Jewish women running for office. When food endangered Jews. The challenge of raising liberal kids in Israel. A Moroccan Jew finds common ground with Muslim feminists in Tangier. The proud history of midwives?
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When you are a girl who cuts herself, for years, with the clean antiseptic edge of a razor blade that once belonged to—well, no. Deborah never told anyone that. The first owner of the blade, that was her secret. But it never belonged to her father, or even her younger brother. She knew the therapist... Read more »
Today I voted for a woman I voted for my grandmother Who worked in a chocolate factory And taught me how to paint I voted for my great grandmother Who labored in a sweat shop I voted for Eve Who was punished with pain for Destroying paradise I voted for Rebecca Who had a mind... Read more »
You could say it began with a Buzzfeed quiz. Remember those distractions, now relics from a seemingly cushier time on the internet? This one, in 2015, called “Which 90s Bitch Are You?” grabbed my attention. Soon after, I learned that an inaugural music festival of 90s artists was in the works. And Hillary Clinton, whose... Read more »
Reading through Rachel Blau du Plessis and Ann Snitow’s anthology The Feminist Memoir Project almost a decade ago, I was struck by the essay “Our Gang of Four: Female Friendship and Women’s Liberation,” written by Amy Kesselman with Heather Booth, Vivian Rothstein, and Naomi Weisstein, members of the nation’s first women’s liberation group. The article... Read more »
The birth of children is at once both an entirely everyday occurrence and a miracle in its own right. With few exceptions, for every child born, there was someone there to catch them. This task has fallen to midwives, both trained and untrained, for most of recorded history. One of the earliest textual mentions of... Read more »
Cooking with ground nuts and nut pastes was popular in medieval Jewish and Islamic cultures across Iberia, North Africa and the Mediterranean. At the time, beaten eggs and egg whites were the primary way to leaven baked goods. They bake up flatter than what is usually thought of as a macaroon, are crispy outside, chewy... Read more »
Leeks are one of the seven symbolic foods blessed and served at a Sephardic Rosh Hashana seder. I also make this dish for Passover every year. In a fascinating example of enduring Sephardic food culture, prasa was introduced to my family by a cousin from Cuba in the early 1960s. When she made the prasa... Read more »
Suddenly the State is no longer the Other—it’s her, and her family. How to confront this identity shift and its responsibilities?
It began with a lie. She told her daughter that the Jewish boys’ choir on the recording was really girls. The lesson that followed was illuminating.
Novelist Albert lives in Upstate New York. Here’s a sampling of the unanticipated anti-Semitism she’s been hearing from people in her circle.
ELISSA SLOTKIN Democrat • Primary Candidate in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District “My Opponent was Very Proud He’d Repealed Obamacare” Elissa Slotkin began her graduate work at Columbia University on September 10, 2001. “My life was defined by 9/11,” she told Lilith. “I knew after the smoke cleared that I was going to do national service... Read more »
LENA EPSTEIN Republican • Primary Candidate for Congress in Michigan’s 11th District “The Beautiful Path to Legal Immigration” Epstein was co-chair of Trump’s Michigan campaign for the presidency, and her website describes her as “Leader. Businesswoman. Conservative Outsider.” Initially a candidate for Senate who intended to challenge incumbent Debbi Stabenow, she switched races to compete... Read more »
JULIA SALAZAR Democratic Socialist • Primary Candidate for New York State Senate A Hyper-Local Race in Gentrifying Brooklyn “We can shake New York’s political establishment to its core,” said Julia Salazar, the young New York State Senate candidate running to unseat a long-term incumbent in Brooklyn, at her kickoff event in May. Salazar, 27, is... Read more »
JACKY ROSEN Democrat • Candidate for Senate from Nevada A Savvy Run for the Senate A May profile in Politico entitled “The ex-synagogue president who could decide Senate control” has a lot to say about Nevada Congresswoman Jacky Rosen, positing her senatorial bid as the linchpin for a so-called “Blue Wave” this fall. “Democrats are banking... Read more »
ELLEN LIPTON Democrat • Primary Candidate in Michigan’s 9th Congressional District “There Was a Complete Ban on Stem-Cell Research!” A former state representative, Lipton defines herself as “a fierce defender of public schools” and opposed to “any efforts to privatize our public education system.” One of a spate of Jewish women candidates in Michigan this year,... Read more »
SARA JACOBS Democrat • Ran in Congressional Primary in California’s 49th District A Millennial Darling of the Dems The media enjoyed positing Sara Jacobs, 29, as the ultimate Millennial candidate. She ran for the 49th district congressional seat after Republican Darrell Issa retired, and Jacobs’ hat was in the ring for a race that was... Read more »
SHIRA GOODMAN Democrat • Ran in the Primary for Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District Fighting Washington’s “Corruption of Democratic Values” This House race, in which she finished second in a three-way primary May 15, presented first-time candidate Shira Goodman with disparate challenges, despite what had appeared to be a smoother path to victory because there was... Read more »
KATHY MANNING Democrat • Running for Congress from North Carolina’s 13th District “Kitchen Table Issues” Motivate Her Kathy Manning, a former immigration lawyer, is in many ways an ideal candidate. In her home base, Greensboro, N.C., she has held been known for her work spurring job creation and retraining, and for her multiple volunteer roles—leading... Read more »
Seven years after the Arab Spring, a Moroccan Jewish feminist returns to Tangier and connects with her Muslim ex-schoolmates.
