News

What is Tisha B’Av?

Author

糖心vlogl

Date

July 20, 2026

What is Tisha B鈥橝v?

Tisha B鈥橝v, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is recognized as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of mourning for tragedies across Jewish history, most particularly the destruction and loss of the first and second Temple and Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago. Over the last 100 years, Tisha B鈥橝v has also become a day of mourning for the lives lost in the massacres of Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa, the pogroms of Eastern Europe, and the Holocaust.

Traditional ways to observe Tisha B鈥橝v

Throughout history, the Jewish people have mourned the loss of Jerusalem as a symbol of the loss of Jewish sovereignty and religious freedom. The traditional practices observed on Tisha B鈥檃v reflect that loss and make space for mourning, reflection, and a communal expression of grief. Here are some ways Jewish communities have traditionally observed Tisha B鈥橝v:

• Refraining from eating, drinking, listening to music, studying Torah, sitting on chairs, and wearing leather shoes. These are all drawn from traditional mourning practices that a person might observe when they lose a close family member. 
• Reading the book of Eicha, or Lamentations, as a community. Lamentations expresses the anguish the Jewish people experience during the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. 
• Spending the day in study and reflection of tragedies in Jewish history, such as October 7th and the Holocaust.听

Ways to think about observing Tisha B鈥橝v this year:

Looking for a way to connect with Tisha B鈥橝v this year? Check out the suggestions below:

• Jewish families often carry years of stories and traditions that survive, despite tragedy and upheaval. Think about speaking with relatives, family friends, or community members about their experiences over the last year or your family history as a way to connect with the historical aspect of Tisha B鈥橝v.
• What are you hopeful about for the coming year? Are there steps you can take or practices you can commit to in order to make that hope a reality?

As Tisha B鈥橝v ends and the calendar moves towards Rosh Hashanah, may the year ahead bring hope, and may our communities across the world find safety and joy in their Jewish stories.听

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Hillel Stories

Jewish History

Springboard Fellowship

Bringing History to Life for Yom HaShoah

Author

Kate Hartman

Date

April 14, 2026

Kate Hartman is the Springboard Fellow at George Mason University Hillel. In commemoration of Yom HaShoah, she shared the work she is doing to guide her students in remembering and honoring the millions of men, women, and children murdered during the Holocaust. 

When I was a student at Rollins College, I participated in a spring break trip to Krakow, Poland to learn about the Holocaust. On a cold Friday evening, my peers and I packed into the Krakow JCC with other college and Hillel groups to share Shabbat dinner together. One of these groups came from George Mason University, where I now work as the Springboard Fellow. Meeting the group that night was inspiring, and it influenced my decision to work at Mason because I could see the strong commitment to Holocaust remembrance among the students and staff. 

Now, as we mark Yom HaShoah, some of my own Hillel students have returned from a trip to Poland with George Mason鈥檚 Judaic studies department. As someone who has been to Poland and Germany to study the Holocaust, I know there is no deeper way to learn about this tragedy and mourn the victims. But I also know not every student will have the opportunity to travel abroad during college to witness this history firsthand.

This sparked my vision of creating a Holocaust education experience that felt immersive 鈥� I wanted to replicate the feeling of walking through the streets of Berlin, modeling a trip I took last year when I used professional development funds to continue my Holocaust studies in Germany. 

So, in January,  I created a gallery walk on campus of stolpersteine (stumbling stones) that line the streets of Germany and other countries affected by the Holocaust. These small, golden plaques mark where people once lived before they were taken from their homes and murdered. I recreated the streets by printing pictures of what the buildings look like, marking each with their respective stolperstein. Most of the victims who lived in these homes were families with two or three children. I researched all of them in the stolpersteine database, creating a biography for each person. Along the way, I discovered one black-and-white family photo, and a recent article about the stolpersteine being vandalized with spray paint.

One student who was moved by the gallery experience told me he felt the experiences of these victims had been lost by time. He struggled with people鈥檚 lives being reduced to a small plaque in the ground. This brought home for me why our remembrance of the Holocaust is so important 鈥� and why it鈥檚 sometimes so difficult to preserve these memories. After all, I had researched eight families and two individuals for this gallery, and only found one picture. 

Nevertheless, as Jewish people, it is our solemn responsibility to honor the lives lost in the best way we can. Paying tribute to those who were stolen from us is not just about recounting the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime, but remembering the vibrancy of Jewish life past and present, including the individuals and their stories.

This material can be difficult to process, and I heard that feeling echoed by many of my students. For me, these moments of remembrance are similar to the experience of attending a funeral. Emotions are high, and sometimes, it is hard to find the words to describe what you have seen or how you are feeling. As students filled the room for the gallery walk, reflective silence sometimes accompanied them and I let each student choose if and how they wanted to engage in discussion. 

To commemorate Yom HaShoah, we are again displaying听these materials for a remembrance event 鈥� adding candle lighting, playing the sounds of the siren, and holding two minutes of silence as is the practice in Israel.

Yom HaShoah is not only an opportunity to remember our history, but to honor the lives lost and remember each person鈥檚 story. 

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News

What Even IS Hanukkah?

Author

糖心vlogl

Date

December 5, 2025

The Hanukkah Story 101:

In 168鈥�167 BCE, the Greek Empire ruled Jerusalem. In a bid to solidify Greek religion (called Hellenism), culture, and politics, Greek leadership waged a series of violent and humiliating attacks on Jewish citizens. Jewish ritual practice and Jewish land ownership became illegal, Jewish citizens were slaughtered in city streets, and the Temple, the center of Jewish religious life at this time, was desecrated partly destroyed. In response, in 166 BCE a Jewish resistance group called the Maccabees rose up and drove the Greeks from the land.

A note on oil and light: Oil was a critical element of worship and ritual in the Temple. In an effort to desecrate everything that was important and holy to the Jews, Greek soldiers devastatingly poured out all the oil they looted from The Great Temple.

The story goes that after the Maccabees miraculously overthrew the Greeks, they found one jar of remaining oil, which was enough to provide light for only one day. The Maccabees lit it anyway, and a miracle happened: The oil lasted for eight days! This defining moment restored the Maccabees鈥� faith in God, and strengthened them enough to re-dedicate the Temple.

During Hanukkah, our homes become microcosms of the Temple. For each of the 8 nights, we gather together, light candles, and eat foods fried in oil to remember this miracle. These acts of community and ritual strengthen our resolve to bring light into the world, and to celebrate our collective resilience and unity.

Pro tip: Hanukkah is considered a “minor” Jewish holiday, not a “major” one. Unlike the holidays of Yom Kippur or Passover, for example, the source for the celebration of Hanukkah is not found in Jewish scripture. Rather, it’s a holiday observed out of tradition. Many people mistakenly believe Hanukkah is a major Jewish holiday, mostly because of its proximity to Christmas.

The core message of Hanukkah: Even when things look bad, miracles can still occur. If you fight for what you believe in, you can find strength and light in miraculous, unexpected places.

The Blessings:

Night 1: Say the blessing over the Hanukkah candles, the blessing for Hanukkah, and the Shehecheyanu

Nights 2鈥�8: Say only the blessing over the Hanukkah candles and the blessing for Hanukkah

Blessing over Hanukkah candles:

讘指旨专讜旨讱职 讗址转指旨讛, 讛鈥� 讗直诇止拽讬谞讜旨, 诪侄纸诇侄讱职 讛指注讜止诇指诐 讗植砖侄讈专 拽执讚职旨砖指纸讈谞讜旨 讘职旨诪执爪职讜转指讬讜 讜职爪执讜指旨纸谞讜旨 诇职讛址讚职诇执讬拽 谞值专 砖侄讈诇 讞植谞只讻指旨讛

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha鈥檕lam, asher kid鈥檚hanu b鈥檓itzvotav v鈥檛sivanu l鈥檋adlik ner shel Hanukkah.

Praised are You, Ruler of the world, Who made us holy through Your commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah lights.

Blessing for Hanukkah:

.讘指旨专讜旨讱职 讗址转指旨讛, 讛鈥� 讗直诇止拽讬谞讜旨, 诪侄纸诇侄讱职 讛指注讜止诇指诐, 砖侄讈注指砖指讉讛 谞执住执旨讬诐 诇址讗植讘讜止转值纸讬谞讜旨 讘址旨讬指旨诪执讬诐 讛指讛值诐 讘址旨讝职旨诪址谉 讛址讝侄旨讛

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha鈥檕lam, she-asah nisim la鈥檃voteinu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh.

Praised are You, Ruler of the world, Who performed wondrous deeds for our ancestors in those ancient days at this season.

Shehecheyanu:

讘指旨专讜旨讱职 讗址转指旨讛鈥� 讛鈥� 讗直诇止拽讬谞讜旨 诪侄纸诇侄讱职 讛指注讜止诇指诐鈥� 砖侄讈讛侄讞直讬指纸谞讜旨 讜职拽执讬职旨诪指纸谞讜旨 讜职讛执讙执旨讬注指纸谞讜旨 诇址讝职旨诪址谉 讛址讝侄旨讛.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech haolam, shehecheyanu v鈥檏iy鈥檓anu v鈥檋igianu laz鈥檓an hazeh.

Praised are You, Ruler of the World, for giving us life, upholding the life within us, and bringing us to this time.

Created in partnership with 糖心vlogl’s Meyerhoff Center for Jewish and Israel Education.

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Hillel Stories

Jewish History

Updates

Honoring A Family’s Memories with Stumbling Stones

Author

Leah Davenport

Date

April 22, 2025

Every year, Jewish communities around the world commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 27th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. This year, Yom HaShoah will take place beginning the evening of April 23. In memory of the six million Jews who were slaughtered in the Holocaust, we are honored to share this story of memory and resilience with you.

Earlier this year, I had the amazing opportunity to watch , or stumbling stones, be placed on the streets of Berlin in honor of Malie, Chaim, Ida, and Peppi Landsmann. The Landsmann family lived in Berlin from 1921 until their deportation in 1939 to a ghetto in Chrzanow, Poland. In 1942, the ghetto was liquidated, and the family was murdered at Auschwitz. 

I first learned of the Landsmanns several years ago in my capacity as a research assistant at the . I had been asked to write an article for the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina鈥檚 annual magazine, on the topic of letters from Europe sent to family members in South Carolina before and during World War II. 

My article focused on letters sent from Malka 鈥淢alie鈥� Landsmann, in Berlin, to Minnie Tewel Baum, in Camden, South Carolina. In addition to personal messages, there are also letters between Minnie and various government agencies, societies, and aid organizations, all written with the intent of helping the Landsmanns escape Europe. The tragedy of the failure of those letters and the eventual death of the Landsmann family stuck with me long after I completed the article. 

As I searched for a way to memorialize this family that I had grown connected to, I remembered learning about Stolpersteine as part of my Jewish Studies degree at the College of Charleston. Stolpersteine are small brass cubes embedded in the streets of countries like Germany and Poland that tell the story of individuals who were persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust. As of last summer, over 100,000 stones have been laid in 30 countries. I realized that this would be a meaningful way to memorialize the Landsmanns and return them to the city they loved. 

To qualify for Stolpersteine in memory of the Landsmanns, I compiled the required documentation to prove that the family lived in Berlin before the beginning of World War II. Then I carefully documented their lives during the war, up until the letters stopped. I scoured archives, eventually finding survivor testimony from Yad Vashem that stated Malie and Chaim were murdered at Auschwitz. No known records state the fate of Ida and Peppi, though it can be assumed they were also murdered.

 Then I got to work fundraising with a good old fashioned bake sale. And what better baked good to sell for this project than hamantaschen, the traditional cookie eaten on Purim? For three years now, I have organized an annual bake sale during Purim, making dozens of hamantaschen alongside my friends at Hillel and raising nearly a thousand dollars.  

Finally, I was ready to apply for the Landsmanns鈥� Stolpersteine. I heard back right away that there was a three-year waitlist, but because I鈥檓 a college student, they would move up the timeline. Eight months later, I was given an unveiling date of early March 2025.

I made the trip to Berlin with Dr. Chad Gibbs, the professor who had introduced me to the Stolperstein, and Minnie Tewel Baum鈥檚 great-nephew. We went on walking tours of Berlin and visited other Holocaust memorials before attending the stumbling stone unveiling. It was a quiet Sunday morning, and there were about 10 people present, many of them strangers, who showed up to welcome the Landsmanns back to Berlin. It was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, and a source of bittersweet emotions, knowing that no matter how much the Nazis might have tried, they did not succeed in erasing the memories of Malie, Chaim, Ida, or Peppi.

It has been such an honor to memorialize the Landsmanns and return their memories to a city where they once envisioned their future. 

Leah Davenport is graduating in May from the College of Charleston with a degree in Jewish Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. In the fall, she will pursue a Master of Social Work degree at Boston College.

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News

We Are Still Here: Traveling to Poland with Hillel

Author

Jordan Kekst

Date

January 24, 2025

University of Miami student Jordan Kekst recently traveled to Poland with other Jewish students as part of a trip organized by the Hillels of Florida, including University of Miami Hillel, Hillel at Florida International University, University of Florida Hillel, , Hillel at Florida State University, Central Florida Hillel, and . This powerful reflection from his trip was originally published on the University of Miami Hillel Instagram page, and we are honored to share it ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.听

I am an architecture student at the University of Miami, originally from Los Angeles. While I do not have a personal family connection to the Holocaust, I have always felt a deep responsibility to remember and honor those who were lost. This trip was an opportunity to witness history firsthand and better understand the impact of the Shoah, the Holocaust, beyond textbooks and museums.

Standing in Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II: Birkenau, Majdanek, and Treblinka, we walked the same paths where millions were forced to endure unspeakable cruelty. We saw the barracks designed as stables where Jews lived in inhumane conditions for years, the gas chambers where they were murdered, and the crematoriums where their remains were discarded without dignity. 

The scale of the Holocaust was incomprehensible, but it was the details, the bales of hair, the piles of glasses worn by Jews just like me, the faint echoes of lives once lived, that was truly shattering. 

One moment that has stayed with me is walking into the Yad Vashem exhibit at Auschwitz I, where videos and photos of Holocaust victims were played, showing them laughing, spending time with loved ones, and simply living their lives. Seeing their faces and joy in a place where they were murdered made the loss feel deeply personal. It was there that I truly grasped the sheer scale of the Holocaust, not just as statistics or numbers, but as unfathomable human tragedies. The weight of that realization has stayed with me every day, serving as a reminder that behind every number were stories, families, and entire worlds violently cut short, never to be fully known.

Bearing witness to their pain felt like both a responsibility and an obligation. I imagined myself in their positions. How would I have felt? What would I have done?

Yet along with this intense mourning, there was also light. As we traveled through Krakow, Lublin, Warsaw, and Kazimierz, our kehilah (community) found moments of connection, joy, and even laughter. We sang together, shared stories, and leaned on each other for support on long bus rides and in group discussions. 

This balance of grief and levity felt profoundly Jewish; tapping into a tradition that intertwines joy and sorrow, honoring the past while finding reasons to celebrate life and our combined strength.

This trip reminded me of the resilience of the Jewish people. For every life taken, there are communities that refuse to let their memory fade. For every moment of despair, there is a spark of hope. Our group left Poland bonded, not only by the weight of history, but by the shared strength of our identity.  

We are still here. We remember. We carry their stories forward. Never again. 

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糖心vlogl Scholarships

Jewish History

Jewish Identity

Carrying a Family Name and Legacy 鈥� and Building a New Future

Author

Oscar Seltzer

Date

November 26, 2024

Editor鈥檚 note: An aspect of the Thanksgiving story that strongly resonates with many people in the Jewish community is the experience of immigrants trying to create a home in a new place. This Thanksgiving, we spoke to a student whose story shows the lasting impact of seeking a new home and a new future.

I never met my grandfather, but he鈥檚 always with me.

I mean that literally 鈥� I鈥檓 named for him, and I carry that name with me everywhere I go. But I also feel his legacy in everything I do, because his choices and his bravery made it possible for me to live the life I have today.

My great-grandparents, my grandfather Oscar鈥檚 parents, fled pogroms in Ukraine in the early 20th century. They came to the Americas, looking for a safe place to raise their Jewish family.听At that time, because of quotas on Jewish immigrants, they were only able to enter Argentina, Cuba, or Mexico. They ended up in Mexico City, where my grandfather was born.听

As a teenager, my grandfather left Mexico to make a new life in the United States. When my dad tells the story, he always shares that my grandfather鈥檚 only belongings when he entered the country were the watch he got for his bar mitzvah, the clothes on his back, and one stick of salami. Once he arrived in the United States, he found a lawyer who was willing to trade his services for my grandfather鈥檚 one valuable possession: his bar mitzvah watch. So he gave it to the lawyer, and the lawyer helped him get his citizenship.

That watch became a symbol in our family, and ended up starting a tradition. My father received a watch for his bar mitzvah, and eventually, so did I. In fact, the one I received has my grandfather鈥檚 original watch band, which he was allowed to keep, and the watch face is the one he eventually replaced for himself almost 70 years ago. I wore it proudly at my bar mitzvah, along with my grandfather鈥檚 , a ritual garment. That day is still one of my most powerful memories: I was reading the Torah, wearing my grandfather鈥檚 watch and tzitzit, and bearing his name. It was like he was there in the room with me, watching his legacy take shape. 

When I finished reading the Torah portion, I hugged my dad, and cried at that feeling of connection. That moment opened my eyes to the element of my Jewish identity that I treasure the most: no matter how tough any day gets, thanks to the sacrifices of my great-grandparents and my grandfather Oscar, I have a deep connection to a Jewish community that has my back, no matter what.

My grandfather died when my dad was in his early twenties, but I don鈥檛 think he could have imagined the life I live today. He never went to college, though my father did. Today, my sister attends Harvard University, and I鈥檓 studying mathematical data, science, and economics modified with computer science at Dartmouth College. 

Jewish student life at Dartmouth is amazing, with a large Hillel community and so much programming that鈥檚 available to Jewish students. One of my favorite things to do is to stop by the Hillel offices to talk to the Hillel director 鈥� he鈥檚 a great resource, but also just asks such wonderful questions. I love the way he makes me think about Judaism and life.

听As a Hillel scholarship recipient, I feel a sense of gratitude to the organization 鈥斕齛nd knowing that Hillel is part of what makes my life at Dartmouth possible makes me feel like I really have the support of the Jewish community, like they came together to help me achieve my dreams.

When I think about my grandfather today, I sometimes wonder what he would think of his legacy. Not just what he built, through his own successful businesses, or what my dad built through his career, but what my sister and I are building through our education and our commitment to Jewish life.听

If I could talk to him today, I鈥檇 ask if he was proud of me. I think he would be. I鈥檓 certainly proud of him 鈥� and even prouder to carry his name, each and every day.

Oscar is a 2024 recipient of the Lilly E. Reiser Undergraduate Student Award, which awards eight incoming college students with up to $10,000 for every year for their undergraduate degree up to four years. Find out more about 糖心vlogl scholarships today.

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News

Anne Frank tree takes root at University of Iowa

Author

Rachel Bernstein

Date

June 9, 2022

The post Anne Frank tree takes root at University of Iowa appeared first on 糖心vlogl.