I get emails like this on average twice a month: If you have advice about what I should do with my ancient tefillin, that would be great. They were my great-grandfather’s and I would love to use them, but they are tiny, and the man I talked to at [Big Judaica Store] told me that […]
The Women’s Torah Project peeps sent me a pretty pretty certificate honouring me as one of the Sisters of the Torah, “dedicated to the discovery of ancient roots and the creation of powerful futures.” Isn’t that sweet and generous of them? As I think I’ve said before, the project organisers really are rather a special […]
I’ve mentioned, from time to time, my student Julie. Julie came to meet me one day in Manhattan a couple years ago, looking oh-so-very timid. I recognise the look; it’s the one I wear when I’m in the presence of a Great Brain, where I cannot quite believe my own temerity in bothering the August […]
The New York Public Library is having an exhibition this winter, about Three Faiths And Manuscripts, or some such. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and their various adventures with calligraphy. I’d link you to the relevant Library page, but the exhibition is not on the website yet, not even under “Upcoming.” Anyway, part of the exhibition […]
Very egalitarian, my synagogue. Ladies can do practically anything on the bima. Anything that gentlemen can do. And since we’re so very egalitarian, our dress rules are egalitarian too. Gentlemen on the bima must sport headcoverings and therefore so too must ladies. The headcovering of choice for your standard American Jewish gentleman is a kippah. […]
Everyone knows that to find out what kind of person your date is, look at how they treat the waiter. That is to say, it is our unthinking actions which betray our deep-rooted assumptions, and I’m afraid I’ve got some pretty miserable assumptions to discuss here. You may have seen, of late, reference to the […]
Fun times at JOFA yesterday. That’s the intermittently-annual conference of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, for those not au fait with Modern Orthodox slang. I admit I was rather surprised when they asked me to present, given that I don’t identify as Orthodox, but I said as much and they were still interested, so I […]
“You know Barbie’s getting a new job,” says my friend Mimi to me. “People can vote for her new career.” I put tefillin on a Mattel Barbie doll in 2006, unwittingly creating the Jewish icon now known as Tefillin Barbie. Tefillin Barbie has a frum-girl denim skirt, a T-shirt, the tallit and tefillin more generally […]
