You know you’re Jewish when you get caught completely unawares by endless Christmas Eve traffic. We sat in it for two hours mystified as we drove from Times Square back to Riverdale after lunching with some friends. We came home to a sad, empty little fridge but we thought we could sit the rain out… Continue reading Things You’ll Hear @ the Kosher Mart on Christmas Eve
Hello, it’s me, the self-described worst guest in the world! And I’ve just had a long time friendship end over it. But this isn’t just the story of that loss or how I’ve come to expect the worst. As a recent convert, I’ve blogged before about how I’ve been inappropriate countless times at the Shabbos… Continue reading The Worst Guest in the World
A reminder that not all of us celebrate Christmas?
My sister says she celebrates secular Christmas, Yule and Chanukah. By that she means, she’s putting up a Christmas tree, heralding in winter and lighting a menorah she’s “stolen” from my collection. Today we celebrated Chanukah early by sneaking away from our responsibilities and watching “Twilight” again. Still good. Still enjoyable. My husband is now… Continue reading Early Chanukah Present
I used to look forward to Thanksgiving. Well, not growing up. Unfortunately, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas meant more abuse at home. My mother reveled in the fact that we were not going to be school any time so she dug in and went all out with the bruises. One Thanksgiving beating left me hobbling… Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m at Curves, the women’s gym I frequent, when someone mumbles something about kosher Halloween candy. This causes Lynn, one of the women who works there, to respond: “If you’re worried about whether or not Halloween candy is kosher, why are you celebrating Halloween?” A fair question from a non-Jew, no? When I decided to… Continue reading Unhappy Halloween
“How will you pass your culture on to your children?” was a loaded question I was recently asked. Another convert had been thinking hard about that question and I think, she hoped that I would have some great insight. But honestly, I didn’t. I don’t. I concede that I haven’t worried too much about passing… Continue reading Raising Jewish Kids…When You Weren’t One
Judaism is an extreme sport as it is but then no one told me about how things can go haywire when you throw “family time” into the mix. With a holiday every other month, sometimes every other week, it seems that Jewish families, especially Orthodox ones, get thrown together much more often than I was… Continue reading Family Time
Father’s Day came a bit early for me this week. An excerpt of a short story, Daddy’s Little Girl, about my strange relationship with my father and the trip to the Dominican Republic that brought us back into each other’s lives after a nearly ten-year estrangement was published in Tertulia Magazine. Given the format of… Continue reading Happy Father’s Day?
I was raised by wolves. This makes things like human manners and decorum a very foreign concept. My mother on manners: Don’t talk (lest you embarrass me and I have to kill you)!Talk (lest you embarrass me with your shyness and I have to kill you)!Don’t embarrass me (you get the picture?)!Don’t leave guests unattended… Continue reading A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 