Ann Dee Lee, a spokeswoman for the temple, said Harris starts her new job today.

Harris (pictured) comes to Oklahoma City from the Kansas City, Kan., area, where she was education rabbi at  Beth Torah, a  congregation in Overland Park, Kan.

In addition to several events held to say “shalom” to Harris as she prepared to leave Kansas for Oklahoma City, the Beth Torah congregation is honoring Harris by creating  a special poetry collection to be housed in the Beth Torah library. 

“She will be missed greatly, but we are very pleased to see her move on to being able to leave a congrgation and bring all her many talents to another Jewish community,”  Beth Torah Rabbi Mark Levin told the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. 

Look for more information about Harris and her new post soon in The Oklahoman.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor 

She talked about her new book ”Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War” in which she shares that she was raised Roman Catholic but found out that her family is Jewish and many of her family members died during the Holocaust.

See the segment here:  “Madeleine Albright Reflects on a Childhood During Wartime” 

By the way, I’m reading “A Wrinkle in Time” again as this is the book’s 50th anniversary. How did I not catch all the religious symbolism before? As a kid, maybe I just wasn’t able to put it all in context.

Anyway, I’m enjoying it again. I do plan to pick up “Prague Winter” and read it as well.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

The eight-day Jewish holiday begins at sundown tonight.

This video, found on the Aish.com website (a Jewish content site), shares the story of the Israelites flight from Egypt to freedom in a most unique way — which is what Passover is all about.

Hint: If you like Queen’s 1975 classic “Bohemian Rhapsody”  and the Muppets, ,you’ve got to see this video: “Passover Rhapsody.”

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor 

Most Jews consider Yom Kippur the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown today and ends at sundown Saturday.

The day is called the “Day of Atonement” and generally concludes the High Holy Days, the 10-day time period that begins with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

The Jewish faith community still have many other holidays that will be observed soon, such as Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Wednesday. Known as the festival of tabernacles, it is a seven-day holiday that is biblically based. The holiday is a time to give thanks for God’s care of the Jews during 40 years in the desert after they departed Israel and for the fruits of the harvest.

Look for my column in Saturday’s Life section about how the Oklahoma City Jewish faith community find meaning in giving back for the High Holy Days.

Look for more information on Sukkot in next week’s Oklahoman.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

I love music and I stumbled upon a holiday-themed music video that has gone viral.  This “Rosh Hashana Rock Anthem” is cute and engaging so have a look.

Also, here is an interesting tidbit about Rosh Hashana for the social media fans out there. The Jewish New Year kicks off a season called the High Holy Days. This is the 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. 
——-

A Tweet New Year

The first contemporary online synagogue, OurJewishCommunity.org, is tweeting the High Holiday services — Roshanah Sept. 28029 and Yom Kippur Oct. 7-8.

Hundreds of tweets will be sent out from the Twitter accounts of the online congregregation (@JewsOnline) and one of its rabbis, Laura Baum (@rabbi) during the evening and morning services.  The tweets are to come from the liturgy that is used during the services, which also may be downloaded as a PDF.

“We’re rabbis who actually encourage people to talk during our sermons,” Baum said in a news release. “We want those attending our services online to chat with each other using social media. It’s great to see people engaging in conversation with each other.” 

For more information, visit www.OurJewishCommunity.org.

I visited Camp Chaverim, the summer day camp operated at Temple B’nai Israel and coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City. 

I got there just in time for lunch and the youths were being treated to the blintzes with today’s meal.

It’s all because of Shavuot, the Jewish holiday commemorating the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelities.

By tradition, many Jewish families eat dairy products and foods made with dairy products during this time.  This custom is related to the verse in the Torah that says the Lord gave them the land of milk and honey. Besides blintzes, cheesecake and ice cream are favorite treats during Shavuot.

Marcy Price, programs director for the Jewish Federation, coordinates Camp Chaverim each summer. She said the campers will have ice cream sundaes tomorrow in conjunction with Shavuot.

Look for more information on Camp Chaverim in a future edition of The Oklahoman.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

It is the holiday commemorating the anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The holiday ends at sundown June 9.

Shavuot is also known as the Festival of Weeks, celebrating the harvest season in Israel.

Holidays on the Net says shavuot means “weeks,” refering to the timing of the festival which is seven weeks after the holiday of Passover.

OK, where does the cheesecake come in?

Well, Jewish faith community members traditionally eat dairy-filled items like ice cream, cheesecake and blintzes during Shavuot for a variety of reasons. The most notable is because of the phrase in the Torah that says the Lord gave the Israelites the land flowing with milk and honey.

So many Jewish families will likely feast on cheesecake, my favorite dessert by the way, tonight or at some point during the next couple of days as they celebrate Shavuot. 

For more information, about Shavuot, visit Holidays on the Net.

I’ve also included some links to interesting commentary on the holiday:

HuffPost Religion: “Finding the Divine in Community on Shavuot”

HuffPost Religion: “Shavuot: Love Letters From a Cosmic Marriage.”

Tackling Torah blog: “Shavuot: Torah and Technology”

And finally, I thought this one was really interesting from Busted Halo: “Pentecost, Shavuot and the Overlap of the Christian and Jewish Traditions”

Last but not least,

Part of being religion editor means I attend many functions in which food is served.

Poor me. Tomorrow, I’m attending a Shavuot event in which they will have blueberry blintzes.

Can’t wait.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

I had heard that some sort of prayer ritual caused a lot of concern on an airplance the other day, so much so that a security alert was issued.

I heard the words “prayer” and “ritual” and I didn’t know what to think.

I never imagined that it was a Jewish prayer tradition that was at the source of the heightened alarm.

Due to my job and a story I did several years ago, this particular prayer ritual would not have caused me anyconcern. But of course not everyone covers religion nor are they all privy to Jewish traditions and beliefs.

The thing is the tefillin prayer ritual is not generally known outside the Jewish faith community.

The AP brief on the recent incident is below. I’ve included some pictures that were taken by an Oklahoman photographer back in 2008 when I did a story on Tefillin. I have included them, along with excerpts from my 2008 story, so readers can get a general sense of what parts of the ritual look like and what it all means. Just a general FYI.

——–

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pilots on an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles locked down the cockpit and alerted authorities when a flight crew grew alarmed at the behavior of three men who turned out to be conducting an elaborate orthodox Jewish prayer ritual.

The three Mexican men began the ritual that involves tying leather straps and small wooden boxes to the body, and the crew of Sunday’s Flight 241 alerted the cockpit, airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.

The cockpit was placed on a security lockdown for the rest of the flight — meaning the door couldn’t be opened even for pilots to leave briefly. Normal protocol calls for the cockpit to be locked, but on longer flights the pilots will leave and return from the flight deck.

FBI and customs agents along with police and a full assignment of fire trucks met the plane at the gate at Los Angeles International Airport, and the men were escorted off.

After questioning from the FBI, the men were released without being arrested. Airline officials later learned from law enforcement the men were performing the ritual known as laying the tefillin.

———

OK, here’s an excerpt from my story about an Emanuel Synagogue’s tefillin event which ran in 2008 in The Oklahoman: 

The synagogue participated in an international program called World Wide Wrap Day to educate the congregation about the custom of tefillin. Rabbi Russell Fox (pictured above) said he hoped participation in the global initiative might encourage some congregation members to recommit to the practice.

According to Jewishvirtuallibrary.org, tefillin are two small black boxes with black straps attached to them. Fox said the boxes contain tiny parchment scrolls with Scriptures from Exodus and Deuteronomy written on them, including the verse on which the custom is based.

Fox said tefillin is based on God’s commandment in Deuteronomy 6:5-8:

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when though sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

“And though shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thy eyes.”

He said for generations, Jewish men have been required to place one box on their head and tie the other one on their arm by, wrapping them on with slender straps each weekday morning as they say their morning prayers. Fox said in recent years, some Jewish congregations such as Emanuel have allowed women to practice tefillin as well.

“The power of a ritual like this is it is something that connects you not only to all the Jews all around the world, but all the Jews that precede us. It connects across time and space,” said Fox.

The significance of tefillin, however, is that it serves as a physical reminder of a person’s loving relationship with God, Fox said.

——-

I hope that The Oklahoman has helped educate readers on some of the more obscure or lesser-known traditions in the different faith communities. I know that I have certainly learned a lot about other faith traditions, besides my own Christian faith, plus I’ve discovered much about my own faith community as well.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

Here’s something to think about: Clinton, daughter of  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, is a Christian, while her fiance Marc Mezvinsky is Jewish.

The Washington Post’s religion blog On Faith recently included postings on the issue of interfaith marriage. The blog’s diverse group of panelists answered the question “Should religions intermarry?”

Read their comments here: “Should religions intermarry?”    

(AP Photo: Chelsea Clinton talks with University of Oklahoma students after a speech given

by her father, former President Bill Clinton, in 2008 on OU’s Norman campus.)

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor  

One of my main sources of information about happenings in the Oklahoma City Jewish community, Deborah Wolraich, sent me an e-mail about several TV programs that will be aired this week on OETA Channel 13.

I thought I would share the names of the TV programs and the dates they are scheduled to air in case readers are interested. If you can’t be home to watch it, you can always set your DVR to catch it on tape.:

“Among the Righteous” is a documentary about research by historian Robert Satloff to track down and verify any instances in which Arabs aided their Jewish neighbors while Hitler’s Afrika Corps swept across North Africa. Satloff’s research turned up evidence of 100 forced labor and concentration camps in Tunisia and Morocco.

The show airs at 9 p.m. tonight, 3 a.m. Tuesday and 4 a.m. Thursday.  

“Diary of Anne Frank” airs at 2 a.m. Tuesday. The film first aired on Sunday.

“Blessed is the Match,” is a film that recounts the bravery of Hannah Senesh, a young poet.  Senesh joined an elite group of Palestine’s Jews to parachute behind Nazi lines and rescue Jews in her native Hungary.

The show airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday.

“Worse Than War” looks at genocides in Turkey, Ukraine, Nazi-occupied Europe, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

The show airs at 9 p.m. and midnight Wednesday.

Check out OETA’s programming for this week for yourself by visiting OETA schedule.