I don’t get up-in-arms about cultural appropriation. I think sometimes a style from another culture can be worn by someone because they truly admire it. I also know that dressing up as a Hasidic Jew does not have the same negative history that blackface does for African Americans. And yet, when it is done, it […]
Avinu, Malkeinu, one of the most famous High Holiday prayers, beseeches the Almighty – with whom we refer to in two ways – Father and King – to inscribe us in the Book of Life. Our Father our King inscribe us in the book of good life. Our Father our King inscribe us in the book of […]
Dear JITC- I have been privately not religious anymore for over a year and a half now. I don’t keep Shabbos or kosher privately, and I stopped keeping both publicly when I’m away from home or no one is around. This was never really my intention, but life happened in many painful ways. I used […]
If my husband and I had tried to meet through an online dating site, it never would have worked. He would have said he’s looking for a woman who enjoys an active, outdoorsy lifestyle. I would have said I like to sit on couches. Indoors. I also like to sit on beaches (but only if indoors […]
Last year, my 15 year old daughter asked if she could fly to New Orleans with other girls from her Orthodox Jewish high school to rebuild houses in some of the poorest areas of New Orleans that still had not recovered from Hurricane Katrina. The group was also scheduled to help a neighborhood prepare for future […]
The Child Victims Act went into effect last week. In January, after it passed, I wrote about how it’s good for Orthodox Jews because we have an entire Talmudic tractate dedicated to compensating damages, but we have no statute of limitations on bringing a claim against a perpetrator. We are commanded to surely pursue justice, but […]
