D-I-Y Parenthood
Doing it yourself can mean much more than selecting a sperm donor. These women are creating-and raising-wildly unconventional families.
Julie Greenberg:
Confidently Breaking the Norms by Susan Schnur
How one mother, with a series of female lovers, two rabbinic sperm donors, two adoptions, and one gay parenting partner raises five exceptional kids.
Custom-Designed Motherhood
Susan Schnur talks with Jenifer Firestone, a kind-of-single mother, who, with exceeding clarity, chooses tribal parenting.
Express Male
by Ari Levinson
This sperm donor’s story starts with a phone call and ends with a marriage.
Summer Fiction
Acknowledgements
a short story by Gail Labovitz
Lilith’s first-prize fiction winner for 2010.
Down Under
a short story by Lee Kofman
Raised by Jews
a short story by Naomi Seidman
Poetry
Alicia Ostriker picks “The Fifteenth of Av” by Jane Seitel as the winner of this year’s Charlotte Newberger Poetry Prize—and tells us why. What’s more, she brings us the poem and the premise for each of the runners-up.
Tiles and Tribulations by Dorothy Stern
Mah-jongg gave those 1950s Jewish women a room of their own—for as long as the game was in play. Sarah Blustain tells us why Mahj is back!
What’s in that Diary? by Amy Stone
At the American Jewish Historical Society, Lilith invites three dozen women in white gloves to pry into formerly hidden lives. Get the full list of talented participants and access to exclusive podcasts of the lecture series here!
Can a Liberal Eat Meat? by Fran Hawthorne
Food Politics and everyday life choices: Organic? Free-range? Estrogen-laden soy? All the angst of eating, spelled out here.
Voices
Eavesdropping on women rabbinical students (with access to the expanded text here!) * What do you call an Orthodox female rabbi? * Sweden’s Jewish feminist novelist * Ezrat Nashim’s troublemakers * Noa and Mira: the hot Israeli/Palestinian duo on tour in the U.S. * And more…
Reviews
Diane M. Sharon on Lori Lefkovitz’s Jewish Sexual Identities * Faye Moskowitz on Henry Roth * Joyce Zonana on an un-sunny new novel * Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God * those Three Weissmans of Westport * Claudia Carlin on Sarah’s Key * and much more…
Happening Compiled by Naomi Danis
The Jewish female’s guide to the wide world.
From the Editor
Susan Weidman Schneider reports back from the White House.
Ashkenaz Festival: August 31-September 6 in Toronto—what an amazing line-up of artists! With more than 90 acts and 200 individual artists hailing from over a dozen countries, North America’s premier festival of Jewish music and culture is marking its 15th anniversary in an undertaking so ambitious that it has taken two years of planning to organize. Check it out!
Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects is pleased to present 24 Frames Per Second, an exhibition of new photographic works by Israeli artist Inbal Abergil. Inbal Abergil, once an Air Force photographer, studied photography at Jerusalem's Hadassah College in 2001 and received her B.E.D. with honors in 2007 from the Midrasha School of Art. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Columbia University's School of the Arts, while dividing her time between New York and Tel Aviv. She has exhibited work in New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, and throughout Israel. 24 Frames Per Second was critically acclaimed during its maiden exhibition in Tel Aviv in 2008. From July 15 - August 14 @ Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects.
Kudos to Alix Kates Shulman for her first place Rockower win for Excellence in Writing about Health, for her fascinating 2009 article in Lilith about what happens when a man you love is losing his mind. Get the full text of her award-winning article here!
Our amazing photographer, Joan Roth, gets special access to the confirmation hearings! See her fantastic photos of Elena Kagan here and here. Thanks, Joan!
Save the date! Lilith contributor Graciela Berger Wegsman’s play, "Memory is a Culinary Affair," opens in New York City, August 18, 20, and 21, as part of Summerfest at the Manhattan Repertory Theater. “After moving from Argentina to New York City, Carina, 36,
learns that it is never easy to leave the past behind – especially when that past is a childhood lived during a dictatorship that destroyed her family.” For more info call (646) 329-6588 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (646) 329-6588 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or visit Summerfest online.
Mazal tov to philanthropist and Lilith board member Barbara Dobkin, who is being awarded the prestigious Leadership, Equity And Diversity Award by the Women's Funding Network. Read all the details here.
If you read about Anne Etra's "GET Rap" in Lilith's spring issue and wished you could watch it, wait no more--click here now! (Don't have the issue? Purchase it here or subscribe now)
JOFA address the Rabbinical Council of America on women and religious leadership. Read the letters here, sign the petition here, and go to Jofa.org for more details.
Randi Sidman-Moore's exhibit of documentary photography, "Lox with Black Beans and Rice," will open at the Jewish Museum, South Beach, on April 27th spotlighting the Cuban Jewish community of South Florida. It'll be up for a few months--and you won't want to miss it!
Did you see Rabba Sara Hurwitz's great address at the JOFA conference?
Lilith has made Joy Ladin's inspirational piece from the winter issue available for free download. Plus, don't miss Lilith's aggregation of Jewish trans articles, which you can find in the Landmark Articles page.
Race. Loss. For $10, we'll send you one copy of each of these classic back issues: "Motherloss: What Happens to a Girl When Her Mother Dies Young?" (Summer 1999) and "African American Nannies & Jewish Girls: Looking Back at a Complex Relationship" (Winter 2002-3)--just click here. Bulk orders are available for your salon/book group or class, for a limited time only, at $25 for 25 copies. Please specify which of these two issues you are ordering in bulk.
Have you found a Lilith salon near you? See them all on the new Lilith salon map. Are we missing your salon? Please send us an email!
Have you seen the great video from Lilith's Fun(d)-Raiser? Check it out!
While supplies last--high-quality canvas Lilith tote bags, with a Nicole Hollander cartoon on one side and Lilith's tagline on the other, so you can let everyone know that you, too, are independent, Jewish & frankly feminist. Buy one at the Lilith store, today. We love them so much that we'll send you one free when you make a tax-deductible contribution of $360 or more.
View sample panels from LILITH's traveling exhibit celebrating the magazine's almost 30-year history.
