In this scenario, my husband is Richard Gere. Yum. Pretty Woman moment. My akwardness is not just about being a convert, it’s about growing up on welfare and now being surrounded by “rich” Jews. I am in a Julia Roberts movie! Remember when she can’t figure out how to eat lobster and mistakenly launches it… Continue reading Class-ic Problem
Thanks to Jewssip for this clip of Hebrew Mamita, Vanessa Hidary doing her thang. College was shocking for me. In college, I really experienced racism, from people who refused to address me in English and as anything other than “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” to people who called my hair nappy or told me my writing… Continue reading Funny, I do look Jewish….
The WEDDING I can’t sleep. I went to a wedding last night. No worries, I think I did very well. I didn’t notice myself doing anything embarrassing, though I’ll admit that isn’t the best way to make sure since I’m not the best barometer on these things. Oh, one confession, I used a bad word.… Continue reading Where are you from ORIGINALLY?
Here is an interview that should have been part of a larger piece tracking three interfaith couples and their religious choices. Batya keeps kosher but her husband isn’t Jewish. She paints a different picture of the statistics of intermarriage. We’ve heard them all by now: “Intermarriage threatens Jewish survival. Over 70% of the children of… Continue reading Interfaith Couple Chooses Judaism
This is what my husband hopes our kids will look like, of course. Confession: I get a kick out of saying blessings. It was one of the first things I started doing after I converted to Judaism. I like the idea of saying “Thank you, G-d” as often as I can, even when I’m not… Continue reading Bless the hair, please.
I see this hair and I just imagine the smell of hair relaxer coated on my sister’s hair. When my mother tried to relax my hair as a child, it fell out in clumps. She quickly decided my hair was too sensitive. It is. If I try to straighten it or color it, it breaks… Continue reading Good Hair, Bad Hair at Sundance
In an article in Newsweek, “Beyond Just Black and White,” Raina Kelley writes about wishing her biracial son looked black. It was an utterly honest, perhaps controversially honest, portrayal of one African-American woman’s hopes for her half-white, half-black son. She ended the piece beautifully when she discovered that her son‘s skin was neither black nor… Continue reading Brown Baby
My mother wore tight pants. It was an integral part of the uniform worn by other Dominican women in the Washington Heights neighborhood where we lived. And my Dominican mother, an immigrant to this part of New York City, always dressed to code. My mother’s ritual for getting dressed was…elaborate. My sisters and I marveled… Continue reading My Mother Wore Tight Pants
Everyone knows what overt racism looks like. If they haven’t experienced it then it’s easy for them to imagine. We’ve all seen the awful photographs from the civil rights movement. But most people walk through life on a daily basis overlooking the more subtle forms of racism so that’s what my husband and I focused… Continue reading Recap on LimmudNY Session on Racism in the Jewish Community
Here’s an oldie but goodie, an old hair piece revised for mass consumption. I’m hoping it will be picked up by a women’s magazines. Don’t mind your prayers over it! Thanks! Kinky Love My mother taught me to hate my hair. She learned this from her mother, who learned it from her mother before her.… Continue reading Kinky Love: Breaking with Family Tradition and Embracing Curly Hair
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 