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 […]

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 […]