Women challenge their silent fathers. Manic depression: why Jewish women may be at risk. Our former interns dish about life after Lilith. Keeping 20something Jews close.
Table of contents Get the issueLaunching our new column on the latest feminist academic advances are quick takes on what "gay" means to Israeli life, the gender of literature and other juicy items from the hallowed halls.
In the years between college and careers, childhood and childbearing, 20-something Jews are slipping through the cracks—-and no one seems to care. Here’s how to help them hang on.
We asked child-reviewers what they thought about this year’s crop of “girl books” and others; then we asked their parents to explain.
Why Jewish families are so desperate to hide it, and why women may be more at risk.
There was nothingbut hills of sand and stoneour wilderness we climbedthe Midwestern landscapeuntil mother screamed “Get down now,”reminding us of the long scar on Daddy’s thigh.He’d been King of the Hillsliding down the dirt in Brooklynuntil a rusty wirecaught him by the muscleand slit him open. Those kind of wiresrun in a family; we were... Read more »
I can hear my grandfathersinging night songsthrough the open door where he sleeps.His voice,stronger than it ever was in waking,cuts through the tapestry,the wooden floors.My grandmother sayshe started singing in his sleepsometime sincehis eighty fifth birthday passed,with no sign of heart failure,or cancer returning.First it was Yiddish nursery rhymes,then love songs,now holy prayers.She says it’s... Read more »
When a man is drunkit generally doesn’t get up,so this too is absurd:that we seduced himafter drowning him in wine.The truthhurts in one’s tissueswhen one pisses and squatsand hurts in the headknowing that this manfed us bread,fashioned us dolls out of wheat stalks,smiled, joked, bouncedballs for usand representedthe gender, the speciesthat we would have loved... Read more »
Faye Kellerstein on how, despite sexist strictures, an Orthodox daughter becomes her father’s voice.
Sarah Cooper moves past a dad’s nastiness to understand that she can honor him and still be true to herself.
I’ve said the prayer you taught mesilently at bed time,the house feathered quiet.I’ve said it in crisis mornings,during the wail of baby’s toothacheand betweenthe mismatched socks of children.I thought it would helpkeep me daddy-connected.Once, when I was seven,you opened the back doorand said, “there’s nothing to see,yet we know it’s there,”then in your rumble voice,... Read more »
Gail Todd reconstructs her father’s lost world, cracking the silence a pogrom begat.
A feminist? A Jew? A mother? A professional? We asked our former interns (aged 23 to 40) to talk about Life after LILITH, what happens to the identity puzzle when “none of the edges match.”
Whose Last Name ? I was dismayed by your listing of donors in the Summer 1997 edition of LILITH. I find it not only mystifying but also downright wrong that couples with separate last names are alphabetized by the last name of the male. The cover of LILITH reads, “The Independent Jewish Women’s Magazine.” If a... Read more »
