Jewish Blogs

The Grinch is back

In a recent guest post on TCJewfolk, Nina Badzin advocates that Jews stop rejecting “Merry Christmas” greetings by saying “Not everybody celebrates Christmas,” “I’m Jewish,” or “I celebrate Hanukkah.” She writes: “Our disdain is embarrassing. It’s wrong. AND IT HAS TO STOP.”While some of her points are certainly valid, the piece really rubbed me the wrong way. If I may ...

The Great Parade

I’ve got my first music writing gig in a while, reviewing the new Shondes album for the Forward. And while it’s weird to be listening to music in the middle of Sefirat HaOmer, it’s also kind of cool. The other day, right before my gig, I got a song stuck in my head (“Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, if you ...

The Giving Tree for Tu Bishvat

Ten years ago I was asked by the editor of the journal Conservative Judaism to write about my favorite book from my childhood. There was no question I would write about Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. In honor of the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat — the birthday of the trees — I republish those words on this blog.The Giving Tree“And then the ...

The Gift Shop (at the synagogue) — Just in Time for Hanukkah!

OK, there aren’t any mysteries. Synagogue gifts shops carry everything from bouncing dreidels to honey containers for Rosh Hashana and beyond. Buying Hanukkah candles at The Gift Shop is infinitely better for getting in the Hanukkah spirit than throwing a box in your cart at Randalls. Probably because you end up walking out with gold mesh bags of gelt and ...

The Giant Tome of Kvell

It always makes my stomach a little barfy when lists are published “proving” how Jewish people are smarter and/or more accomplished than any other group of people that inhabit the Earth.Not because the disproportionate amount of Jewy names on Nobel prizes (23% of the total ever awarded) and powerful businesspeople lists (24% of Fortune’s Top 25) gives fodder for the whole ...

The Frum Satire Guide to Shemona Esrei

I have written extensively on the ways people daven, judging them by the ways they pronounce things and the movements they make. Heck, I’ve written and done comedy routine videos on the most skipped parts of davening and why that is, but I’ve never actually written about the davening itself. Now I know that some of you are going to ...

The friendliest shul in New York City

I had a lot of things on my mind as I ran out the door of my friends house in Jamaica Estates. I had just been informed by my bank that my checking account was drained by someone in Florida who had gotten a hold of my debit card somehow, I had just spent over an hour in traffic to ...

The Food Truck that Drove Right Over Kosher Politics

Article first published as The Food Truck That Drove Right Over Kosher Politics on Technorati.Kosher certification in the nation’s capital has become much like everything else in D.C. – political and divisive. The Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington has long had a monopoly on kosher certification and it doesn’t want to give up its stronghold anytime soon.Over the past several ...

The flagship shul of the American Kiruv Industry

I was bored in shul this past Friday night, so I decided to do a statistical analysis of the people in attendance. I first counted out 120 men, then started breaking it down a bit more, I noticed very few light suits, even fewer folks without suits, 13 people wore colored shirts and there were approximately 50 black hats, one ...

The “Fine Madness” of Discovering Lesléa Newman

During an otherwise unidentifiable undergraduate semester, I took a class called The Psychology of the Lesbian Experience. (I’m not even kidding a little bit that that was the title.) I was not politically savvy enough at the time to think that this class could be problematic if it were not taught by actual lesbians (it was), or to worry about ...

The final day of #jwapedia

Today is the final day of May, which also makes it the final day of Jewish American Heritage Month and the final day of our #jwapedia campaign to tweet the Encyclopedia.This month we wanted to bring Jewish women’s stories to the fore, experimenting with Twitter as a vehicle for doing so. We asked a group of Twitter users including organizations, clergy, ...

The Feminist Funder

When it comes to projects focused on empowering Jewish women and girls, it’s a good bet that Barbara Dobkin’s name is listed among the supporters. And if it isn’t, you have good reason to ask why not. Dobkin, 66, is a longtime donor-activist and proud feminist funder known for her willingness to take risks. She served as founding chair of ...