When my fifteen-year old daughter, Avigayil, came home with detention for skipping morning prayer, I was devastated. It wasn’t just that in her pluralistic community school, where there are supposedly choices for everyone, I did not think detention for missing
I would like to take a moment and question the obvious: why is 8:01 the hour of crime? Why is it that what is acceptable at 7:59 becomes the cause of all kinds of punishments and consequences a mere two
Whenever I see “Clinton” in a newspaper headline, I have to read down a bit to see if the story is about Bill or Hillary. Now that’s novel. The fact that the news is actually more likely to be about her than
June, the month inundated with lovely transitional moments, can be a parent’s nightmare. As a mother of four, my diary this time of year is packed with end-of-year performances, parties, graduations and all forms of celebrations. While once such events were
I did something recently that I should have done years ago: I called Mrs. Morello. Anna Morello, teacher par excellence for over 35 years at Hunter College High School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, is one of the most gifted and skillful
What does women’s menstruation have to do with disengagement? Everything, it would seem from recent arguments within religious Zionism. This is not surprising, of course. As usual, religious nationalist power struggles take place over the female body.
I’ve decided to subscribe to Post-Adulthood. Being an adult is overrated, and frankly, I’m over it. I’ve had enough of all the trauma of working and paying bills and shuttling little ones around. I’d like to usher in an entire
The day I took off my hat I felt liberated. After four years of marriage, during which time I accumulated an extensive array of berets, caps, scarves, snoods, and other popular and not-so-popular designs for hair-hiding, I walked out of
[Published in the Australian Jewish News in 2003] The most invisible members of society are sometimes among the most interesting. It is perhaps with this idea in mind that publishers have recently put out books exploring “remarkable” or “thinking” Jewish
(A condensed version of this essay appeared in the Australian Jewish News Rosh Hashana Supplement, 2003) Hayom harat olam. Today is the birth of the world. With these words we repeatedly affirm our meaning of Rosh Hashana following each set of shofar