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 […]

My family didn’t know any Orthodox Jews personally was I was growing up, but we knew “of” them. They were “extreme,” “closed-minded,” and “chauvinistic.” Then, when I was 16, I met some for the first time up close, and something surprising happened. These people were educated, open-minded, and kind. The women were empowered and the […]

These last two weeks which began with Faigy Mayer’s suicide, continued with the stabbings (and murder of a sixteen year old girl, Shira Banki) at the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade, and ended with the firebombing and murder of a Palestinian toddler, Ali Dawabsha (possibly by extreme religious Zionists, though no one has been charged with the […]