To enter, just fill out the widget below with your email and leave a comment on this blog saying your favorite Jewish tradition. Follow ModernTribe on Instagram or What Jew Wanna Eat on Instagram for more chances to win. Good luck!
WORLDWIDE ENTRIES ACCEPTED. MUST BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER TO ENTER. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO WIN. BY ENTERING, YOUR EMAIL WILL BE ADDED TO THE MODERNTRIBE MAILING LISTS BUT YOU CAN UNSUBSCRIBE AT ANY TIME. WINNER WILL NE NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL AND HAS 48 HOURS TO REPLY TO CLAIM PRIZE OR ANOTHER WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN.
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The tradition of eating honey cake during the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah has deep historical roots. Honey, the key ingredient in honey cake, is a symbol of hope for a sweet new year. According to tradition, dipping apples in honey and saying a blessing over the honey cake are important parts of the Rosh Hashanah feast. You don't have to tell us twice to eat cake!
The earliest Jewish honey cakes were simple, round loaves of leavened bread made with honey, oil, eggs, and spices like cinnamon. Jewish bakers in parts of Eastern Europe began creating richer, denser versions of simple honey cake in the Middle Ages.
As Jewish communities became more established in Eastern Europe, bakers began creating richer, denser Rosh Hashanah Honey Cakes. In places like Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary, bakers added more eggs, oil, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to create moist, flavorful cakes. These cakes were baked in special fluted pans to create a distinctive ridged shape and dusted with powdered sugar or topped with icing or fruit.
Rosh Hashanah honey cakes made their way from Europe to other parts of the world as Jewish communities emigrated. Ashkenazi Jews brought the tradition of eating honey cake during Rosh Hashanah to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. American Jews adapted the recipes to use ingredients easily found in the U.S. and created new variations like adding coffee or chocolate to the batter.
While recipes have evolved based on regional ingredients and tastes, the honey cake remains an important symbol of hope while keeping alive the longstanding Rosh Hashanah tradition of celebrating with the sweetness of honey cake.
Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake Recipe
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Serves: 12
Ingredients:
For cake:
Directions:
Mezuzahs are an important aspect of Jewish tradition and culture, serving as a symbol of the Jewish faith and connection. These small, decorative cases are affixed to the doorpost of Jewish homes and contain a scroll with a prayer called the Shema. They also make a great Jewish gift idea for a wedding or new house or baby gift!
Mezuzahs come in a variety of styles and designs, from traditional to modern, and can be made from materials such as wood, metal, glass, and even ceramics. Some mezuzahs feature intricate designs, while others are simple and elegant.
When shopping for a mezuzah, it is important to consider the style and material that best fits your personal taste and decor. Additionally, it is important to make sure that the mezuzah you choose has a properly inscribed scroll, or Klaf, the Shema, as this is a crucial aspect of the mezuzah's religious significance.
Mezuzahs are not only a meaningful symbol of faith, but they also make for a beautiful addition to any home. They can be hung on the doorpost of every room in the house, not just the main entrance, symbolizing the home as a sacred space. Mezuzahs are also a great gift idea for Jewish friends, family, or newlyweds.
At ModernTribe, we offer a wide selection of mezuzahs to choose from, including traditional and modern designs, and made of various materials. Our mezuzahs are crafted by skilled artisans and are properly inscribed with the Shema.
Mezuzahs are an essential part of Jewish tradition and culture, and a beautiful addition to any home. ModernTribe's wide selection of Mezuzahs allows you to find the perfect Mezuzah for you. Shop all mezuzah cases and scrolls now, and bring a piece of Jewish tradition and culture into your home.
]]>Here's what you could win:
Simply enter your email using the widget below to enter. Bonus entries for following on Instagram. Winner will be chosen December 6, 2022 at 11:59 PM ET.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway time! Hanukkah is coming up, and you're going to want to be the best dressed all season long. We are spreading holiday cheer and schmear with our exclusive Tipsy Elves + ModernTribe collab! (Get it? Schmear? Bagel?) Enter to win super comfy Spreading Holiday Schmear Sweaters for the whole family! That's right, win a sweater for each person in your immediate family. Limit 6. Available in unisex adults, baby and kids sizes 6M - 5XL.
Yay! To enter, just fill out the widget below with your email and leave a comment on this blog saying what you want for Hanukkah this year. Follow ModernTribe on Instagram or What Jew Wanna Eat on Instagram for more chances to win. Good luck!
WORLDWIDE ENTRIES ACCEPTED. MUST BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER TO ENTER. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO WIN. BY ENTERING, YOUR EMAIL WILL BE ADDED TO THE MODERNTRIBE MAILING LISTS BUT YOU CAN UNSUBSCRIBE AT ANY TIME. WINNER WILL NE NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL AND HAS 48 HOURS TO REPLY TO CLAIM PRIZE OR ANOTHER WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN. LIMIT 6 SWEATERS.
]]>Challah for this Challah Pendant Necklace! These handmade 24k gold vermeil challah pendant necklaces are darling! A unique handmade piece, perfect for any Jewish carb-loving foodie.
Now is your chance to win one. Simply enter your email using the widget below to enter. Bonus entries for following on Instagram. Winner will be chosen May 16, 2022 at 12am ET. Good luck!
Maybe you are having a virtual seder again this year, or are in person. But what is Passover without an afikomen hunt? That's where we come in! Play our Virtual Afikomen Hunt from anywhere in the world and win a prize.
Here is how to play our Virtual Afikomen Hunt. Below are some clues that lead to a specific product on ModernTribe where the afikomen is hidden. You'll know you found it because the photo of the product (NOT the main photo, one of the additional photos in the listing) will be covering an afikomen. Fill out the giveaway widget below once you find it!
One random winner who found the afikomen will be chosen to win a surprise afikomen prize! Follow ModernTribe and What Jew Wanna Eat on Instagram for bonus entries. Good luck!
Clues:
No purchase necessary to win. Giveaway open worldwide. Must be 18 or over to win. All entrants will be added to ModernTribe's mailing list, but can unsubscribe anytime.
]]>Passover is coming and we are partnering with Passover.com to give away the ultimate Passover prize with everything you need! Here's what you could win:
Simply enter your email using the widget below to enter. Bonus entires for following on Instagram. Winner will be chosen April 5, 2022 and 12am ET. Good luck!
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Please use these tips at your own discretion and make sure your menorah can handle any temperature changes. And safety first with the heat! Wear gloves and be careful says our Bubbe. Let us know your tips in the comments. Happy Hanukkah!
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Yay! To enter, just fill out the widget below with your email and leave a comment on this blog saying what you want for Hanukkah this year. Follow ModernTribe on Instagram or What Jew Wanna Eat on Instagram for more chances to win. Good luck!
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This is the scroll that is put inside the mezuzah cases. It contains the Jewish prayer, the Shema, beginning with the phrase: "Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." Mezuzah cases are placed on entry doors to fulfill the Biblical commandment to proclaim the Shema "on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
It is traditionally believed that the Mezuzah scroll protects the household members physically and spiritually. It is the scroll, not the case, that is the essential holy part. Therefore, it should be clearly handwritten by a professional Israeli scribe (called a Sofer Stam in Hebrew) on a Kosher animal parchment. All these criteria make the scroll kosher.
We sell kosher mezuzah scrolls, but if you want a free printable mezuzah scroll (not kosher) for any reason, click here to download.
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Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may have seen my matzah poll: Which matzah is your favorite: Manischewitz, Streits, Yehuda, or Other?
Thank you everyone for your input. It was so fun to hear your opinions!
10 people gave their opinions: 5 votes for Streits, 3 for Yehuda, 1 for Manischewitz grape flavored and 1 vote from my sweet sister-in-law Pam for, "goat cheese with garlic and herbs on any matzah you serve." Streits seemed to have a lot of nostalgic weight and, as mentioned by Josh & Lauren, is the one "for the unleavened experience of a lifetime....."
Among friends, I have a reputation for whipping up a semi-scientific study every now and then. For our second seder I held a taste-test as an interlude between dinner and dessert.
1 Bam, 2 Crack, 8 Dot. Music to the ears of Mah Jongg players all over the world. The clacking of tiles and accompanying kibbitzing is like no other experience. American Jewish women are especially fond of the tile game. Why is that? And how do you play the social game in the middle of a pandemic? Plus, the basic rules of the game.
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1 Bam, 2 Crack, 8 Dot. Music to the ears of Mah Jongg players all over the world. The clacking of tiles and accompanying kibbitzing is like no other experience. American Jewish women are especially fond of the Chinese tile game. Why is that? And how do you play the social game in the middle of a pandemic?
(1) Remember the meaning is in the mitzvah.
It is the coming-of-age ceremony that brings meaning to the bar or bat mitzvah. Sure, you want to have a nice reception or party, but when you find yourself tempted to over-extend your budget, remind yourself: my child is becoming a member of the Jewish community, as did his/her ancestors for generations before, and this is why this day is special. When your teenager hock mier en chinik to hire the local celebrity bar mitzvah band: close your eyes, breath-deeply and chant three times:
Here are four more pointers to ease the financial burden of a bar or bat mitzvah party, without compromising on quality or fun.
(2) Be your own party planner.
If you have the time, energy, and gumption, planning the mitzvah party yourself may help you save in two big ways: (1) skipping the party planner fee and (2) exposing yourself to less pressure to spend more. You can buy a Bar/Bat Mitzvah Planner Book for around $14.
(3) Consider a reception in the synagogue hall (why not?) or community hall.
I've seen many synagogue reception halls and most of them are lovely, if not blank canvases that can be transformed by decoration into anything you wish. Another less expensive option than hotels or event spaces are community halls. For example, our old neighborhood had a big room in renovated loft space with a catering kitchen to rent for around $200 a night. The space was cool, modern and cheap. You may have a local park with a community room or a municipal building that rents the lobby space. For starters, go to local.google.com (set your location to your own zipcode) and then search for "community hall".
(4) Rent a jukebox or fill up your teen's iPod.
Consider renting a jukebox for around $300 or create your own jukebox ala iPod. Your teen can choose the music or you can download a Party Music Essentials playlist from iTunes. You may want to designate a friend or family member to DJ the iPod and make sure the sound system is set up to connect with it.
(5) Make it more meaningful through borrowing.
Borrowing Grandpa's tallis, yad or kiddush cup or Grandma's Shabbat candlesticks or Havdallah set doesn't just save you money: it is apropos. Your child's mitzvah signifies Judaism being passed down to a new generation.
Borrowing for centerpieces can be an easy money-saver. Most people have a few clear glass or crystal vases in their home. Ask to borrow from your friends and family clear vases (telling them not to loan you anything sentimental or expensive). You can create centerpieces by grouping 3-5 vases together. Unify the pieces by using one or two varieties of flowers in coordinating colors. You can buy flowers in bulk either through Costco, Sams Club, your local farmer's market or online, for example: The Flower Exchange. The picture at right is from ApartmentTherapy.com.
See more of Lalo at her website www.LaloOrna.com.
We all know how important it is bring organic traffic from search engines using great content. Using Shopify’s analytics, we noticed that our blog posts were getting a lot of traffic, but they weren’t converting into sales. Conversion rate from our homepage is nearly 11x higher! Oy vey!
We came up with a few ideas to improve this, including one idea to streamline access to featured products in a collection right within a blog post. If someone lands on a blog post about Bat Mitzvah Gifts, we want to have featured gifts right on the page that is in-sync with our current inventory. We added this tactic to our list of projects, and it was assigned to me to figure out:
Add a featured collection to the bottom of a blog post
I explored a couple options:
Was there a good Shopify app for this? | I couldn't find one. Plus, after just improving our site speed, I'm concerned that, without sufficient testing, new apps could impact site speed. |
Could I use Shopify's Buy Button template? | Yes it works, but when I tested it there was a separate cart instance that conflicted with the rest of the website. Buy buttons are really meant from non-Shopify pages, not within the store's blog posts. |
Could I develop this on my own? | Maybe! And certainly it is worth a shot. |
Here's the good news. I was able to figure it and the code is fairly elegant! The result looks like this when it’s done:
The "View More" CTA at the bottom brings the reader to the entire collection.
So how can you do it? Here are the 5 steps to take to add this to your template.
We’re using the District Shopify theme which has a section called “Featured Collection” that is used on our home page. I was able to find this code in the theme editor, but you could use another section, for example Feature Products.
The solution below uses “featured-collection.liquid” as the starting point.
Copy this code to a text editor and remove anything at or below the line “{% schema %}”.
The original code was grabbing the collection name from a user inputted setting when customizing the home page:
{%- assign collection = collections[section.settings.collection] -%}
I found a solution to use the alt-text on the featured article image, using these two lines of code:
{%- assign tag = article.image.alt -%}
{%- assign collection = collections[tag] -%}
The featured-collection.liquid code is used on the homepage and has variables from GUI theme customizer. I added variables like product count (8) and the featured collection title (collection.title) instead of a user inputted title. These changes make sure it works for any collection.
This is critical. Not every blog post will have a collection. If the alt-text isn’t populated or doesn’t have a collection associated with it, I don't want to see an error. So, I added the following to check that the collection exists and has products:
{% if collection.products.size > 0 %}
[CODE TO PUT THE FEATURED COLLECTION ON THE BLOG POST]
{% endif %}
If you have the District theme and want to use the same code as ModernTribe, paste this below this section in article-template.liquid below the following 2 lines:
{{ article.content }}
</div>
{%- assign tag = article.image.alt -%}
{%- assign collection = collections[tag] -%}
{%- assign product_limit = 8 -%}
{% if collection.products.size > 0 %}
<div class="featured-collection layout-8 lazyload" data-section-id="{{ section.id }}" data-section-type="featured-collection-section">
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="grid">
<div class="box header">
<div class="image-table">
<div class="details">
<h4>Shop {{ collection.title | escape }}</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{% for product in collection.products limit: product_limit %}
{% include 'product-grid-item' %}
{% else %}
{% for i in (1..product_limit) %}
{% include 'placeholder-product-grid-item' %}
{% endfor %}
{% endfor %}
</div>
<div class="box header">
<div class="image-table">
<div class="details">
<a href="{{ collection.url }}" class="button large outline">View more</a> </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{%endif%}
If you'd like to see this code in action, check out new products below on this blog post! Thanks for reading and please leave any questions in the comments on this post.
]]>Fair warning, I am not an expert performance engineer, just a self-taught amateur with some technical background. Not everything in this guide has been extensively tested.
Rolling my own lazyloader for scripts
Loading Klaviyo differently on a per-case basis
Hacking content_for_header and loading scripts on a per-page basis
Lazyload everything with lazysizes
Replacing the District theme Zoom functionality with Magic Zoom Plus
I came across this article that pretty much said, Shopify is based on liquid, which is a template language, no scripts need to go in the <head>, everything should go at the bottom of the body. So I was ruthless in moving third party scripts. Of course their developers want them in the head!
The only script I ended up with in the head was lazysizes, which is recommended to load immediately after CSS. That, and a few async scripts loaded directly by installed apps and by Shopify, via content_for_header (more on that in a minute).
Inline scripts should generally go after external scripts to give them a chance to start loading.
Critical CSS means loading the CSS needed to paint the above the fold view inline and then loading the rest of the CSS later. I tried a few ways of doing this, both using Chrome DevTools and some third-party tools, but I was ultimately unable to get it to work and in the end I didn’t need it. Hopefully this will become a Shopify standard in the future. So the CSS files go right at the top, under some preloads (more on that later too).
It seems like Shopify doesn’t really respect the defer tag on scripts. In particular, the Yotpo, Bing, and Klaviyo scripts (which were in my theme code) would load very early regardless of defer tags. I can’t say for sure whether this was impacting speed but it sure looked and seemed like it. I ended up taking a page from lazysizes and other lazyloaders I was working with and changed the “src=” on the scripts to “data-src=” and then used a little code to change it back after onload. I put this code near the bottom of the body:
<script type="text/javascript">function init() {
var scriptDefer = document.getElementsByTagName('script');
for (var i=0; i<scriptDefer.length; i++) {
if(scriptDefer[i].getAttribute('data-src')) {
scriptDefer[i].setAttribute('src',scriptDefer[i].getAttribute('data-src'));
} } }
window.onload = init;</script>
This worked!
In some cases code was loading through a liquid item (not sure what it’s called) like this:
{% include 'script' %}
In order to add the data-src you can just change that to something like:
<script data-src="{{ 'script.js' | asset_url }}"></script>
If you have inline code you want to treat the same, you can create a new blank asset with JS type, paste in the inline code (without the <script> tags) and then call it as above. I did this for the Bing UET tag, though that was probably not totally necessary.
The one script I could not load after onload without causing problems was Klaviyo. Klaviyo has an external script you need to call on every page, but then has inline scripts you need to add for different functionality. In particular we were using an inline script to add a “notify me when this item is back in stock” functionality. So this creates a dependency between the external script and the inline code. I tried basically everything, using callbacks, etc. It seemed to be the case that the inline code needed the external script to have not only loaded but have executed something. In the end I compromised—I loaded Klaviyo with data-src (the custom lazyload) for all pages except where an item was out of stock. For those pages I loaded it the traditional way, along with the inline code. The code looks like this:
{% if template == 'product' %}
{% assign outofstock = false %}
{% for variant in product.variants %}
{% if variant.available == false %}
{% assign outofstock = true %}
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}
{% if outofstock == true %}
<script src="https://a.klaviyo.com/media/js/onsite/onsite.js" defer></script>
<script src="{{ 'klaviyo2.js' | asset_url }}" defer></script>
{% else %}
<script data-src="https://a.klaviyo.com/media/js/onsite/onsite.js" defer></script>
{%endif%}
{% else %}
<script data-src="https://a.klaviyo.com/media/js/onsite/onsite.js" defer></script>
{%endif%}
Another thing I came to understand is that many Shopify apps load scripts onto your pages, and to make this idiot-proof they do it so that they don’t even show up in your template code. They come through {{ content_for_header }}, which is required to be in the header or the page won’t load. You can see these scripts if you inspect the page or look at the source code. Unfortunately, they load these scripts on every page, regardless of whether they’ll be required. So a script for an Instagram feed that was only on the index page was loading on every page. I didn’t see any indication that these scripts were blocking render, and they’re probably all async, but even async scripts can slow things down. I opted to remove unnecessary scripts on a per page basis.
I used some case logic to define cases for index, products, etc, and then just deleted the unnecessary scripts from content_for_header. This will break over time as scripts change, but all that will happen is the scripts will again load where we don’t need them—it won’t impact anything other than maybe performance. It’s inelegant, but at the time I couldn’t find an app to do this for me.
I used this code down near the bottom of my <head>. The capture command is basically copying the text from that (uneditable in the code editor) liquid element and letting me edit it through remove. The backslashes need to be escaped (\/).
{% capture h_content %}
{{ content_for_header }}
{% endcapture %}
{% case template %}
{% when "index" %}
{{ h_content | remove: "https:\/\/www.ndnapps.com\/ndnapps\/sociallogin\/js\/frontend\/app.20190227.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/static.cdn.printful.com\/static\/js\/external\/shopify-product-customizer.js?v=0.17\u0026shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/accessories.w3apps.co\/js\/accessories.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/app-cdn.productcustomizer.com\/assets\/storefront\/product-customizer-v2-958e943c79a0494e5cc60b88262c1f95117a47a84641e7d766853727b6cdf3f0.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com"}}
{% when "product" %}
{{ h_content | remove: "https:\/\/instafeed.nfcube.com\/cdn\/361aab2843b4bd4cb22b16ba3c8ad053.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/www.ndnapps.com\/ndnapps\/sociallogin\/js\/frontend\/app.20190227.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com"}}
{% when "article" or "collection" or "blog" %}
{{ h_content | remove: "https:\/\/instafeed.nfcube.com\/cdn\/361aab2843b4bd4cb22b16ba3c8ad053.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/www.ndnapps.com\/ndnapps\/sociallogin\/js\/frontend\/app.20190227.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/static.cdn.printful.com\/static\/js\/external\/shopify-product-customizer.js?v=0.17\u0026shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/accessories.w3apps.co\/js\/accessories.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com" | remove: "https:\/\/app-cdn.productcustomizer.com\/assets\/storefront\/product-customizer-v2-958e943c79a0494e5cc60b88262c1f95117a47a84641e7d766853727b6cdf3f0.js?shop=moderntribe.myshopify.com"}}
{% else %}
{{ content_for_header }}
{% endcase %}
I’m not really sure if this did anything but theoretically it makes sense to preload fonts so the browser doesn’t have to read through the CSS to find they are required before they start loading. We had a lot of fonts, 5-6 on each page, so I also removed some fonts in the theme editor on mobile. I also set up some preconnects where I saw connections taking a long time in the waterfall on GTMetrix. This is the very first thing in the <head>. Here is the (abbreviated) desktop code:
<link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://fonts.shopifycdn.com">
<link rel="preload" href="https://fonts.shopifycdn.com/montserrat/montserrat_n4.1d581f6d4bf1a97f4cbc0b88b933bc136d38d178.woff2?h1=bW9kZXJudHJpYmUuY29t&hmac=24456d3df8d5e9cdeba6d77a66ed60dccc934b7a8a7c791ae251523379b6471a" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin="anonymous">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://pay.shopify.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://cdn.shopify.com">
I think Yotpo may have actually changed their installation instructions to use these fast loading scripts, but I swapped them in on our product pages since we had the old ones. Seems to have made a difference.
https://support.yotpo.com/en/article/shopify-fast-loading-widgets
One problem for us was that we had a huge menu. Originally this was done with an app, but we converted it to a traditional mega-menu since the app we were using was taking a long time to load. Still, it’s a huge amount of html. So I put class ”lazyload” on the elements that were not visible on the page. Seemed to speed up the rendering quite a bit.
I ended up applying that class to pretty much everything under the fold… The footer, various sections on product pages and on the index page, the whole mobile nav, etc. Just digging through the Shopify code editor and adding that class to big blocks.
As the pages got faster I started to get dinged for CLS (content shifting). I had missed applying lazyload to one of the sections so it was rendering above the fold and shifting down. Once I added that class lazyload to the section I missed, the problem went away. I couldn’t find any mention of doing this in the lazysizes documentation but I’m assuming I just didn’t look hard enough. I see that some of the speed optimization apps are also lazy loading some of the below-the-fold sections.
So, that was a lot of work and a lot of piecing together different information about Shopify performance optimization. Still, I kept seeing that LCP was not below the 2.5s threshold on PageSpeed Insights (for desktop-- you can pretty much ignore the mobile stats since they’re based on slow 3g unless you happen to have a lot of customers with that kind of connection). I also saw that although the LCP was coming down in Search Console it was still ~3s, specifically on the product pages. Very frustrating!
I was using a browser extension to check LCP and CLS, and sometimes it would pass and sometimes not on the product pages. Turns out it was missing something most of the time.
I ended up using Chrome DevTools (actually, it was Brave DevTools) to diagnose the issue. I could see that the element identified for LCP was the main product image (as expected), but the LCP was detected quite a while after onload. In fact, it was detected quite a bit after the image appeared on the page. Very strange!
It turned out that the main product image was shifting an almost imperceptible couple of pixels to the left, well after it had appeared. I could see this happening but could not figure out why. After messing around with various settings (zoom, lightbox, etc) I still could not fix it. I decided to try installing a different zoom app (Magic Zoom Plus), in the hopes that this would override whatever tiny bug was in the theme code causing the issue. It worked!
I can now see that LCP comes immediately after the image loads on the page, and our LCP time is down in the 1.5s range for product pages on desktop. Finally!
<head>
Font pre-loading and resource pre-connecting
CSS
Lazysizes
Meta / Social Tag inclusions
Hacked Content_for_Header
</head>
<body>
Actual body content
Theme critical scripts
Scripts with data-src
Inline code to lazyload data-src scripts
Inline code required for the theme to function
</body>
I probably spent way too much time on this and did a bunch of stuff that was not totally necessary. I also probably could do more. It’s good enough. I hope this helps someone. Good luck!
]]>We are honored to chat with one of our favorite Judaica artists today: Marla Wallerstein of MarLa Studio! Her jewelry is edgy and soulful, made from strong metals and leather. Perfect for both men and women to show their style and Jewish pride.
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One year of Zoom Seder would have been enough (dayenu!) but many people arehosting virtual Passover again! But how do you even host a virtual seder?
Next year in Jerusalem! But this year, Passover will be at home for many again.
Just because it's different, does not mean your Seder has to be less special. Passover is a time to remember what we have overcome in the past, and also appreciate what we do have. If you have food, shelter, and health, you are lucky.
We are planning on hosting a virtual Seder open to all. Click here to RSVP. But if you're interested in hosting one for your family, what do you need?
Pick your technology: FaceTime, Facebook, Zoom, and Skype are all options. Make sure it's something all your guests can use and prep the login ahead of time and make sure everyone can join. Feel free to invite neighbors you know are alone. Now is a time to include everyone!
What you need for a Seder: Each household should have:
But first, a little history on Judaism and dogs. In Judaism, there is no ban on keeping dogs, but it is interesting to note that dogs are portrayed negatively in both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, where they are mostly associated with violence and uncleanliness. In Jewish mysticism, dogs are symbols of the demonic. The Mishnah states that one must keep dogs chained as they are known to do damage. Deuteronomy 23:19 appears to equate dogs to prostitution, and the Book of Kings describes dogs who feed on corpses. As recently as July 2019 Rabbis from Elad (a city in Israel about 16 miles east of Tel Aviv) signed an edict to ban dogs from the city. The edict states that the dogs are "scaring women and children with their barks, even if they do not bite."
On the other hand, Judaism does not permit the neglect and abuse of any living animal. Exodus 20:10 requires that an owner allow his pets to rest on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Tel Aviv has become the number one dog-friendly city in the world with over 30,000 dogs. Dogs are allowed in most cafes, stores, and even high-end restaurants as well as on buses, trains, and taxis.So clearly these furry family members have become an important part of our lives. We nurture them as one would a child and celebrate major milestones as they grow. And of course, one of the most important days of their lives is their Bark Mitzvah, their coming of age. AKA a dog Bar or Bat Mitzvah. It can occur when the dog turns 13 months or 13 years of age or even 13 in "dog years" (1 year, 10 months and 6 days, give or take). Dogs can even wear their own tallit and yarmulke. The practice of a Bark Mitzvah seems to go back as far as 1958 when Max and Janet Salter of Beverly Hills, celebrated their black cocker spaniel with all the trimmings. The idea of a Bark Mitzvah celebration is not embraced by all clergy, but overall the practice has grown significantly throughout the United States and is quite popular.
One of our ModernTribe customers and Instagram doglebrity, Penny DePuppo, a stylish Goldendoodle from Los Angeles, recently celebrated her Bark Mitzvah and we are kvelling! She's featured in these photos. #barkmitzvahgoals! Owner Becca says the best tips when planning a Bark Mitzvah for your pup is to:
"Make sure all your pup friends are in town, get some good goodies for your humans to munch on, and make DIY pawmakahs!"
So how else do we mark this occasion?
Just as we would for any other Bar/Bat Mitzvah, here is everything we will need:
The Ceremony- a blessing and prayers by clergy, friends or family. Maybe your dog can bark their haftarah!
A Theme- choose a theme that goes along with your dog's personality. Does he gravitate to certain foods, love music, flowers, bodies of water or the sites and sounds (and smells) of the neighborhood? Make sure to incorporate your pet's favorite colors too! Some theme ideas: Favorite Sticks (Nature Theme), Tennis Balls (Sports Theme), Swimming (Water Theme), Sticking Their Head Out the Car Window (Travel Theme).
Invitations- let everyone know how special this day is and how much it means for them to celebrate with you - encourage them to bring their dogs to the event too - they will want their own bark mitzvah once they see how much fun it can be.
Activities- Penny DePuppo made her own dog yarmulkes (love this idea). Make sure to have some activities to keep your dogs happy, like swimming or snuggling or ball chasing. And of course, lots of toys to play with!
Food- Make sure to have snacks for dogs and humans! Kosher dog treats are always a good idea. But anything goes from a simple brunch, to appetizers and cocktails. Be sure to include a large bowl of chex mix or anything that resembles your pet's favorite food so people feel included too. Cookies in the shape of your dog or cake with a gorgeous photo of your dog on top would add a little fun to the theme.
Favors- What better way to honor your pet than with a "doggie" bag filled with treats for their human or pet friends. What dog wouldn't want their own bagel dog toy?
Gift Suggestions- Dogs can't possibly have enough Chewish Toys. On a more altruistic note, consider a donation to Help Save Animals from Cruelty (ASPCA) or any other organization that benefits our canine friends. A donation to your synagogue or a food pantry would be another great choice.
Thank You Notes - Make sure to acknowledge the generosity of your friends and your dog's good manners with a personalized thank you card for sharing this special day with you!
Mazel Tov!
A host of superstitions revolve around Jewish babies; their names, and the infamous baby shower. Do Jews have baby showers?
]]>Many cultures are loaded with superstitions covering just about any subject and Judaism is no exception. Many of our Jewish superstitions revolve around warding off evil spirits by saying pooh, pooh, pooh, knocking on wood, pulling on our ear, putting salt in the corners of a room or closing an open book. One of my personal favorite superstitions (true story) were the times my mother would make me chew on thread while sewing a button on clothing that I was wearing and was in too much of a hurry to remove. The thought was that chewing on thread would prevent her from sewing up my brains!
A host of superstitions revolve around Jewish babies; their names, and the infamous baby shower.
It’s true that in many Jewish communities, baby showers are frowned upon. Many Jews avoid baby showers (and even avoid purchasing clothes or furniture for the baby before the baby is born) out of fear that bringing attention to an unborn baby might cause something bad to happen to the baby or the mother. This superstition stems from the notion of the evil eye or ayin hara. In the Mishnah, a person with ayin hara is someone who cannot be happy for another’s good fortune, and in fact is distressed and angry when good things happen to his or her friends. This person’s gaze is considered dangerous, because he or she would prefer that others not enjoy good things, and might somehow cause misfortune to others via a malicious look.
Still, it’s important to remember that this is a superstitious tradition, and not Jewish law. According to halacha (Jewish law), there is nothing wrong with a couple enjoying a baby shower with all the trimmings!
So, whether you welcome gifts into your home before or after your little one arrives, here are some of our favorite Jewish baby gifts.
]]>Even though frost is still on the ground and we are snuggling up with a bowl of matzo ball soup to keep us warm, it's time to celebrate Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of Trees. This holiday takes place on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat which occurs in the winter. Why, you may ask, do we celebrate the New Year of Trees while we are suffering through cold, snow and ice in many areas of the country? As is the case with many Torah laws, the Halachah is based on what happens in the Land of Israel. By the 15th day of Shevat most of Israel's rainy season is over, the ground has become saturated with the rains of the year which causes the sap to start rising in the tree, and thus fruit can begin to bud! More info on what is Tu B'shevat here.
In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day and trees are planted in celebration. It reminds Jews of our connection to the earth and to our role as caretakers of the environment. The Torah is called a “tree of life, showing how trees connect to the highest Jewish values. According to Midrash, “When G‑d created the first man, He took him and showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden, and said to him, ‘See My works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are. And everything that I created, I created it for you. Be careful not to spoil or destroy My world—for if you do, there will be nobody after you to repair it. (Kohelet Rabah).
So why plant trees in Israel? Here are five reasons to plant a tree this year:
Thanks to the generosity of ModernTribe customers who made a purchase on Giving Tuesday, we were able to donate 10% of profits that day towards planting trees in Israel through the JNF. Over the last 100 years, through the Jewish National Fund, over 250 million trees have been planted in the land of Israel. Thank you for taking part in sustaining our world; we hope to continue to plant even more trees this year.
We are going to start with socks because who doesn't love new socks for Hanukkah? Especially ones as punny as these.
This menorahsaurus rex is too cool. Available at your favorite dino-store!
Happy Hanukkah ColorMe Pajamas Set - Kids Unisex
Pajamas are another popular gift for a reason. These are extra cool because you can color them in yourself!
Jewish Wisdom Ball
We can't mention a guide without our popular wisdom ball! The wisdom of Bubbe in the palm of your hand.
Butterfly Star of David Necklace
Jewelry is always a great gift, and we love the history behind this design! The necklace can be worn two ways, as a butterfly or Star of David.
Multicolor LEGO® Menorah Junior
Another cool menorah, this one made from LEGO® pieces and paired with LED lights to make a unique Hanukkah gift.
Don't forget about Fido! He will love this Bagel Dog Toy.
And speaking of bagels, how much do you need this bagel magnet set? We mean need to give as a gift, of course.
Marzipan Hanukkah Ultimate Gift Collection
Food is always a great gift, right? And this marzipan gift set tastes as good as it looks.
Don't you want to get one for all your friends and wear them as friendship bracelets?!
No words needed for these cute earrings! Or two words: OY VEY!
Don't Tell Me to Keep Calm I'm a Jewish Mother Mug
You know a mother who needs this!
]]>You probably know Nikki from her super popular Instagram and website Humans of Judaism. Full of inspiring stories, funny memes, and useful Jewish knowledge. If you are not following her, you must!
Nikki Schreiber founded Humans of Judaism in 2014. During the year of mourning for the sudden loss of her father, Nikki wanted to do something meaningful in his memory. The idea was to create a positive social media environment that features the good within the Jewish community. Today, Humans of Judaism has become one of the leading Jewish media brands around the world, featuring upbeat, feel-good stories, profiling Jews from around the world. With close to half a million followers across all social media platforms, Humans of Judaism is widely held as the Jewish page to follow.
We invited Nikki to pick out a few of her favorite Hanukkah gifts and just love what she picked! What would be on your gift guide?
Thinking Out of the Box Menorah
"I love this, so practical and cute. It’s great for someone who is traveling over Chanukah or just an extra set to have available for guests."
"I own this book, I have read through it and even just picked it up as a gift for a friend. The book is prominently displayed in my apartment and makes for a great conversation piece. It’s a fun, light read and pretty on point with its list. I am giving it 2 enthusiastic thumbs up!"
"Okay, I need to get this for my dog! She currently only has a gelt chew toy for Chanukah, so a bagel is obviously the next step."
"My mom has had this for many years. I love seasonal items that only come out once a year. When you see the latke spatula on the counter, you know what’s for dinner #yum!"
"I love festive details. There is a lot to be said when you show up to a Chanukah party wearing a fun shirt or tie or sweater. A tie seems like the perfect office party accent."
"I need this! The end."
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Also to note is that if you're planning a Jewish wedding (mazel again!), you don't have to include all of these items. You are allowed to pick what is significant to you, or also tweak these traditions to fit your wedding. Instead of circling the groom 7 times, what if you circled each other? Or what if you each smashed a glass? Do it! Use these beautiful Jewish customs to help you create a Jewish wedding that is 100% you.
Other Jewish Wedding posts you may be interested in:
Jewish Wedding Terms
Any Jewish wedding terms we missed?
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