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February 10, 2021 Steph Black
A Reproductive Shabbat
On a Saturday afternoon many months ago, I leaned across the center console of my car and pushed open my passenger side door to welcome in a stranger. I only knew her first name and cell phone number, and that she was having an abortion later in pregnancy.
This was my Shabbat, bringing her back and forth between one of the five clinics that would perform the procedure she needed and the modest hotel a mile away.
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February 3, 2021 by Yona Zeldis McDonough
Forget Russia: a Q&A with L. Bordetsky-Williams
“Your problem is you have a Russian soul,” Anna’s mother tells her. In 1980, Anna is a naïve college senior studying abroad in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. She’s also a second-generation Russian Jew raised on a calamitous family history of abandonment, Czarist-era pogroms, and Soviet-style terror.
Novelist L. Bordetsky-Williams talks to Fiction Editor Yona Zeldis McDonough about how Anna’s experience both illuminates the dark corners of her family’s past and shines a light toward the future she is fashioning for herself.
YZM: You write about Russia with such affection and intimacy; what is your relationship to the country?
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February 2, 2021 Rachel Faulkner
Ten Things to Remember for Black History Month… and Beyond
I love love love Black History Month. I love being intentional about pausing and reflecting on Black beauty, Black joy, and Black resilience, all of which is synonymous with Black history. I love being reminded of the Black food, Black music, and Black wisdom that has sustained us through the generations.
And as Jews prepare for Black History Month observations and celebrations this year I want to invite non-Black Jews to remember some things:
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February 1, 2021 by Yona Zeldis McDonough
Tell Me How You Got Here: An Interview With Emily Franklin
Emily Franklin’s “The Proper Care of Silver,” a deft and insightful story that explores the relationship between a woman and her housekeeper, appeared in the 2018-2019 winter issue of Lilith. Now Franklin is back again, this time with her first collection of poetry, Tell Me How You Got Here (Terapin Books) and she chats with Fiction Editor Yona Zeldis McDonough about the many and varied sources of her inspiration.
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January 28, 2021 Meredith Cohen
A Southern Jewish Farmer?!
Questions that I’ve heard many times (mainly from other Jews, to be clear): Southern Jews? Jewish Farmers?? SOUTHERN JEWISH FARMERS?!? Hi, yes, nice to meet you, Chag Sameach. I am a southern Jewish farmer, and I started One Soil Farm, a Jewish community farm in rural North Carolina, 20 minutes (and 30 years) away from where I grew up as one of the only Jewish kids in our public school system (shout out to my li’l sis).
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January 26, 2021 by Eleanor J. Bader
Honoring the Memory of a Special Young Woman— by Teaching Consent
When Erin Michele Levitas was 19, she was raped by someone she knew. As she processed and healed from what had happened, she made a decision: After college, she would attend law school and become an advocate for survivors of sexual assault.
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January 26, 2021 by Jen Gubitz
Debbie Friedman Helped Me Find My Voice
On January 28 at 8PM, Join Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion for Sing Unto God, a virtual event to commemorate Debbie Friedman’s legacy on the occasion of her 10th Yahrzeit. Register here.
With my long, curly, mop of dark hair, I’m buckled up in the back seat of our blue ‘86 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. I can’t wait. Today, it’s just me and my mom on our way to Indiana University in Bloomington. Not only are we going to eat cookies the size of our faces while my mom tells me stories of how she met my dad, but Debbie Friedman has come to give a concert.
The summer before, I spent weeks at my day camp, making up a dance to “Miriam’s Song.” We wear flowing skirts, shake tambourines, and we dance over and over again. I am a tiny feminist bringing Miriam to life, even though I don’t know what feminism is.
Music is a love language in our family; and I’m only eight when my Bubbe, the original source of music in our family, dies. This first great loss leaves me sad and withdrawn, twitchy and morbid. This trip with my mom, a musical genius in her own right, feels the closest to normal it’s been in a while. We know all the words to every song on “You Shall Be a Blessing,” and it’s in the cassette deck while we drive.
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January 25, 2021 Marissa Tiamfook Gee
Totally Normal
Four years ago, I cried watching the Presidential Inauguration. Literally cried. I felt overwhelmed, scared and defeated. Last Wednesday, I cried again watching the Presidential Inauguration. Crying with relief, excitement and exhaustion. I can finally breathe.
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January 22, 2021 Tonda Case
The Torah of Feeding
“Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.”
Maya Angelou
When I was a child, My Mother, a native of Bogalusa, Louisiana, would conjure the indigenous ways of her mother and grandmothers by feeding me directly from her hands. I can close my eyes and see her hands: deep, rich mahogany. Tender, strong. Hands that nurture, love and protect. Still. I can recall the intimacy, love and even the tender touch of her fingers as she placed the food in my mouth with such love and great care. Her eyes soften with love for me. Still.
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January 19, 2021 Susan Barocas
The Promise of Tu B’Shevat
Tu b’Shevat is the holiday that lets us know better days are coming.
In the midst of winter, the ground is cold and hard in many places with leafless trees silhouetted against the often-gray skies. But leafless doesn’t mean lifeless- and deep in the winter earth, things are happening. Trees and plants are awakening, gathering nutrients, making ready for the spring that is soon to come.
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