My eight-year-old glances out the front window during Shabbos lunch and does a double-take. “Ima! What’s Mr. Smith doing?” For the last seven years, our home has looked out on our neighbors’ four lollipop-shaped ficus trees. They add a certain flair, a bit of joie de vivre to the neighborhood. Hearing our neighbor start up […]
Meet the Freshman Class of the Maryland General Assembly The freshman class of Maryland’s General Assembly includes the legislature’s largest group of female lawmakers to ever serve in the state house, including Dalya Attar (D-Baltimore City): She is a Baltimore prosecutor and an Orthodox Jew. Haredi Woman Running in Labor Aims for Revolution When one […]
I was a rebellious teen. You know the kind—the one the teachers worry about and whose parents get called down to discuss their issues. The kid who is on everyone’s watchlist for most-likely-to-go-down. Now if you are imagining some goth girl smoking pot, a skull tattooed on her forearm, you have got it wrong. I […]
I grew up in western Michigan, which was largely populated by Dutch immigrants who all seemed to have perfectly shiny, straight, white blonde hair. It was the total opposite of my frizzy, brown “Jewish” looking hair. Our town had very few Jews living in it, so my family was always in the minority. This was […]
Dear Jew in the City- How can there be many “right” ways to live a Jewish life? There seems to be only one way, living within the parameters set by the Torah. And if there is variation in the levels of observance within those parameters why is it acceptable to choose anything other than the […]
Orthodox Community Confronts Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment within a community is a difficult topic no matter the context, but within religious communities it’s a topic that isn’t commonly discussed. Dr. Linda Freedman, a psychotherapist, spoke at New Toco Shul on Feb. 14, 2018 with the hopes of shedding light on the value of these conversations. […]
