by Rabbi Kenneth Brander

It comes as no surprise that in a world where many neglect the importance of community, iPhones, iPods, and iPads constantly and consistently appear as the trendiest gadgets. These devices represent a culture that desires to deconstruct the power and purpose of community, placing all importance on the needs of the individual.

This post is a Part 2 follow-up to the Relationship Between Jews and Trees.

These images of the post-fire Carmel mountain were taken by Edward Kaprov, a freelance journalist, who had spent few days on the site.

Kaprov drove there, with his camera, on the first night of the fire. "It took a while," he said, "until my lungs were able to cope with an overdose of a carbon monoxide in the air."

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Is there a special relationship between Jews and trees? There must be.

Planting a tree in Israel today, even if you’re the most secular Jew in the Diaspora, is a noble act and represents a strong connection to Israel.

Fact: Albert Einstein planted a tree in Palestine.

Another tree case in history, take the famous Jewish philosopher Martin Buber in his work “I and Thou”. There, Buber chooses to talk about five types of human relations with the world through examples of human relations with tress.

By: EJP

American Jewish singer and songwriter Debbie Friedman, who changed the voice of American Jewish spirituality and prayer, died January 9, 2011 in a hospital in Orange County, California. Friedman had been hospitalized with pneumonia.

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Living in Israel, it's hard not to feel all those monotheistic religious holidays - Hannukah and Christmas, Passover and Easter, Ramadan and Yom Kippur, New Years and Sylvester....  What I love about holidays in general, aside from the ones where we're starving ourselves and/or atoning for sins, is they're a time of joy and thankfulness.  A reminder of that cyclical cycle that is life on the roller-coaster of our yearly calendar. 

One of the entries for our crowdsource project was from a Leadelite (who in the mean time will remain anonymous), but she made some good points.  Observe...

By Ines Astrug

Ines Astrug who lives in Munich, Germany, is a leader of the Mifgash Program at Janusz Korczak House, bringing together Jewish/Israeli Young Adults for socialization, education and awareness. 

I am an avid traveler but Germany was never on my top ten list of places to visit. It wasn’t even on the top 20 list. However, I was sent by the Jewish Agency to promote a conference via social media for 350 Russian-speakers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that we had organized marking the 150th anniversary of Theodor Herzl’s birth. For many Jews Germany triggers many emotions, but even more so for me because my father was born there, in a displaced persons camp, after the Holocaust.