Last week, a Sephardic member of our shul (synagogue) asked me which Middle Eastern country my family comes from. “None,” I explained, “We’re Ashkanazi.” “Really?” he exclaimed, “I was certain you were Sephardic.” After this encounter, I got to thinking: despite being completely Ashkanazi, with both sides of my family hailing from Ukraine, Russia and […]
Years ago, as an agnostic college grad, I searched for answers as I struggled with my Jewish identity. A shul in my New Jersey hometown invited me to experience Shabbos. Having a special day each week to contemplate life, join kind families in conversation and song, raid bookshelves and go to shul was wonderful. I […]
Marilyn Monroe once sang “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” but perhaps she should have added “and siddurim are a Jewish girl’s faithful companion.” Earlier this month, the media exploded (to the tune of 30,000 plus articles!) when news that Monroe’s personal siddur was being auctioned off, but very few people knew the auctioneer is […]
Dear Jew in the City- A non-Jewish neighbor asked me out on a date. I said “no,” thinking that that would be it, but it wasn’t. When I saw that he was not giving up, I realized that I had to have a conversation explaining that because I am Jewish, specifically Orthodox, I only date within […]
A few months ago while on Facebook, I started looking at an old high school friend’s pictures. As is often the case on Facebook, pictures of someone I didn’t know any more led me to pictures of someone I didn’t know at all. (Obviously, I kept clicking!) And then I saw a picture of two […]
