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Posts published in “Uncategorized”

Look Up!

Walking up a steep hill, on the way back to my room from the art building at Camp Ramah Darom, I see a dark cloud…

How Technology Changes Theology

I go to Target a lot. I get diapers, or groceries, or clothes. But every so often, I have to buy something that’s not on my…

White and Ashkenazi with a Dominican Twist

Tolya Kurchenko—the protagonist of my debut novel, Forgiving Maximo Rothman, and its sequel, Forgiving Mariela Camacho—has a unique identity. Born and labeled a Jew in…

Imminent Threat

The Palestinian participants in the group expressed their hesitation when the plan for the day was first presented. “We really don’t want to go to…

Southern Judaism & Liminal Spaces

I miss last year. I said those words to my mom after my second week of sixth grade. She looked at me and said, “Aves,…

Road Hazard Ahead

I have a radar detector in my car. I don’t know if it’s gotten me out of any tickets, but it’s a constant reminder for…

How to Birth Jewish

I became a doula, and specifically, a doula specializing in Jewish birth, because of my own experiences in labor and delivery. I had planned for…

Home of the Brave?

This moment in national life, and this moment in the Jewish spiritual calendar, both ask deep and real bravery. What’s more, they impel us to…

Meet Rabbi Matt Gewirtz

Meet Rabbi Matt Gewirtz, the Senior Rabbi at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, New Jersey, author of the book, The Gift of Grief: Finding…

Grocery Stories

I want to tell you a story. It’s a story about Judaism. But it’s also a story about five grocery stores. My father taught me…

Bread and Circus 

The news feed these days reads like a juicy bit of pulp fiction.  Every page scintillating and harrowing.  With every paragraph, you find yourself mouth…

We’ve Been Here Before

In 2008, California faced the prospect of a conservative-backed referendum for a constitutional amendment that would only permit marriages between a man and a woman,…

From Seder to Iftar

I haven’t seen my friend Hafsa in a few weeks since my spouse and I enjoyed an Iftar dinner at her home, and I miss…

A Blessing for Summer

“There is a blessing for everything!” I first heard that line in an early viewing of Fiddler on the Roof, and it instilled in me…

Ode to Spontaneous Selves

  It was Fall the first time I asked my mom if I looked handsome, about halfway through my process of becoming Jewish. It’s hard…

Meet Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder

Meet Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, Director of Education for Be’chol Lashon, an organization devoted to promoting diversity in Jewish spaces. It is because of her valuable…