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
In “Fundamentally Freund: More than just Sabbath Jews”, Jerusalem Post writer Michael Freund claims that “The Subbotniks are Russia’s forgotten Jews.” The community, calling themselves “The Gerim,” has had mass conversions to Judaism and has married Russian Jews by birth. But now as some of them and their families try to leave Russia for Israel,… Continue reading Russian Converts Make Aliyah to Israel
While (some) Americans have been celebrating the win of Democract Barack Obama over Republican John McCain here at home, parts of Jerusalem are celebrating their new mayor according to the NY Times article, Secular Defeats Ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem. While Palestinians boycotted the elections, Jews of all stripes fought along the secular-Orthodox divide. Though my experience… Continue reading Secular vs. Ultra-Orthodox
Here’s a funny little story about Israel…. On my first night in Israel, I realized that I was the farthest anyone in my family had ever been from the homeland, the Dominican Republic. Sure, New York, to which my parents had emigrated as children, was far from “D.R.” but Israel was literally on the other… Continue reading Fish Out of Water
Newsworthy Item from Consumerist.com: Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane Traveling is difficult when you’re disabled and according to the article above, Delta made it much, much worst for one handicapped passenger. Though my travel experiences have been nowhere near as arduous, my first and only flight to Israel was so upsetting… Continue reading The not so friendly skies
Circumcise Me: The Comedy of Yisrael Cambpell will make its debut this month on The Jewish Channel. The film features ultra-Orthodox Jewish comedian Yisrael Campbell, formerly Chris Campbell, doing his hilarious stand-up comedy routine and discussing his journey to Judaism as well as his life in Israel since converting to Judaism (three times no less).… Continue reading Circumcise me
Me (and my hair in all its glory) in Israel circa 2006 And no, I’m not talking about the weather. The Orthodox Jewish world is being turned on its head as conversion becomes entangled in a larger power struggle between the ultra-Orthodox and the more modern rabbinical authorities. One of the latest articles on the… Continue reading Things are heating up
Thirty posts on my Chabad article! I’m glowing like a glow worm at work. It’s probably distracting the other tutors. Guess I’m going to have to start writing more. Poor little blog. I will put something good up soon! People from…Flushing, NY, Panama, Monsey, NY, Brooklyn, NY, Silver Spring, MD, Georgia, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles,… Continue reading Aliza Hausman Goes Global
Rabbi Lookstein, who happens to have been the head of the beit din that converted me, is not too happy with the RCA’s new stance on conversion. I guess I should be happy, that according to an article in Jewish Week, Rabbi Lookstein is “on the list.” I think that means my conversion is “100%… Continue reading On the list
I didn’t grow up hearing many stereotypes about Jews, I just knew that we (Dominicans) didn’t like them. The focus was more on the fact that Jews didn’t believe in Jesus and therefore, wouldn’t be saved. No Jesus, no free pass to heaven. At least, that was more of the focus than say the stereotype… Continue reading When Dominicans Haggle…
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 