Leah Bieler
By Leah Bieler
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Opinion Can I Forgive The Man Who Beat Me And Terrorized My Kids If He Won’t Say Sorry?
Here’s what I’ve learned this year. Apologizing is easy. Forgiveness is harder. Nearly a year ago, our family home was broken into by a man with a knife. We’ve spent many months grappling with how, and if, our lives should change as a result. With the days of repentance approaching, my thoughts turn towards forgiveness….
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Life Leading High Holiday Services – And Catching A Break From Motherhood’s Demands
When I was a little girl, my father always led the shacharit (morning service) on the High Holidays. The tunes permeated our house, beginning whenever he decided the season should. Sometimes he started ‘practicing’ as early as Purim. He knew it all nearly by heart, and even as a young child, I sensed that he…
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Life Separate but Equal: the Best Mikveh Option for Non-Orthodox Israelis?
Israeli lawmaker Moshe Gafni was so incensed by the Knesset approving funding this week for four non-Orthodox mikvehs that he vowed that in response, “there will be a world war.” But to the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel, I say – take the money and run. I know how big a difference it makes…
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Opinion What They Confiscated from My Daughter at the Western Wall
This is not a story about Women of the Wall. That is a story for someone else to tell. So many women have been dedicated to that cause for so many years. I am just a sometimes joiner. A tourist, if you will. But my daughters really wanted to go. So, despite my dislike of…
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Life Why Is It So Hard to Get Used to a Woman Wearing a Tallit?
When I was a kid, we had a famous riddle that I heard/told dozens of times. It involved a man and his son who were in a car accident. The man dies instantly, and the son is rushed to the hospital. The surgeon is about to operate on the boy, and suddenly exclaims, “I can’t…
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Opinion Orthodox Women Should Thank Feminists Who Came Before — But They Won’t
I’ll begin by saying this. I’m really excited at the idea that Modern Orthodox women leaders, some of them friends of mine, are getting support pouring in from all corners of the Jewish world. Well, maybe not all, but many. This includes the CCAR, the umbrella organization for Reform rabbis. It is truly inspiring. So…
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Opinion Why Jews Should Ride With Muslims in Sydney
People run with hands up from the Lindt Cafe during a hostage standoff in Sydney, Australia / Getty Images My ears perked up when I heard the news about a potential terror attack at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney. “Potential” terror attack, because for a while the nature of the situation was unclear. And…
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Opinion How This Summer Made Me a Racist
Israelis hide in a concrete pipe used as a shelter during a Palestinian rocket attack / Getty Images This summer, I heard the word “we” over and over as Jews around the world (appropriately) condemned the horrific murder of Palestinian youth Mohammed Abu Khdeir. “We Jews don’t do this,” they claimed, even as empirical evidence…
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Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
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Opinion I discovered anti-Zionism at the University of Michigan. I’m glad it lives on there
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Opinion An alarming new battleground in campus fights over Israel
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News Middlebury College Hillel votes to rebrand, distancing from parent group on Israel
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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News Why do some people think Mike Lawler is Jewish?
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Art At the Venice Biennale, protests, self-mutilation and rage against Israel and Russia. Is anyone left to talk about the art?