Mijal Bitton
By Mijal Bitton
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Life The Book of Ruth: A story about famine offers a powerful lesson for a pandemic
As a public service during this pandemic, the Forward is providing free, unlimited access to all coronavirus articles. If you’d like to support our independent Jewish journalism, click here. The story of Ruth at the heart of Shavuot has a striking relevance to our global pandemic: it begins with a natural disaster. Human drama is…
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Life This Tisha B’Av, Focus On Jewish Agency, Not Jewish Passivity
My first significant role as a Jewish educator in Tisha B’Av was as a counselor at an Orthodox all-girls camp. Resolved to offer my girls a transformative Tisha B’Av experience, I signed up to help design the programming for our entire camp to make Tisha B’Av meaningful and help my young charges relate emotionally to…
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Opinion I’m a Sephardic Latina With An Intersectional Identity. That’s Why I Oppose The Women’s March.
This coming Saturday, thousands of women across America will be marching in the 2019 Women’s March. But unlike the first march, many Jewish women have pledged not to attend this year, thanks to the March leaders’ ties to the anti-Semitic head of Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and other reports of anti-Jewish sentiment. Still, social…
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Opinion Julia Salazar’s Defenders Reveal The Limits Of Identity Politics
I have gotten used to having people ask me where I am from. It’s a natural if micro-aggressive reaction to my accent, my olive-brown skin, and the surprising spelling of my first name. If moved to respond, I explain that I am a Latina immigrant (I was born in Latin America) and Sephardi (confirmed by…
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Life ‘And He Shall Rule Over You’: The Genesis of #MeToo
It has been both heartbreaking and also oddly unsurprising to see so many women in my Facebook feed identify as victims of sexual assault and harassment. I say unsurprising because, tragically, there is a human propensity to fall prey to the ugliest trappings of patriarchy. Also unsurprising because we’ve been here before – this story…
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Life Looking Beyond Michelle Obama and Angela Merkel
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman greeted President Obama as he arrived with first lady Michelle Obama in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Michelle Obama’s wardrobe is always a popular topic of conservation and speculation. This week, however, it assumed center stage in the international and national news covering the American diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia’s new ruler,…
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