In both Jew in the City and my day job, I receive a surprising number of inquiries about conversion. While Judaism accepts converts, we discourage them because taking on Judaism is such a huge commitment. If someone wasn’t born Jewish, they have no obligation to assume all that responsibility. Judaism does not require others to […]

Orthodox Jewish divorce (get) has made many headlines recently, which has caused me – as an Orthodox Jewish woman – to do a lot of thinking about the issue itself and about being a woman in general. A few weeks ago, a group of rabbis were arrested and charged with kidnapping and torturing recalcitrant husbands who […]

“It’s getting incredible reviews,” my husband exclaimed with a glint in his eye as he placed Wall Street Journal movie section on the coffee table last weekend. He had been reading a review on Gravity – the new movie with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. “Spiritual, thrilling, existential” were the words being used to describe […]

This week I let my eldest child (my super responsible ten year old daughter) use a sharp knife for the first time. A couple days later, I let her take something out of a hot oven. But the real craziness began a week ago when I let my daughter walk to a playground – which […]

Keep your eyes on the cross, and see what happens to the images as you continue to stare at it. Peripheral vision is whacked, no? That’s the name of the GIF below which began circulating around the internet a few months ago. When I first saw it I thought it was cool, but then I […]

Almost exactly five years ago to the day, my parents got a call that all people dread: their home (the one of my childhood) was up in flames. Fortunately, no one was in it at the time of the fire, and the major damage was confined to the back of the house. But still, it came out […]