Jewish Blogs

I went to the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco

The yetzer harah didn’t let me get up for shacharis like I had planned, but he couldn’t stop me from attending the San Francisco gay pride parade no matter how many times he told me to hit the snooze button. I hopped in my car and drove 40 miles up to the city. I got me a good spot and ...

I went to the frum gay shabbaton and loved it

“A whole Shabbos without fearing a mob of Charedim was going to beat me? I never thought that would happen!” So said one of the more than 100 participants who joined Rabbi Steven Greenberg, Rabbi Paysach Krohns, and Shloime Dachstein at the Eshel Shabbaton, held last weekend, Parshas Chayei Sarah, at the rustic Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Fallas Village ...

I was wondering about furniture outlets and cellphone gas station explosions

“Do not fill up while talking on cellphone, sparks may cause explosion.” I’m staring at this sign as I fill up at a gas station in Hayward, a car pulls up next to me with 24 inch rims and tinted windows, it’s a 1980′s chevy, I know the neighborhoods not very good, California is one of those places where you can ...

I ♥ The U.N.

I love the United Nations. Yes, I know, the General Assembly was well and memorably described by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “theater of the absurd.” Actually, a better metaphor might be a tribe of savages, or, perhaps, a zoo.But that leads to the reason for my affinity for the world body, namely, how wonderfully the menagerie brings to ...

I slept through schachris on my mothers yertzeit so God screwed with me

Every year around this time I get a call from my old man reminding me about my mothers yertzeit so I make it to shul to say kadesh. Being a cook doesn’t make things any easier when it comes to getting up in the morning or actually making it… to shul. Last night amidst an insane dinner rush (half a ...

I remember when our Young Israel had social dances

I am so maddened by the shift to the right in orthodoxy. When I was a kid there was none of this crazy separation of the sexes and you didn’t see us having trouble with marriages. Did I ever tell you that I met your father at a dance put on by our local Young Israel? Imagine that — a ...

I miss New York a little bit

I was walking down the street in San Jose with a buddy of mine from Denver and we came to a random crosswalk in the middle of a very busy street. “Watch this” I told him as I stepped into a busy street with cars traveling at speeds of 45 miles per hour, there was no traffic light around. He ...

I Miss Her Already, And She’s Not Even Gone

During the course of my mother-in-law’s slow, quiet slide into the abyss of dementia, I’ve become the ersatz matriarch of the family.Mostly, it’s fine, pulling together a few Shabbos dinners a month and making sure everyone remembers each other’s birthdays. But for some reason, I’m not feeling it this Thanksgiving. I haven’t even been to the grocery store yet—just the ...

I made my first gay shidduch

I don’t have that many frum gay friends, I count them all on one hand, so when I thought of the current shidduch I wasn’t working with much. I had mentioned it to both of the people involved some time ago and it just so happened that one of them was going to be visiting the others city so I ...

I love hate mail like this

My dear fellow Jew,Your ignorance of basic Judaism is so evident in your threads, posts, broadcasts and discussions.What you post on the web is there, for a long, long time. Not only to Jews read this, but non-Jews as well.Your desecration of G-d’s name is tremendous. You are an embarrassment to me and so many other Jews that try very ...

I like dating divorcees

“She’s a wonderful girl, excellent middot,” said my shadchan. “She has a job, comes from a respectable family, and shares your Russian-speaking background.” I’ve heard this line before, so I was already prepared for the downside, the big “but” that comes after the positives are listed. “She is divorced, but don’t worry, she has no children. It was a brief marriage ...

I Just Nullified My Sins, and Now I Can Do Anything

I’ve been going to synagogue every morning this week, which is rare for me. I used to skip synagogue all the time because I slept too late, and then it was because my kids were up too early. I never got to see them any other time because of this full-time-job thing (you know, the one that enables me to ...