Jewish Blogs

Let’s Get Real About Marriage and Parenting

“Being a diplomat is no career for a woman who wants to have a family,” said the consul.“By the time you’re ready to get married he’ll be married,” said my mother.“Don’t put off having children,” said the prominent professor.Jane Eisner’s recent editorial “Marriage Agenda” brought back me to the 80s and 90s. As I finished high school, made my way ...

Tu Bishvat, a Super Bowl Ad and Israel’s Soda Water Company

This Shabbat is one of the four Jewish New Years set forth in the Mishna. Tu Bishvat, or Jewish Arbor Day, occurs on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Sh’vat. In addition to being a birthday for trees, the holiday is deeply connected to the agricultural cycle of the Land of Israel and in modern days has become ...

The Thing You Need To Know About Jewish Film Festivals Is That They’re Not All About the Holocaust

Savannah Jewish Film Festival starts tonight!Thought I’d share this piece I wrote for the day job about the festival with my dear Yo readers. Even if you can’t attend, there’s an interview with director Roberta Grossman that I’m particularly proud of. Her historic and hilarious look at Judaism’s most famous tune has inspired much dancing around the Yenta table — ...

Jewish Identity: A Round-Trip Journey

A life-long discomfort with institutionalized Judaism is hard to shed once you reach the mid-life years. Sure, it’s great to keep an open mind, but there’s also the sense of not wanting to waste time on pursuits unlikely to enrich one’s life. Some of us narrow our options as we get older in a bargain to reduce the odds of ...

German Tech Company Hires Asperger’s Syndrome Workers

For many the 1988 movie Rain Man was their first introduction to autism. Twenty-five years later and not only is autism a household term, but most people know someone who has been diagnosed to be on the autism spectrum. Today, fans of the primetime TV show Parenthood have watched the young Max Braverman (played by Max Burkholder) grow up before ...

Is the Internet or TV Worse for your Neshama?

The Internet may be one of the first things that the Geolim can’t control, the Asifa and their constant banter about the evils that befall us on the Internet remind me of the Haskalah. Television on the other hand was easily banned, for no one could come up with the excuse that they needed it for work. So ostracized is ...

How I Came to My Table

I was seated at one of those grand, heavy, deep brown mahogany tables in a beautiful room with two walls of windows. To my left, sat my mother, visiting for a few days from Los Angeles. Then to my right, and all the way around the table sat 10 classmates and my professor. We were talking about my favorite topic: ...

Roman Vishniac Photographs Exhibit at the International Center of Photography

The portrait selections in the exhibit are just one part of a larger collection. The catalog describes the portraits this way:Portrait Studio and Nightclubs, New YorkUpon arriving in New York in 1941, Vishniac turned to photography to support his family, opening a portrait studio on the Upper West Side. Always resourceful, he mined his connections in the Russian and German-Jewish ...

The Name May Change but the Belief Stays the Same

Not surprisingly, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade kicked up a great deal of dust. In early January, Planned Parenthood announced that it will abandon the term “pro-choice to describe people who believe abortion should be every woman’s right; on January 25th, tens of thousands of activists gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for the annual Walk for Life. One of our ...

Are Legumes Kosher for Passover for Ashkenazic Jews?

From Haaretz – the “legume revolution” has begun and many are saying that yes, legumes are kosher for Passover for Ashkenazi Jews, under certain circumstances.We find this debate and discussion to be a caricature and burlesque of the meaningful human, social and philosophical purposes of religious theology, law and custom.Efrat rabbi tilts against Passover food restrictions for Ashkenazi Jews. Others, ...

Shmiras Einayim is Frum Masochism

The Rabbi gave a men’s only shiur on shmiras einayim last week (guarding your eyes – for the frum illiterate) and I decided to go through with character building and try it out. Once in a while I find myself trying not to look at scantily clad ladies for the challenge of it, I didn’t know I was wracking up ...

Redefine Success, Submit to Passion

It’s January 2013 in Denver, Colorado. Things are going well. My children have settled easily into the school year in second grade and pre-K. Becker Impact started a challenging and particularly meaningful new project. Then, as part of that project, I interviewed a charismatic young lawyer who mentioned what first year associates now earn at New York City law firms. ...