Orthodox women are often stereotyped as being nothing more than a slave to the household, relegated to standing in the back of a shul. The thing is, many Orthodox women take pride in the way they take care of the home, where they pray — and there are many that do so much in addition […]
Nechuma Schweitzer had an upbringing that didn’t quite serve her. She grew up in a Hasidic community and something about it didn’t feel right. She didn’t connect to what she was learning and didn’t feel comfortable asking questions to get answers that might change that. She didn’t even want to get married or have children […]
If you had to choose one marine animal to call the “underdog of the sea,” we have a slight feeling sharks wouldn’t be the first (or tenth) to come to mind. For Yakira Herskowitz, though, it’s a different story. “Sharks are really misunderstood,” she says. Herskowitz became interested in sharks at the age of 11 […]
Judaism is not simply a religion: We are a tribe, an ethnicity, an extended family, as well as a faith system. The misconception that Jews are only a religion or are all white continues to be pervasive, but there are more and more Jews speaking out about the complex nature of our identity. One of […]
Growing up, I didn’t have a strong religious background. I never would have expected to become an Orthodox Jew. Being non-affiliated was a choice my grandfather made that trickled down to my immediate family. Other Latino families had Catholic memorabilia donned all over their walls, but we didn’t. I was curious about God, and I […]
An amazing team at ABC and On The Red Carpet filmed a mini documentary on my life as an Orthodox Jewish woman, why I started Jew in the City, the JITC Hollywood Bureau, and why Jewish representation matters. They captured my life, my joy, my relationship to my Jewish identity so authentically because they let […]
