March Madness meets Maccabi Games

A national collegiate basketball champion was crowned Sunday at the University of Maryland, College Park, but it wasn't the Terrapins.

Nor was it the NCAA tournament that produced the champ. Rather, it was a hybrid of sorts -- March Madness meets the Maccabi Games, the first-ever National Hillel Basketball Tournament, held at U.Md.'s Ritchie Coliseum before hundreds of cheering fans. Nearly 250 players from 28 colleges around the country made up the 24 men's teams and the seven women's teams that competed in the tournament, which began Saturday night after Shabbat and concluded Sunday afternoon.

Bringing change to symbols on the seder plate

Regardless of the design or designer -- renowned artist or artistic child -- one thing remains the same for each seder plate: a designated placeholder for each of the traditional food items necessary for telling the Passover story.

For a holiday that commands Jews to remember the ancient Israelites’ exodus from slavery to freedom, are we free to adapt these food items to tell our own stories?