Like Alejandra Vazquez, I, too, was beaten by my mother with a mop handle at eleven years old. Unlike Alejandra, I survived. I did not survive because of any intervention from authorities. I survived because my mother chose not to kill me that day. Like any good abuser, my mother threatened to kill me if… Continue reading The Wrong Side of a Mop Handle
“My Uterus is None of Your Business” has made its way to BeyondBT, a blog for baalei teshuva the world over. Check it out. You can post your comments to the article there or read up on the many, varied comments from other readers. Right now, there seems to be an ongoing debate of my… Continue reading Because a Baal Teshuva is a Convert’s Best Friend
From the NY Times article, Brooklyn Woman is Questioned in the Death of her Daughter, 11: “The mother of an 11-year-old girl who arrived in New York from Mexico last month used a mop handle to beat her on Thursday — a thrashing so severe it left the girl listless, vomiting and confined to bed,… Continue reading Gratitude
Back from Los Angeles and of course, incredibly jet-lagged. Oy. And I’m scheduled to go to a Yael Naim concert tonight. The best laid plans of mice and men…. I figured I’d write up more about my trip before I head out for the evening. One particular awkward moment sticks out in my mind. After… Continue reading Keeping my hands to myself
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis It’s just a title, right? I mean, it doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not I wear my ugly orthopedic shoes to shul (synagogue) or just don my sneakers. It’s not supposed to make my stomach hurt when I think about how difficult it is for me to follow services… Continue reading A title first
Remodeling the world. Some bad book I was reading was making fun of suburbanites and how much time they spend talking about remodeling their homes. I found this curious because I had yet to walk into such a conversation out here in Los Angeles. And then it happened. During one Sukkot meal, I happened upon… Continue reading Silence, A Response
Here’s a love letter I sent to some of my friends and family today after many blows to my ego. “You know, I think that I should say something. All of y’all are very sweet but you seem to have forgotten that I DO HAVE A JOB. Job #1 I hate. It’s getting healthy enough… Continue reading Aliza’s J-O-B
My great-grandmother recently celebrated her 96th birthday. My grandmother just started collecting social security. So as you can imagine, there has been a pretty good run of good health in my family. No history of cancer. No history of Alzheimer’s. Just a bad case of high cholesterol and high blood pressure. My husband, however, has… Continue reading Hispanics at Risk
We’re in Los Angeles for my husband’s internship at a local synagogue. And as a perk, we get to spend time with the family. Yay, family? My mother-in-law reminded me of a little known family fact at the last Sukkot meal. Converts usually face a lot of obstacles in family harmony when they decide to… Continue reading It’s all in the family
So, I was recently on Facebook when one of my readers decided to start instant messaging me. In her defense, I did post a link to my Facebook profile on my blog. So, it should have been okay, right? Um, right. But it wasn’t. Though I tried to keep up the conversation, I felt more… Continue reading Close Encounters of the Weird Kind
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 