Maya Bernstein
My husband, Noam, and I just returned from vacation. Swimming in a lake, hiking in the mountains amidst a sea of wild flowers, late afternoon ice-cream cones, and French toast… Read more »
Road Trip
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Israel, America, and the changing political status quo
Mel Weiss
Sometimes, Israeli politics and U.S. politics can seem very far apart, very separate, very disconnected. And then there are months like this one. As the question of settlement expansion in… Read more »
Blaming the world's tragedies on women's immodest dress
Modesty Blasé
In Hendonistan, there’s a new message that’s been circulated via email and posted on relevant notice boards inside one particular shul (although by the time you read this, I understand… Read more »
Babysitting
Maya Bernstein
I was roller-blading with my kids in the double stroller this past Sunday, heading from morning mud-pies in the park to summer peaches at the farmer’s market. As I weaved… Read more »
Share your thoughts on the summer issue
admin
The summer issue is up! Share your thoughts and responses below.
Choices and Values
admin
I went to an Orthodox day school. School was closed on Yom Tov as a matter of course.We all brought kosher lunches to school. No parties were held on Shabbat.… Read more »
Of Therapists and Old Ladies
admin
I have a confession to make: I do not believe in therapy. Over the course of my life, I have seen countless therapists, especially during my tumultuous college years –… Read more »
Thank You Notes Teaching Middot
admin
We drove our youngest to camp yesterday. The night before he left he finished the last of his thank you notes for his March Bar mitzvah. I was struck, as… Read more »
A Modest Proposal
Maya Bernstein
Don’t worry. I’m not going to purport that we eat them, nor will I wax poetic on how juicy and delicious those baby pulkes would be with Soy Vay. Though… Read more »
I-Countries
Mel Weiss
It is a well-publicized time for your country to be in the news, if it begins with “i” and is located in the Middle East. (My apologies to India, Indonesia,… Read more »
Be a part of the story
“Among the men who will oppose the presence of women on the bimah will be many who fear that a menstruating woman will contaminate them and the sacred objects on the bimah, especially the Torah. Others… will be awed and humiliated by the woman whose competence in religious matters clearly exceeds their own.”
Just 50 years ago, the Jewish Theological Seminary wouldn’t let women be Conservative rabbis. They offered justifications like the one above from JTS’s Chairman of the Department of Pastoral Psychiatry, Mortimer Ostow.
In Lilith’s Spring/Summer 1977, one of Lilith’s founding mothers, Amy Stone, reports on the Seminary’s refusal to ordain women as rabbis—and the tireless efforts of women like Sandy Levine and Lynn Gottlieb to show that a woman’s place is on the bimah.
Read at 🔗 in bio.
📸 by Bill Ashe and Martin Kharrazi
(FYI: Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb became the first woman ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement in 1981. Sandy Levine, now Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon, was ordained by the Reform movement in 1981 and became the first woman rabbi in Israel.)
What is the next unjust barrier we need to break?
What Jewish practices, ancient and emerging, can help us meet this moment?
Lilith is excited to partner on the @bigjewishgathering—a bold new experiment in Jewish spiritual and cultural life. Join us for a two-day spiritual laboratory on January 24–25 in Brooklyn where emerging and established Jewish leaders will co-create a Judaism that meets this moment — one that is rooted, relevant, and alive.
Read @gxslosberg`s profile of @lovingfife at 🔗 in bio from Lilith`s Summer 2021 issue— and then learn from her next weekend!
We are excited to welcome the fifth cohort of The New 40, Lilith`s fellowship for emerging Jewish feminist writers over 40 (this year, over 45)!
Make it loud in the comments for these 11* new participants!
And stay tuned for new writing from New 40 alums at publishing soon at Lilith Online...
*Two participants have chosen to keep their identity private at this time
To be Jewish in Appalachia may seem like a paradox.
As @nonbiological_woman writes in the latest issue of Lilith, "When I told my New Yorker parents that I was moving to Roanoke, Virginia, over a decade ago, their only references for the region were Cracker Barrel restaurants and the film “Deliverance.” It is easy to imagine, from the outside looking in, that this place we call the Bible Belt is more New Testament than Torah, that this is not a region where Jews live, work, and fight."
In fact, there are small—but vibrant—Jewish communities in the Mountain South. Rosenthal speaks with progressive Appalachian Jews searching across hundreds of miles of mountains to find like-minded Jews who share both their faith and their politics.
