Dressing [and Undressing] the Torah

Patricia Goldblatt

Called up to the synagogue bimah to put the cover back on the Torah, she receives — unanticipated — her flash of illumination.

Talking [and Not Talking] About God

Evelyn Becker

A believing young daughter sweetly confounds her mom. Why is it so tough when adult Jews encounter the “verticality principle”?

“Are These Sufferings Dear To You?” My Disability, Its Isolation, and My Journey

Jessica Belasco

Fighting against the physical constraints she was born with, and the isolation they imposed upon her, Belasco reports, from the other side of a chasm, on how she came back to life.

Why the Jewish Community Should Fund Fertility

Naomi Less

Fertility challenges incur huge costs — emotional, financial and communal. But a BirthRATE program could finance Jewish babies faster than free Birthright trips to Israel. Plus…Elliot Jager on being male and childless. 

So Much More to Sing: On the Death of a Woman Friend

Nessa Rapoport

When Elizabeth Swados died this winter, Rapoport was confronted with her insufficient ritual resources for mourning.

Teaching Gunhate

Helène Aylon

An artist’s manifesto for protecting her grandsons.

Choosing Which Language to Live In

Yaëlle Azagury

Roiled by her culture's hidden messages of colonialism, patriotism, alienation and intimacy, a Moroccan Jew comes to terms — in Connecticut.

Lower East Side Library: A Love Affair

Rochelle Newman

How the neighborhood’s civil rights ethos was lived out in a branch library. 

McDonald’s Coffee

a short story by Alisa Ungar-Sargon

The Watch

Poetry by Jane Shore