When you conjure up Mount Kilimanjaro and the Serengheti desert, it’s hard to picture a Jewish community residing nearby. And yet, there they are – the Mayanot Yehudim (Mayahudim) community of Arusha, Tanzania. Not only are they 70-people strong, their leader, Peres Parpaih, is so committed to guiding the kehilla in Torah-true ways, that he […]

With all eyes on Pyeongchang and the 2018 Winter Olympics, a worldwide interest in K-Pop, Korean television dramas and Kimchi is booming. Korean pride is nothing new to Chana Bilek, an Orthodox Jew from South Korea, with equal pride in the cultures she calls her own. “I was born in Korea. When I was just […]

Nissim Black has an impressive yichus (lineage), but not the most typical of a hasidic Jew. His grandparents were musicians who worked alongside Ray Charles and Quincy Jones. His parents were successful rappers in their own right. Black relates that music was always a part of his journey, even as Judaism was in the background. “I grew […]

It was my third time in just over a month that the TSA had stopped me because I was wearing a hat over my wig (and apparently, this sends them into a tizzy). By the time I got to my seat on the plane, I was still feeling annoyed that I had not yet learned […]

It was a whirlwind trip to a conference in Israel. I was running on very little sleep and meeting all sorts of interesting people. I had just spoken to a woman – an only child – who had lost both of her parents before her 30th birthday. Then another woman explained how her father, with […]