When Women Wear Kippahs
Yarmulkes aren’t just for men. From the classic doily to pink suede, Aurora Mendelsohn examines religious head coverings for women — and the messages they send.
Partnership Minyan and the Egalitarian Threat
Partnership minyanim offer Orthodox women a leading role. Aurora Mendelsohn explores why rabbis are pushing back against these new egalitarian forms of prayer.
Having It All and Being Good Jew Too
Observant career women face a special challenge in balancing work with the demands of home. Unfortunately, Judaism has not yet lightened the burden on them.
The Paradox of the Mechitza
As a rule, my husband and I don’t pray in non-egalitarian settings (or, at the very least, in ones that don’t count women in a minyan). So while I have been following the progress of partnership minyanim with respect and interest for a number of years, I hadn’t participated in one on a Shabbat morning until recently, when I attended the bar mitzvah of a friends’ son.
The Cost of Attachment Parenting
Like “Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik, I am an observant Jew, and had my first child while completing my Ph.D. (Mine was in experimental psychology; the actress’ was in neuroscience.) And like Bialik, I endorse and practice many aspects of ‘attachment parenting’: breastfeeding and late weaning, baby-wearing (using a sling), bed-sharing and positive discipline. So I thought I’d be a big fan of her new parenting book, “Beyond the Sling.”
School Tuition Should Be Based on Income
Jewish day school is expensive and the cost is beyond the reach of many families. The solution could be income-based tuition fees, argues Aurora Mendelsohn.
From the Civil War to Our Seders, a Song of Redemption
The African-American spiritual “Go Down Moses” is a staple of contemporary Haggadot. Aurora Mendelsohn plumbs the history and lyrics of the song — once a rallying cry for escaped slaves.
‘Religion Is Actually Spirituality’: An Exchange
Last month, our Jay Michaelson, in a column titled “Religion is Actually Spirituality,” argued that “even the most diehard, hyper-rational, Lithuanian Orthodox, High Reform, or otherwise non- or anti-spiritual religionists perform religious acts because they want to feel a certain way. In other words, religion is a form of spirituality.” Michaelson’s take on the relationship between religion and spirituality drew spirited retorts from readers Aurora Mendelsohn, a Toronto biostatistician, and Alan Krinsky, a monthly columnist for the Jewish Voice & Herald in Providence, R.I. Their critiques are published below, as is Michaelson’s response.
Raising Cups, Dropping Oranges
At the first Seder my husband and I hosted in 1999, we eagerly incorporated two feminist rituals we had seen in the Ma’yan Passover Haggadah. We placed a Miriam’s Cup (a wedding gift from several years beforehand) on our Seder table and an orange on our Seder plate. Our mothers cheered.
But Bubbe and Zaide Were Hippies
On a Friday night at my shul, the children gathered to hear the rabbi tell an after-dinner story. His engaging style had them riveted to the tale of a bubbe who teaches her little grandson all about how faith and song magically hid her in the shtetl from the Cossacks.