Obviously, becoming an Orthodox Jew has made me more sensitive to things. Because of my IBS, I was already careful about what I ate but now I have to also make sure every restaurant I eat in has proper kashrut (kosher) certification and everything I buy at the store has a proper hecksher (kosher seal… Continue reading Oops, Sensitivity Fail
According to the Ramban’s Thirteen Principles of Faith, we, Jews, believe that “that the dead will be brought back to life when G-d wills it to happen.” Okay, but what happens if you remarried and your first wife comes back? Dum-dum-DUM! (That’s eerie music playing in the background, duh.) Anyway! Will it be, like, before… Continue reading Does G-d Believe in Comic Books?
At the beginning of the documentary, “Off and Running,” Avery Klein-Cloud seems like just your regular, average Brooklyn teen. She’s a pretty, athletic, self-assured African-American teenager. She’s a top member of the Erasmus High School track team with the prospect of college scholarships in her future. She comes from a happy, stable family, comprised of… Continue reading Mini-Movie Review: Off and Running
Event: Children of the Bible (American Sephardi Film Festival)Date: Thursday, February 11thTime: 7:00pmPlace: The Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY Admission:$30 General Admission$25 ASF & YUMuseum members, students and seniors$250 Opening Night Friend (includes the above for two (2) + VIPpre-screening reception and listing in Festival Program) Festival Pass:Admission to… Continue reading Cool Jewish Events: Children of the Bible NY Premiere (American Sephardi Film Festival)
A prospective convert appears before a rabbinical court in Israel. Photo Credit: Jewish Chronicle In “Why Orthodox Rabbis Must Stop Conversions,” (Jewish Chronicle of London, 2/4/10), as the title notes, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet tells Orthodox rabbis that they need to stop converting people “for the foreseeable future (except perhaps in special circumstances such as adoptions).”… Continue reading Oh no, he didn’t! "Why Orthodox Rabbis Must Stop Conversions"
It’s articles like these “Jewish in Tel Aviv, Gentile in Ashkelon” (2/3/10, The Jewish Daily Forward) that led to the following joke I make in one of my speeches: “In America, I am Dominican but in the Dominican Republic, I am American and in Israel, whatever I am depends on a couple of angry rabbis.”… Continue reading Jewish Here, Not Jewish There
2010 Be’chol Lashon Media Awards For Excellence in Reporting on Global Judaism Write about Jews Around the World – Win $1,000 Deadline: February 26, 2010NO ENTRY FEE (NEW! Nominate your favorite article from the past year. Prizes include a Be’chol Lashon T-shirt or keychain flashlight. Now, you best me nominating your favorite pieces from this… Continue reading 2010 Be’chol Lashon Media Awards/For Excellence in Reporting on Global Judaism
Black and Jewish: African American Jewish Identities in the Early Twenty-First Century Dr. Jamie Wilson is partnering with Be’chol Lashon on his upcoming book, Black and Jewish: African American Jewish Identities in the Early Twenty-First Century. It will be a collection of autobiographical narratives that expands the definition of what it means to be Jewish… Continue reading Black and Jewish: African American Jewish Identities in the Early Twenty-First Century
It’s nice when you post something on your blog and you’ve done well enough by moderating away the crazies on your blog that you don’t hear a peep about it. Okay, there was a peep. Someone commented on my post about the Rabbi Steven Greenberg event being off-color on my Facebook fan page but that… Continue reading More on Yesterday’s blog
Parshat Yitro from G-dcast.com More Torah cartoons at http://www.g-dcast.com As narrated by fellow (Reform) convert and blogger Leah Jones of Accidentally Jewish. According to some interpretations, this parsha is also about Yitro’s conversion. Personally, I think this is the parsha where Yitro tells Moses to start the first rabbinical school. Related: Chabad’s Parsha in a… Continue reading This Week’s Parsha is Named After Yitro, Moses’s Non-Jewish Father-in-Law? Yup.
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 