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
I’ve written about my hair before but never in such depth as Latoya Peterson’s “Nappily Ever After? Not quite” on the Racialicious blog. It’s a great post. All you straight-haired folks might learn something. I can’t tell you the amount of times that Jews make comments about my hair. Luckily, very, very few have been… Continue reading Racilious Talks "Nappy" Hair
I’m hoping to enter this piece in a contest or submit it to one of the magazines that it’s my goal to get my work in this year. I recently received a devastating rejection from one magazine. The editor was wonderful about it and she gave me a connection to another editor. We’ll see what… Continue reading Second Draft: A Survivor
I am sick of hearing people say they feel like they can’t understand “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” because of all those Spanish terms. Why didn’t Junot Diaz and his lovely publishers throw in some sort of glossary in the back? Just what were they thinking? We’ll never know. Luckily for all of… Continue reading The Oscar Wao Vocabulary Dictionary Glossary, You’re Welcome, Junot Diaz
Ethiopian Jews are black and beautiful.:) I don’t know much about Ethiopian Jews. But I remember seeing them in Israel and feeling not-so-out of place. Look, I would tell my husband, that girl has my hair! (Only bigger and better usually.) I got most of my information about the community though from a wedding present.… Continue reading Learning about Ethopian Jewry
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
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
“I’m Not White, I’m Jewish” is the name of the song featured in the YouTube video above. The rap song has clear sociological issues. As the performing artist strums along to his guitar, the camera pans around the room of Jewish preteens. And every face in the room? White, of course. But hey, as the… Continue reading I’m not white, I’m Jewish
My blond blue-eyed friend and I were having a nice chat about the horrors of covering our hair. She mentioned her hair losing some of its streaky blondness. I mentioned that I can’t actually fit a sheitel over my head. What with my hair being so…TALL. She said: “You know, I could totally understand why… Continue reading Sheitel Envy
My husband is trying to educate me in the ways of American pop culture before the 1970s, which is when my parents arrived in the United States. I confess that I didn’t know who the Beatles were until I was a teenager. I’d never heard Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. And folk music by pop… Continue reading Hispanic Heritage Month Post #1: Latino Music Plug
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 