Jewish Blogs

Locusts at the Seder?

The locusts are coming, the locusts are coming!Swarms of insects “the size of small birds” have descended on Israel, reports the New York Times, causing crops to fail and my stomach to retch. Giant freakin’ grasshoppers. Everywhere.Since it’s so close to Passover, you’d have to try verrrrrry hard NOT to make references Pharoah’s Plague No. 8, when God sent enough voraciously ...

Is Niacin Kosher for Your Heart?

No, niacin is not kosher for your heart.USA Today via Detroit Free Press alerts us to a new study that found, “Niacin doesn’t help heart, may cause harm, study says.”We knew this eleven years ago. After Lipitor gave us hepatitis and the cardiologist told us to take Niaspan, instead we looked it up and found no reason to believe that ...

Making Trouble with JWA

Yesterday, the Jewish Women’s Archive held its third annual Making Trouble/Making History Awards Luncheon. As a new member of the JWA staff, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Less than one week on the job, and I was packing my bags for a trip to New York City—ready to blog, tweet, photograph, and schmooze my way through the event. Not exactly the ...

The Great Minyan Day

It’s about two weeks before Pesach and Rabbis across the country are emailing their shul members with the chometz sales forms. I’m not going to poke fun at the whole business of “selling” chometz, since we’ve pretty much accepted this legal loophole as fact and are better off for it. But I am going to poke fun at the Great ...

When a Woman Cannot Mourn

The Women of the Wall have been fighting for a woman’s right to pray at the Western Wall since 1988. Today’s featured poet, Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff, responds to the latest challenge facing these women- the right to say Kaddish and mourn at the Western Wall. When a woman cannot mourn…. The stones of the earth will shake. The rains will flood The seas will swell The ...

Post-Passover Musings

Here’s hoping everyone had a lovely Pesach!The angel of leavened carbs passed over the Yenta family Tuesday evening in its very traditional forms of pizza and beer, as I believe that the ancient Israelites would be deeply honored with the collective choice of pepperoni and banana peppers.For those who don’t celebrate, you may have heard the sighs of relief as ...

App Measures Your Brainwaves to Know When You’re Busy

We like this, been waiting for it for decades.Gizmodo reports, “Automatic Do-Not-Disturb Measures Your Brainwaves to Know When You’re Busy.”Italian-born neuroscientist Ruggero Scorcioni has developed a new technology that will help you get stuff done by deflecting phone calls or other notifications away when you’re busy. Finally, technology to help keep your brainspace clear when you need it.Ruggero showed us ...

The Latest in Frummy Hocks: BT Insurance

I used to joke that every beis din should have insurance, kind of like errors & omissions, for cases in which they convert someone whose observance level goes south as soon as they come out of the mikveh. Because a halachic conversion is so emotionally grueling and takes so long, it’s hard to find insincere converts, but they’re definitely out ...

Travelouge for National Poetry Month

I’m tempted to rhyme, to watch my cadence, to count syllabus, or maybe even don dark clothing and take to a smoke filled slam poetry session. These aren’t my usual temptations- but this isn’t a usual month. April is National Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets introduced the month in 1996 with the hope of highlighting American poets and ...

Meet Rosabeth Moss Kanter – She Led the Way for Women in the Workforce

I remember how excited I was to discover Rosabeth Moss Kanter in the early 1980’s. She was one of the few females writing about leadership and organizational change management. I hungrily devoured The Change Masters as a relatively new nonprofit CEO navigating roiling changes in the healthcare and political landscape while learning to lead a complex organization toward continued growth.This distinguished Harvard ...

Meet Beate Sirota Gordon – Who Knew?

Beate Sirota Gordon (1923-2012), feminist and Asian arts impressario, was only 22 years old when she wrote women’s rights into Japan’s constitution. In her postwar career as a director of performing arts, first for the Japan Society and then the Asia Society in New York City, she introduced Americans to Asian visual and performing arts, from Japanese wood block prints ...

Tonight My Daughter Will Celebrate Her First Passover

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my car outside my daughter’s day care. No worries, there’s no crying here, no major trauma. I’m trying to check things off my list while waiting for the start of “El dia de Primavera,” a celebration of the first day of spring.Three months ago, after 36 hours of induction, 22 hours of labor, ...