After a long and bitter struggle, an important women’s rights victory has happened in Israel: Egalitarian worship has been approved at the Western Wall!

For far too long, men and women haven’t been able to pray together at the Wall and women haven’t been allowed to pray aloud or use a Torah scroll (shocking, I know, to us American Jews who can’t even conceive of such nonsense).

While I fully respect Orthodox Jews, it’s important that all streams of Judaism, including those of us who are less religious, have equal access to worship in our own way. Just as we can worship together as a family in a reform temple, I believe we should have that right at the Western Wall—especially at such a sacred spot that’s supposed to represent Jewish unity.

This new prayer space will be funded by the Israeli government and could be built within a year. Three cheers goes to the Women of the Wall, whose tireless efforts were instrumental!

Imagine opening your front door and finding a huge box that contained this dried fruit assortment! Yes, I am still surprised that I received such an amazing gift. I love food gifts, especially fancy ones like this Harry & David delight—something I’d never buy for myself. It has the yummiest dried fruit I’ve ever tasted (pears, white peaches, dates, red plums, and apricots.) Best of all, it arrived just in time for our Tu B’Shevat Seder.

I feel so blessed that someone cared enough about me to brighten my holiday and my home, especially since the friend who sent it isn’t even Jewish and I didn’t think they even knew it was a holiday for me. Good friends truly are worth their weight in gold!

Will you be observing Tu B’Shevat this weekend? For those who aren’t familiar with this minor holiday, Tu B’Shevat is the Jewish New Year for Trees (similar to Arbor Day). Like Passover, it is celebrated with a festive Seder but this meal focuses on fresh and dried fruits, nuts, and seeds. Widely known and observed in Israel, here in America it’s not as popular (but I think it should be!)

Here are some fun ideas to make it extra special:

• Design Megillah has some wonderful menu ideas.
• Aish has 4 free coloring pages.

• If you live in a warm climate, planting a tree together as a family can be a nice activity or give small gifts of gardening seeds that can be enjoyed later.
• Create a family “tree” and teach the kids about your heritage.
• Print pictures of nature scenes and create a banner.
• Chana’s Art Room has directions to make an adorable mini terrarium.

Do you have any tips to make Tu B’Shevat special?

Unbelievable but true: A former German prison that was used by the Nazis has been converted into a 56-room hotel. Anyone crazy enough to waste their money can spend the night in a former cell while wearing hotel-provided striped pajamas!

I seriously question the mindset of anyone who thinks this is a sound idea—both the owners and the guests. Not only is this beyond tasteless, I think it’s downright barbaric. I can’t even imagine someone wanting to be in a place of such abject misery and human suffering by choice.

Similar to the folks who wanted to build a shopping mall adjacent to the Auschwitz death camp, these bottom feeders need to find some decency and stop trying to capitalize on the worst type of tragedy. Genocide and Human Rights abuses shouldn’t be a tourist attraction!

I want my readers to chime in. If you would be willing to sleep in a Nazi prison hotel, tell me why. (I’m betting nobody would!)