Spring 2024

As a Burning Flame: The 1930s Dream of Rabbi Regina Jones

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In graphic from, the powerful life of Regina Jonas, known as the first ordained female rabbi in Ashkenazi Jewish History.

Further Reading: Disability Writing Through a Jewish Feminist Lens

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From accessible city-building to inclusive community-building for kids, here are a few of Lilith’s book picks that feature disability writing through a Jewish feminist lens.

Reproductive Rites

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There is a modern legend that in the early days of women’s ordination as rabbis, a rabbinical school professor stood up and said: “Judaism has a bracha for every single human experience we undergo.” The women in the room—knowing the incredulity of that statement—laughed. Because while it’s true that while Judaism has blessings for after using the bathroom or for hearing thunder, we don’t have that kind of ritual content for the myriad of experiences specific to women.

Miriam, Hagar and Me

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Miriam’s roles echo in me. Like her, I am an older sister, a Jew, a teacher of children, a woman who has chosen not to be a mother. It has been harder, however, for me to explain the connection I feel to Hagar.

Dr. Ruth Takes on Loneliness

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Her advice was easier to take, she determined, because it was offered by a “matronly woman” with a nonthreatening demeanor and a charming accent.

Two Jews, Three Opinions, Online Rage

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Since the war began, though, online spaces have changed.

Israeli Writer’s “Canceled” Essay on Empathy

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It is not easy to tread the line of empathy, to feel passion for both sides.

ICYMI, Jewish Students Are at Risk on Campus

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One confounding fact in this onslaught of the world’s oldest hatred is that American society should have been ready to handle it.

“A cigarette butt put out on her thigh.”

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As the daughter of two Iranian immigrants, I am compelled to take advantage of the opportunities and privileges my mother, aunts, and grandmothers were deprived of.

All the Rage

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What the “Mom Rage” Concept Encompasses, and What it Can’t

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart

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GennaRose Nethercott’s latest fiction

She’s a Witch, and a Jew— and Both Mean Death

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Readers know this is a story set in the Inquisition, and that it cannot be free of pain.

The Painful Business of Family Living

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The Hebrew Teacher, by Maya Arad, lovingly translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen, consists of three novellas which flow naturally one to the other. Each addresses immigration between Israel and... Read more »

A Tragicomic Tale of Sisters

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Having a sister is looking in a cheap mirror; what’s there is you, but unfamiliar...

Brooklyn Babs Does It Her Way

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Despite boys’ clubs, gaslighting and discrimination, Babs persisted.

Caroline Leavitt Knows Family and Drama

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Though her mother repeatedly tells her to forget about this child, Ella can’t.

Our Embryos Weren’t Children

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Our doctor’s voice shifted, a tone suggesting not to buy a lottery ticket that day.

Fiction: The Houseguest

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We’re getting a houseguest, I tell my husband in bed. He turns off the TV, switches the light. You could have asked. Act first, apologize later, I say, quoting his... Read more »

… and Toxic Workplaces Are Jewish

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and young Jewish feminists may leave, disillusioned.

The Negroni Sbagliato

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One woman's workaround.

Poem: “She Is”

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My grandmother is a limestone temple; she is a titanium rod, she is an iron lung.

Salvation: Thrifting as Solace

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Why, in a time of acute distress, the discount racks of the Salvation Army offer comfort and control.

Talking Harm and Repair with Guila Benchimol

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If you’ve worked at all on issues of power, gender and abuse in the Jewish world you likely know the work of Guila Benchimol, Ph.D. Benchimol—a consultant, researcher, educator and... Read more »

The Rest of My Life: Long Covid’s Poignant Reminders

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When I fell sick, there was not enough caretaking to go around. What I know now, four years later, is that rest, the ability to fully give into the demands of one’s body, is vital to recovery.

When the Accessibility Barrier Is the Law Itself

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When Batya Sperling-Milner, who is blind, told her mother that she wanted to chant Torah at her bat mitzvah, her mom, Rabbanit Aliza Sperling, got worried. The potential barrier to... Read more »

How to Build an Accessible Synagogue

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In recent years, as synagogues have been adapting Judaism’s male-dominated, heteronormative traditions to include women and queer people, many have been also working to include people with disabilities. This work-in-progress begins—but doesn’t end—with ensuring that everyone who wants to go to synagogue can actually get into the building.