Henry is a (Jewish) time traveler. Claire is the girl he’s meant to spend the rest of his life with…no matter what time zone he’s in. Their love-story is beyond breathtaking. This is the best book I’ve read and reread all year. Get your hands on it and I can promise there will be tears… Continue reading Best Book I’ve Read All Year!
When Pablo must bring something to share for his school’s International Day, he considers several items from his family’s bakery. But his mother’s Mexican pan dulce, empanadas, and chango bars don’t do the trick. His father’s bagels and challah bread are appealing, but not quite right either. Eventually, Pablo decides on a family specialty, Jalapeño… Continue reading Spice up your Bagels
In “From Jail to Judaism,” Barbara Bensoussan writes an in-depth profile on Jewish convert Louis Ferrante’s “Journey From the Mob to the Mesorah (Tradition).” According to Ferrante’s website, he “served 8 1/2 years in various maximum security prisons after refusing to cooperate against former associates of the Gambino family. During his incarceration, he educated himself,… Continue reading More on the winding roads converts take to Judaism…
Okay, it is possible that I have overdosed on vampire stories. Have you?
How I feel about “good hair” and “bad hair” is pretty much summed up in “Bagels & Locks” and the numerous previous posts on hair where I talk about the history of my own kinky hairstrands. And in “Every friend’s just a little bit racist”, I wrote: “They can tell me on the day that… Continue reading Straight Hair at Any Cost?
In “What’s Jewish Food?,” I wasn’t really complaining so much about bagels and lox as I was about “Ashkenazi-centrism” (seriously didn’t make this word up). Food was just the lens through which I chose to discuss a particularly aspect of Jewish diversity. Someone even told me to stop complaining and start writing a new Jewish… Continue reading Jewish Diversity, where it’s at… (Part 2)
My mother used to slap us if we spoke slang. And while she never sat down to help us with our homework, as far as I can remember, she would slap us, too, if we didn’t get it done. Acting ghetto and talking ghetto alike were a big no-no in our household. My mother thought… Continue reading A Broader Definition of Family
The memoir, Lucky Girl is about one woman’s surprise reunion and relationship with the complicated Chinese family that gave her up for adoption when she was a baby. Spanning cultures and continents, Mei-Ling Hopgood’s memoir brings home a tale of joy and regret, hilarity, deep sadness, and great discovery, as she untangles the unlikely strands… Continue reading What a Lucky Girl
Getting me to read the Parsha HaShuva, the weekly Torah portion, usually involves whining. On my part. Let it never be said that my yetzer hara is dead. But I’m working on it. Thanks to a little help from above, I’ve discovered “G-dcast.” Torah with pictures!!!!!!! Can you hear my excitement? So yeah, I’m a… Continue reading Animated Torah!
Scrambling for movies to watch this summer, someone suggested “Adio Kerida”. The documentary, produced and directed by anthropologist Ruth Behar, is about the search for identity and memory among Sephardic Jews with roots in Cuba. Cuba as you know is just a hop, skip and a jump from my parents’ native Dominican Republic. Cuban food… Continue reading Adios Querida? No, Adio Kerida
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 