Faith and Ritual

A WASPy Jew Finds Her Roots

By Kim Bendheim

Kim Bendheim’s family celebrated Jewish assimilation. She writes about abandoning her family’s WASPy roots to get married under a chupah and study for an adult Bat Mitzvah.Read More

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Coming to Terms With Our Dreams

By Ilana Grinblat

In this week’s column, Rabbi Ilana Grinblat discusses biblical Joseph’s transformation from a dreamer to a dream interpreter — and relates the story to her own young son’s (easily fulfilled) wish.Read More

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The Courage To Lose

By Ilana Grinblat

Rabbi Ilana Grinblat writes about her young son’s response to a television wrestling match and about the biblical Jacob’s divine wrestling match. From both, she draws lessons about the sometimes-hidden blessings of defeat.Read More

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Why We Start With 'Bereishit'

By Ilana Grinblat

With the cycle of Torah reading beginning anew this weekend, Rabbi Ilana Grinblat looks at the reason why the Torah starts with Genesis, even though the first commandment doesn’t come until Exodus. In doing so, Grinblat consults both Rashi and her toddler daughterRead More

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Haredi and Out of the Closet

By Rukhl Schaechter

For the first 20 years of her life, Chani Getter was no different from the other girls in the Nikolsburg Hasidic sect in Monsey, N.Y. As the second of five children, she earned good grades at school and had close friends. At age 17, she was introduced to her future husband, also 17, and after one meeting the wedding date was set.Read More

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Reluctant Mitzvah

By Rabbi Deborah Wechsler

In this essay, Rabbi Deborah Wechsler discusses the challenges of being a loving mother and participating in the Jewish ritual circumcision of her newborn son.Read More

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Green Engagements: The Search for Kosher Organic Caterers

By Leah Koenig

Leah Koenig and her fiancé became matchmakers at their own wedding when they paired a farmer with a caterer in their quest to serve food that was both kosher and green. Koening discusses the relative dearth of organic kosher food — and the few options available — in this article from our archives.Read More

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As Miriam’s Cup Runneth Over, Jewish Men Go Missing in Action

By Noam Neusner

While Jewish Women in liberal denominations are engaging passionately with Judaism, Jewish men are drifting to the sidelines. Noam Nessner urges Jewish men to engage Judaism with the same vitality as women.Read More

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The Cup of Liberation

By Jane Eisner

“New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future,” catalogs the tremendous changes in Jewish theology, scholarship, rituals and synagogue life sparked by ardent feminists of all denominations (though mostly non-Orthodox) — in a way that will leave any reader impressed by what has been accomplished in only decades.Read More

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A Prayer of One’s Own

By Ruth Abusch-Magder

God speaks to Jewish women as well as to Jewish men. God loves Jewish women as well as God loves Jewish men. From biblical times to the present, there have been prayers that speak to this love, answer this call and voice concerns of their own, but not usually in mainstream liturgy. Usually uttered outside the synagogue, and often hidden from public view, these prayers speak to the inner desires and struggles of Jewish women.Read More

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