter serves on the National Women's Committee of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Lechter told The Jewish Press that on Saturday night she attended a dinner for Republican Jewish Coalition leadership at the home of Ambassador Mel and Betty Semble...

The world is not a safe place, is the bottom line of what our State Dept. wants you to know. But if you insist—heaven knows why—on leaving your safe bedroom and risk setting foot in one of those awful places you hear about in the news, there's a lot you need to know. Travelers can become victims of crime and violence, or experience unexpected difficulties, says the special page titled "A Safe Trip Abroad" on the DOS website.

The focus of a wedding and its source of simcha changes as one ages.

Articles in the media are recommending a certain kind of “conversation." In an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2010, Michael Vitez describes in detail how a palliative care team brought a family into a comfortable living room for repeated discussions about their mother who had been hospitalized for confusion and falling. Over and over again, they were offered the choice of discontinuing her “aggressive" medical care, but the family held out. They continued her medical treatment.

Dear Dr. Respler: I wish to share with your readers and you what I did to enhance my marriage through the use of your suggested...

As Rabbi Meyer Waxman discusses elsewhere in this issue, more elderly parents are being forced, by circumstances, to move in with their adult children, as are more young adults who find themselves compelled to move back into their parents’ home. More adults have become part of the sandwich generation, as members of the six million American households today that span three or even four generations.

On August 1, the biggest Jewish American event ever took place – the completion of the daily learning of the entire Gemara, which happens once every 7 and a half years, known as Siyum HaShas – filling of 90,000 seats at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. However, a significantly smaller, but just as intriguing group celebrated the event in skirts, scarves and a spirit of sisterhood in Jerusalem.

Ah, the joys of August. Whether it is from a farmer’s market, a roadside stand, your own backyard or even the produce aisle of your local supermarket, there is no doubt that now is the time to feast on the freshest and most delectable offerings of the year. But while many of us consider late summer to be prime time for enjoying the simple goodness of nature’s bounty, for one of the most respected names in the kosher cooking world, simplicity is the name of the game all year around.

Dear Readers: The following short story is fictional. However, many of you will surely nod your heads in agreement as you recognize people you know - perhaps yourself - in the characters I have described. I hope in future articles, to touch on what I believe are the various psychological factors that contribute to the shidduch crisis.