Religious Jewish fathers don’t get a very positive portrayal in the media. On the side of fiction, there’s Tevye, from Fiddler on the Roof, who is strict and expects his family to obey him. There’s Shulem from Shtisel, who tries to limit his son Akiva and his dreams of being an artist. And then there’s […]
My parents raised my sisters and me not to judge people based on their outer appearance, and throughout my life, I’ve proudly spoken out against racism wherever I’ve seen it. But, in this time of international reckoning, set off by the horrific murder of George Floyd, it seems only right to go deeper. To not […]
I was sitting in a Jewish educational institution, early on in my journey to observance, and a teaching aid was learning a section of Torah with me. She was young, and I had already established, not too bright. She had a very simplistic perspective of the world from our first interactions. But I was assigned […]
“Where can I show my friend/neighbor/relative a positive portrayal of Orthodox Jews?” several people have asked us over the last few weeks, since “Unorthodox” became one of the most popular shows on Netflix. “Jew in the City.” I tell them. “That is what our organization was created for.” No, we have not made a documentary […]
Hallel is a section of the Seder with lots of effusive language towards God. One section “min hametzar karasi kah” (from the straits I called out to God) is especially relevant in these challenging times.
When so many things that we relied on and were comforted by get stripped away, we have a chance to start at the basics, take an account of all we do still have, and say thank you for it. We all have a personal list of Dayenus (which literally means “It would have been enough […]
