Ever since I converted, I’ve been racked with Jewish guilt. I never feel like I’m doing enough Jewish learning. It doesn’t help that I have a husband who studies “rabbi stuff” 10-12 hours a day. So, last week, after a year of trying to attend a local class on davening, I finally made it. The… Continue reading Getting some class
“Honest Response” is a great response that touches upon the tone of a Jewish Week piece, “Pressing for a ‘Global’ View of Jewry,” which I previously posted on the blog. The original piece wondered whether the anger the two multiculutural Jewish artists were exhibiting in the dialogues they led on Jewish identity would cause people… Continue reading Anger is a valid response to racism
This piece was inspired by a previous blog. “So, are you pregnant?” a friend asked bouncing over to me enthusiastically. I rolled my eyes and exhaled sharply. “What? What did I say?” Motherhood is hard. And I don’t just mean raising the babies. I mean having them. I mean trying to have them. And yes,… Continue reading Don’t Ask Me About My Uterus (Part 2)
I am taking two online writing classes through Gotham Writer’s Workshop, Reading Fiction POV and Memoir Writing I. I thought I could be sneaky and use my homework over there as blog posts over here. Well, at least the stuff that’s already been graded and the teacher has told me clearly isn’t awful. The assignments… Continue reading Photographic memory
Jewish girl randomly meets rabbi and her life changes forever. Please check out Sarah Shapiro’s “All The Way Home”. It puts a positive spin on the difficulties and joys of honoring parents and becoming an observant Jew.
This is the final draft of an essay I wrote for a contest that asked “What is the Most Important Day of Your Life?” I previously posted the first draft on the blog. Come Back For Us She stood in the doorframe in a faded nightgown though it was mid-afternoon. Her thin penciled-in eyebrows became… Continue reading The Most Important Day of My Life Final Draft
Adam McKinney, left, and Daniel Banks bring their program on Jewish identity to Temple Beth-El in Great Neck. Their presentation, “Belonging Everywhere,” includes a film they made about a Jewish community in Ghana. Courtesy of American Jewish Committee. Jewish Week article, Pressing for a ‘Global’ View of Jewry” interviews two local artists, both Jews from… Continue reading Curiosity and Racism are the Same Thing?
My mother-in-law commented during a recent Barnes & Nobles shopping spree together that I am perhaps a little too attached to vampires. This is probably because I wanted to sob over the fact that I would not let myself purchase Breaking Dawn, the last in Stephanie Meyer’s the teen vampire romance saga Twlight, and Undead… Continue reading Blood is life
Check out this article, Minority within a Minority, from Aish that focuses on Jewish of Color and their unique challenges. It is a reprint from The Jewish Press. The article focuses primarily on Jews of Color who are African-American, arguably I presume because they are the most “visible” minority within a minority and because the… Continue reading Jews of Color: A Minority within a Minority
Senator Barack Obama accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in front of 80,000 people Thursday night at Invesco Field in Denver. (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times) I’ve never been one for politics. So, it’s no secret then that while my husband was watching Barack Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention on… Continue reading What’s more historic?
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 