There is a short period during the year where my choice of dress code does not distinguish me from others. It’s usually that intersection between seasons, for instance, where many women are wearing skirts, long-sleeved shirts and maybe some (combat) boots. But as a friend recently noted on Facebook, it is not this season. My… Continue reading This is not a fashion show (except when it is)
According to several news outlets, the government of the Dominican Republic has voted to approve a constitutional amendment that would effectively end legalized abortion around the country. Dominican doctors say that women will die. The amendment was passed after a massive campaign by the Catholic Church. OH. MY. G-D. ‘Nuff said.
Just what was I expecting “From Ghetto to Ghetto”? As a writer and fellow convert myself to Judaism, I have read many, many books about the journeys others have traveled to conversion. I have loved none so much as Julius Lester’s “Lovesong: Becoming a Jew.” I devoured, gobbled it down, page by page. And yet,… Continue reading How do you get from ghetto to ghetto?
Hallelujah, shalom: Rabbi Funnye singing at Shabbat services. (Alec Soth/Magnum, for The New York Times) Conservative rabbi (and convert) Rabbi Capers Funnye is putting the black back in Judaism. (Okay, so it was already there.) And the New York Times noticed. They profiled him in a piece called “Barack Obama’s Rabbi”. The piece also gives… Continue reading Barack Obama’s Rabbi
Greetings again from Los Angeles where my mother-in-law’s Honduran maid is an Evangelical Christian. She is sweet. But she reminded me very politely that people who don’t accept Jesus are going to hell. This is what I get for trying to practice my Spanish with her. In all fairness, I think some communication lines got… Continue reading To Hell in a Hand Basket
Now read this: Egyptian Cleric: Boycott Starbucks Because Queen Esther in Logo
From Iranian.com. In my last post on Iranian Jews, Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen said all signs seem to indicate that Jews in Iran were doing pretty well. In “Iran, the Jews and Germany, he’s responding to the backlash he’s gotten from voicing this opinion. I was even more cynical about this story than I was… Continue reading Iran is Better than Germany, I guess?
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
I recently finished “The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt.” I was interested in reading it for many reasons. I wanted to read about Judaism through the eyes of people who don’t live in the Orthodox world I live in. I wanted to understand Judaism through the eyes of secular Jews. I also wanted to… Continue reading Jewish Guilt is Heavy
I was posting on another blog when someone asked me: “So, if someone has been driving an American car (non-Jews) for a while and then switched to a Japanese one (Jews), why should he object to an American car (non-Jews) being called junk?” I’m not editorializing with the parenthetical statements, the preceding sentences were about… Continue reading Jewish Blogger Likens Non-Jews to Junk
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 