Author: Sarah M. Seltzer

Digging Deeper into Esther’s Mysteries

Rabbi Chana Thompson Shor

The Book of Esther still speaks to us, even in the “safe” diaspora without ruling monarchs — because governments may shift, policies change and antisemitism reasserts itself. 

A Romantic Novel That Acknowledges the Limits of Romance

Sarah M. Seltzer

Miriam Parker’s The Shortest Way Home goes deeper than its bubbly, clear surface, subtly questioning conventional definitions of success for its heroine, Hannah, who begins the novel with a lucrative job and a rich boyfriend.

The Patriarchy-Free Paradise of “Mamma Mia!”

Sarah M. Seltzer

Kalokairi, the fictional Greek island where Donna Sheridan decamps, is a matriarchal paradise: the animals are friendly and the men in thrall to the self-assured women who run things. It’s a place where “having it all” means having cake, dancing, and feeding other people cake while they dance.

More Summer Page-Turners and Pleasure Reads

Sarah M. Seltzer

Here are a few more 2018 books, ranging from slight to serious, that should give Jewish feminist readers (and indeed, all readers) something to curl up with as the summer hits its sultry stride.

The Bitches of the 1990s Weren’t Villains After All

Sarah M. Seltzer

These women were what I called bitchified–undermined and objectified, their progress thwarted by emerging media narrative that called them bitches and every derivative. The sexism was shocking to uncover.

Independent, jewish & frankly feminist

Since 1976, Lilith magazine charts Jewish women’s lives with exuberance, rigor, affection, subversion and style.